Perhaps I should say, Interview with a Minutewoman. I have been a Minutewoman since around April 2006. The reason I had decided to join forces with this organization was because of my own struggles where I live. Our little town has an estimated 16,000 or more illegal aliens present. This figure has been confirmed with our township council as well.
On my block, where I have lived for nearly a decade, things started to change drastically. Values of neighbors homes began to decline. And this drove most of them right out of the neighborhood. What replaced them was absentee landlords and homes filled to the brim with illegal aliens.
Homes which are zoned for six occupants, are now filled with 18, 29, or more occupants. I dealt with a home right next door, which was operating an illegal day care center out of it. So much traffic and so many children. They had converted the basement into more living quarters as well. And were housing a lot of men there. The backyard which used to be a lush green grass, was gone. Replaced with dozens of vehicles with out of state licenses.
The peace and quiet we longed for was also gone. Replaced with beer parties lasting through the wee hours of the morning. Hearing the continual clanking of the beer bottles being tossed. The loud music being blasted all hours of the day and night. Enough to prevent me from even opening my windows and enjoying the fresh air. This was no longer an option for my family. It was too noisy. Keeping them closed only afforded us some relief in the volume of the music, but never complete silence from it.
The trash that began to build up - even forcing these folks, who already had three huge city trash containers, to actually use our other neighbor across the street’s containers! She would go out and find her container stuffed with bags and bags of diapers from the day care center being operated out of a home zoned for six.
There was so much debris, and some hazardous, in their backyard, we began having a problem with snakes and mice. Even roaches began to venture to our home. Easter Sunday had arrived, we were dressed and ready to celebrate with our family and friends with a wonderful dinner that took days to prepare. Suddenly, the walls began to literally shake! We had no idea what was going on. We went out back to see a huge tarp that had been erected over a portion of the backyard next door, and several tables and chaired lined up. The shaking was the huge speakers they had set up and began to blast music out of. They were bigger than I am, and I stand at 5’2”. That was the last straw! Yes, we telephoned the police, many times. We had them on speed dial. It was very upsetting to have to continually call on them to restore some semblance of peace and quiet - some semblance of quality of life that we felt entitled to.
That’s when I decided I was going to do more. And I have ever since. I have taken many photos of the debris next door, and sent many letters to anyone that would listen. I brought the pictures to our township meetings and shared them there. Within two days the township came next door and inspected the premises. What they found even amazed me dear readers. They found dozens of folks were living there - and that my suspicion of the illegal day care center was completely true. Even as the police were there, folks were trying to drop off their children! Just amazing!
The condition of the place was horrible - beyond what I had thought. I imagined they were, at the very least, keeping it clean with so many folks and children there. I was dead wrong. The carpeting alone was labeled “hazardous.” The bathroom was riddled with black mold throughout. Their was food and drinks all over the place. The living room had been converted into a play area for all the kids. A dirty, unsafe play area. There was no heat - there was no operating fire alarms or carbon alarms. And yes, they were using the basement as more rooming for men to live in. I was given not only the reports, which were very detailed, but also the photos that were taken indoors.
Within two days after the inspection and the realization that this landlord had been renting this house for over two years without the proper Certificate of Occupancy, the dozens of people moved out. They moved right around the corner and began their operation yet again.
Not two weeks went by and the landlord had re-rented the place yet again. I was again amazed! How could he do so when he was violating so many laws, had been cited for dozens of violations?! So I went to work yet again. I began making my calls and writing my letters. I wrote one to the landlord, I found out through the public access of records his name and address. I wrote to him and copied the letter to all the newspapers in our area and further north as well.
