John Morin stories

John Morin is a former Lansing resident who now lives in Holt.

How the City of Lansing bleeds residents

I am a liberal democrat and support all people based on nothing more than character.  No one had a choice as to their birth characteristics, but we do have control as adults of how we treat one another.  While we have been battling the covid-19 virus, Americans have been in civil strife over the Black Lives Matter movement.  I applaud their organizing skills in getting out their message, to force the politicians to make a stand, to demand accountability on the part of the police.  Calls for defunding the police sound good, but in reality we need police. We need law and order within our society.  That goal is meaningless if the police are not held accountable and are allowed to be no better than the criminals they chase.  Lansing is at that point. 

     Thus I have fought hard to keep from supporting a corrupt city, and as such in my own way defunded the city.  As a single individual that is white, I have no real support in my cause.  Most recently, because my job was outside of Lansing, city taxes were not taken out automatically. I would send in a check each year at tax time.  The last four years the city did not get a check from me.  After two years I called the city clerk to inform him that I did not pay, and that maybe they should take me to court.  I informed him that it was my intention to never pay income taxes to Lansing.  I am still waiting on being arrested, which I at the time had no concern about.  I felt it would give me a platform to have the city finally explain to me why they are such failures.  Mayor Schor is just a clone of former Mayor Bernero.  The only reason I was able to speak with Schor was because I bushwhacked him at the end of a City Council meeting.  Since his recommendation that I call Mark Lawrence was such a failure, I have called his office a number of times, but he never called back.  Police Chief Yankowski ignored my numerous phone calls and the best Chief of Police Green could do was send me back to Brantley, who had ignored my many phone calls over the years.  So I took the drastic measure and quit paying income taxes.

     But I did more than that.  The police wanted to keep my property even after the charges were dropped and it cost me even more to fight to get it all back.  Their plan was to sell it at auction and the LPD would benefit the profits.  Not a bad operation, since the vast majority of arrestees are poor and are unable to overcome a system that is designed for the cops to never lose.  But to survive, it takes money, it takes patience, you focus on not giving up.  You copy everything and delete nothing.  For example, when Simial Funches left a threatening voice mail on my house phone, I made Sheri aware of it and that it was not to be deleted.  Nothing like having their prime witness leave threats on a phone months before we were arrested.  The lawyers came to our house and recorded his voice mail to use in court if needed.  When I received a ticket in the mail, I was nice enough to give the officer the opportunity to pull it then, instead he pushed it through and if not for my calling each day, I may have paid an unjust fine.  I tried to fight the ticket for the hanging air freshener, but I could not overcome the cost of further debate. 

     One of the more difficult issues was after Sheri got into a head-on crash on US 127, by Trowbridge.  That area is dangerous.  In today's reality, aggressive drivers are everywhere.  Having traveled 127 over the years, I have had a few near misses where people failed to pay attention.  There are many that come through this section of highway and often not allow others room to merge onto the highway, actually racing them. On January 16, 2016, a sunny Saturday morning working at my job, a woman whom I did not know called me to inform me that Sheri had been in an accident, no one hurt, on US 127.  I left work right away and passed a couple miles of vehicles backed up for the accident.  When I arrived, Sheri was walking around along with the young man that drove the other vehicle.  No one was hurt.  Numerous people who had observed what had happened told me that Sheri had been cut off by a blue car.  That car never stopped.  Sheri did not receive any citation, no one required medical attention.  Shroyer Towing was on the scene. I had the car towed to my house.  A Lansing Fire Department vehicle was there, but they were just standing around with nothing to do.  The LPD officer released Sheri and the vehicle.  After I took her home, I went back to work.  A few weeks later I sold the Alero to Said Zeineh.  He  took the keys, jumped in, started it and drove it to Michigan Mart.  I have tried to believe that this was just an accident and not someone who had it out for Sheri.  This should have been the end of the story, but the City of Lansing just couldn't keep their hands out of my wallet. 

     A few weeks later I received a letter from the City of Lansing Fire Department.  They had charged me $400.00 for the accident on January 16, stating that they had to do a hazmat clean-up.  On February 8, 2016, I submitted a FOIA request from LPD Central Records for a copy of the crash report.  I had kept the receipt from Shroyer for the road clean-up and tow.  With those in hand I called the number, and spoke with Nick.  The number was to a collection agency the City of Lansing utilizes out of Detroit, Michigan.  There is no one in Lansing you can call and discuss the charge with.  I asked him about the charge and he claimed hazmat clean-up, at which I informed him that I had a receipt from Shroyer towing who had done the clean-up, which consisted of a couple sweeps with a broom and picking up one piece of plastic body part.  No fluids were lost by either vehicle.  Then he stated that occupants had been trapped in their vehicles and they had to be removed.  I mentioned that the crash report stated that all occupants were out walking around when the police arrived.  To that he told me that I had to submit an appeal.  I made copies of everything and mailed it to the address he had given to me.  Only problem, months later I once again received another letter stating that I still owed the charge and it was late.  Once again with copies in hand, I called Nick about why I was still charged.  He claimed that he never received the appeal.  I anticipated that and asked him what  his fax number was.  1-734-479-6319, I punched into a fax machine and with him standing next to his, had him inform me as each page arrived.  Funny, never heard from him or anything about that charge since then. 

     The small things that I have done are but pennies in the scheme of running a city.  I was not happy having to call Detroit about a charge in Lansing, almost like taxation without representation.  I mentioned to my insurance agent one time what I had done and his response was that I could have given it to them and they would have paid it.  I have always tried to keep costs down as insurance is no longer cheap for me.  I am not recommending everyone in Lansing quit paying taxes as a protest, but it is what I as an individual had done.  Or maybe that is the only way to get the much needed change, go after their pocketbook.  My good friend John Pollard passed away a few years ago.  He was a constant at City Council meetings, always trying to make the city accountable for their actions.  I pursue this in his memory, as all he asked before he died was the residents of Lansing to get involved.  Go to council meetings and demand a better life, and if that requires change, so be it.  Currently there are no politicians that are willing to represent the people, only ones who will protect the bad character displayed by the LPD.  Both Bernero and Schor want to be elected Mayor of Lansing once again.  To that I say Lansing needs to find better candidates, ones who answer the phone when a resident is in crisis.  But this story does not stop here.  Plenty of more criminals and plenty of more failed LPD, and throw in another city council member who never answered the phone when it was as bad as it could get.