What Do You Do?

Posted by: Melinda on Aug 24, 2009 Print PDF

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I have a strange and upsetting situation.  I'm the president of my small home owners association.  Once of our member (who happens to be the vice-president of HOA) is retired military and somewhere to the right of Attila the Hun.  He is also a stone cold racist.  He has been sending me these horrible racist emails that show the President as a dancing monkey, and one entitled Why Do Blacks Think They Deserve a Free Ride? 

I have asked three times, nicely and then firmly to be removed from this mailing list.  He's ignored me and just kept sending them.  Yes, I can just mark anything from him as spam, but he might, someday, have something to say that relates to the neighborhood so I at least have to check the subject lines.

I tried to report him to AT&T.net, but they were less than helpful.  All of the other neighbors are liberals and deeply offended too.  I've basically reached the point where I won't have this man in my house for the annual HOA meeting.  I solicited advice from the other home owners, and one of them undertook to send a very diplomatic and firm request that conservative troll please remove all of the undersigned from his email list.

Okay, but what if he ignores this the way he's ignored all of our individual requests?  Advice on how to handle something like this other than becoming a shrieking, cursing harridan?

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written by William H Stoddard, August 24, 2009
Is this something for which an injunction is possible?

Failing that, could you notify him that you are going to stop accepting e-mail from him, and ask him, if he wants to notify you of business actually relating to the HOA, to send you physical mail?
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written by Melinda, August 24, 2009
I like that idea, William. That way he can contact me if there is legitimate business. Otherwise I call him spam. We'll see what happens to the missive signed by six people. Maybe that will get his attention, and make him realize/understand that he is offending a lot of us.
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written by David H, August 24, 2009
I would look into the grievance procedures of the HOA governing documents (if any) and see if there is any language there that applies to the situation or can be used to him removed from the board. Maybe a way to deal with harassment of a board member. If not you can propose it as new business.

Along the same lines as William's suggestion look for procedures on how official correspondence to the HOA needs to be conducted. It may read that it needs to be physical mail and then you can block him altogether and not be in violation of your duties to the HOA. This may be what he is trying to accomplish.

Baring all that filter his email to another folder and skim the headers during a calm period of the week.
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written by Ty, August 24, 2009
Every time you get one of these emails, reply back to the entire email list (reply all) that you prefer not to receive his racist screeds.

Or, if you want to be really mean, send him gay porn every time with the title "something that might help you lighten up a bit. Come on, we all know, you're not fooling anyone."
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What Do You Do
written by Christine Valada, August 25, 2009
Well, you can't try to embarrass him the way I did yesterday when the editor of the ETI bulletin included a phoney story about Arabs, Budweiser & 9/11: I replied to everyone on the mailing list pointing out that it was racist and a Snopes.com debunked piece of crap. Her response was to say that the "thank a teacher" thing at the end was still of value. Racists can't be embarrassed easily.

I'd be very concerned about escalating things since you don't have a killer watch-dog out there (I do respect your arsenal, though)in case this nutbag comes after you. However, my real reaction would be to start copying things to your Santa Fe newspaper and hope they run a story which would serve as a public pillory. Then maybe he'd sell his house, move away, and leave the rest of you lovely liberals in peace.

Did you complain to the service by which he sends out his crap?
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written by Daniel Abraham, August 25, 2009
You could start forwarding all the messages you get from him to Move On and the DNC with the suggestion that it be used to promote Pro-Obama fundraising. Or, failing that, write to the fella telling him that you've been doing something like that, and have thus far raised $50,000 for the NAACP.

I think what Miss Manners would say that by refusing to act on or acknowledge your previous requests, you are now permitted to become a shrieking harridan. I would recommend writing to him saying that as he has refused to honor your previous request, he has moved from politically incorrect to personally rude, and that you are now blocking his email. Any HOA business can be conducted through postal mail in the hopes that the extra time and effort required will give him more time to consider his actions and behave civilly. I would CC everyone in the HOA when I did it.

And then I'd block his email.
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written by rand, August 26, 2009
Why not forward the emails to the Department of Homeland Security & alert this person that you have done so? They definitely fall under the category of right wing extremism, which the DHS has cited as being on the rise. The Southern Law Poverty Center, which tracks such activity, would also be interested in this man's behavior. He sounds a lot like James Von Brunn.

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