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| Andy Ostrowski |
If you are not aware, you should be.
There are many news articles on how whistleblowers - Snowden, Ellsberg, Manning - or anyone who speaks out about public (or private) corruption is in danger of retaliation in America.
See how the MTA Police are failing their psych exam in large numbers. Is this because so many are 'crazy'? Or, is there some policy at work to reduce the workforce in the MTA?
See "Retaliation Against All Whistleblowers is the Name of the Illegal Game in New York City";
David Pakter, a NYC Teacher and Whistleblower of the NYC Board of Education's Corrupt Practices, Sues in Federal Court
and,
Stuyvesant High School Parents' Association is Cited For Financial Fraud and Discrimination
It is extremely rare for someone to stand up and complain about the Big Boss and not have any retaliation thrown at him/her.
And then there are the doctors, psychologists, and psychiatrists who are hired by School Districts to falsely report that an employee is "crazy", in order to get the employee removed from the workplace or terminated.
"Not in this country"? you say? Sadly, using medical reports to retaliate against an employee or anyone who challenges the 'System' is used all the time, especially against teachers and other tenured employees at the New York City Department of Education or in the many school districts throughout the State. One such doctor, Dr. Randall A. Solomon, whom I had the experience of meeting at a 3020-a arbitration in Massapequa, has been hired to terminate educators and public employees in Long Island at 913 examinations.
But kidnapping remains one of the most extreme weapons of attacks on whistleblowers, along with death (see Salvation, when a Pentagon employee is shot after he accesses information on his computer about a weapon which the US is supposedly developing to deter an asteroid on a path to wipe out all of earth's population).
This is why the story of the disappearance of Andy Ostrowski is so disturbing. What happened to him could easily happen to anyone.
Betsy Combier
betsy.combier@gmail.com
Editor, Advocatz
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials
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| Andy Ostrowski |
Pennsylvania Civil Rights Attorney Medically Kidnapped for “Mental Health” Evaluation – Whereabouts Unknown
by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News
Editor, Health Impact News
Andy Ostrowski was kidnapped by law enforcement from his home in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania this week while live-streaming on Facebook.
Police entered his home without knocking, carrying tasers and clubs, claimed they had a warrant (which they apparently never showed to him) to take him in for a “mental health evaluation,” and proceeded to turn off his computer and remove him from his home by force.
His current whereabouts is unknown at the time of publication.
Here is the recording of the event:
Mr. Ostrowski is a former Civil Rights attorney, past candidate for U.S. Congress, author, radio show host, and judicial reform activist.
How To Disappear An Activist (Or, Where IS Andy Ostrowski?)
By Janet Phelan
As reported here, activist attorney Andy Ostrowski was taken into custody by the Wilkes-Barre, PA police department on September 19, for a forced mental health evaluation. Ostrowski was reached later that afternoon at General Hospital in Wilkes-Barre, where he asserted he was being held as a political prisoner.
Ostrowski, a radio talk show host and civil rights advocate, also made a run for Congress in 2014.
Per hospital protocol, Ostrowski was subsequently transferred to another facility. And now, no one can say where he is.
HIPAA—Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act—disallows hospitals from confirming if a person is at their facility, if he is on a psych unit. In the conversation on Tuesday, Ostrowski asserted he was most likely to be transferred to First Hospital, in Kingston.
First Hospital, however, will not confirm or deny his presence. As Ostrowski had expressed not only appreciation to this reporter for reaching him at General Hospital, but also asserted the necessity to follow up on his forced incarceration, the failure to reveal his whereabouts becomes a central issue vis-à-vis his right to freedom of association.
However, the hospitals in question do not seem to honor this historical right. The behaviors by staff at both General and First Hospitals couldn’t be more alarming. Yesterday, in an effort to ascertain where he was transferred, I called General Hospital and spoke with a woman who initially identified herself at “Joanne.” Joanne refused to give information as to where Ostrowski was transferred and when asked her full name, she replied “Julia.” According to Joanne/Julia, to disclose where Ostrowski is would violate HIPAA.
When it was suggested that Ostrowski’s right to association trumped HIPAA, Joanne/Julia turned nasty, demanding my data, which I supplied her. She then trounced further on any perception that Ostrowski still has rights, telling me I was “so wrong” about his right to association overriding the hospital’s right to privacy—which is really what HIPAA is protecting here.Well, it didn’t get much better at First Hospital. This reporter spoke with the media relations director, who not only declined any information as to Ostrowski’s presence, but shot back, “You’ll never know if he is here or not!”
And that may be true and how scary is it….
In an effort to get assistance in determining his whereabouts, contact was made with the Luzerne County District Attorney’s office. The call was transferred to a “Marilyn,” who, after hearing that a request was being made to locate Andy Ostrowski, promised to look into this. When no call back was received, the DA’s office was repeatedly called, at which point they repeatedly hung up the phone on me. An initial request for an email contact was also refused. “We don’t give out our email addresses,” the receptionist stated.
These are public servants, folks….
Recently, yet another radio show host was psychiatrically detained. Speaking on conditions of anonymity, she told me that she was picked up this July in front of a library in a Colorado county, where she had just emerged after speaking with the librarian and others about connections between the local government and a for-profit foster care facility, which may be self enriching through unnecessarily removing children from homes. This radio host was assaulted by a person on leaving the library and when she called 911, the deputy came, slammed her into the wall, cuffed her and brought her to a psych hospital.
She was let go four and a half hours later, and subsequently received a bill for $7300 for her unwanted detention.
Andy Ostrowski, however, may not be so fortunate. He is now “desaparecido”—missing in the gulag.
Several years back, this reporter covered the plight of a man who was under a mental health conservatorship in California. The guardian kept moving Charlie Castle from place to place, as those who were trying to help him assert his rights in fixed proceedings kept discovering his new location. When Castle died under suspicious circumstances, a request for a coroner’s inquiry was made. All that we ever discovered was that the toxicology report—which would have contained the information concerning the suspected cause of his death—had been somehow removed from the file.
The mental health laws tilt against the rights of those under “evaluation” or “care.” They protect the privacy of the institutions which may, in fact, be abusing the individual and the matter of Andy Ostrowski well exemplifies this. When we spoke on Tuesday, he was overpouring with gratitude that I had reached him. He wanted to make sure his story was told. Until those who have a vise grip on his life and his rights decide to honor the latter, he is just one more who is missing in the system and nowhere to be found.
Janet Phelan is an investigative journalist and author of the groundbreaking exposé, EXILE. Her articles previously appeared in such mainstream venues as the Los Angeles Times, Orange Coast Magazine, Long Beach Press Telegram, etc. In 2004, Janet “jumped ship” and now exclusively writes for independent media. She is also the author of two collections of poetry—The Hitler Poems and Held Captive. She resides abroad.