'You can't fight City Hall," the age-old adage goes; if
you do, the presumed result is that you'll lose. A member of the
Yoruba ethnic group from Sierra Leone who is now a permanent
resident of the city, Ayodeji Babalola, proved that the exception
is the rule, prevailing after a 12-year battle with City Hall.
Now, the Bloomberg administration seems to be mounting an
offensive to make sure that her victory will cost her everything.
Fifteen years ago, Ms. Babalola, a journalist who formerly hosted
and produced the "Hello Africa" radio program on the
city-owned station WNYE 91.5 FM, was wrongfully arrested. She was
removed from the air, she believes, as retaliation for her
lawsuit against the city, which she litigated herself and won in
2002. I'm not going to go into the details of her case other than
to say it would make a great horror movie. She was awarded more
than $500,000, which the city is still refusing to pay.
The city has appealed the judgment several times, and each time
it has been denied. Yet because of the city's enormous resources,
one can imagine this case could drag on forever. Ms. Babalola
recently had to file another Order to Show Cause and the case is
awaiting a decision by a judge in the Brooklyn Supreme Court. She
wrote me, "Mayor Bloomberg can end it all by directing
Corporate Counsel to stop filing frivolous motions and OSC's and
wasting taxpayer money to undo what cannot be undone - that they
lost to a non-lawyer in both the civil and in the Appellate
Court."
Wasting taxpayer money may not be as bad as losing face for this
arrogant administration, and while Ms. Babalola may think Mr.
Bloomberg is a disinterested party and perhaps unaware of what
the city's lawyers are doing, I am not too sure they aren't
working on his directive. She's not the only one awaiting payment
from the city as a result of court cases. My friend's mother was
injured by a city bus more than a year and a half ago and has not
received any recompense for her injuries.
Looking over the numerous documents from Ms. Babalola's case, I
was amazed at the level of expertise demonstrated by someone with
no actual legal experience. In fact, she planned to attend
Brooklyn Law School, but the false arrest derailed her intended
career in international law.
According to Ms. Babalola, one of the city attorneys dismissed
her as "someone from the bush," but as a journalist she
interviewed Nelson Mandela, Danny Glover, Andrew Young, and
numerous other luminaries. More important, she won her case. The
trial lasted two weeks and on March 14, 2002, she was awarded
$175,000 for the false arrest and $425,000 for malicious
prosecution.
I'm not going to go into the details of her subsequent treatment
by the city's attorneys - I'll leave that up to whoever makes the
film (paging Mr. Weinstein). But what I find very interesting is
that aside from the president of Brooklyn, Marty Markowitz, and
City Council Member John Liu of Queens, her case has received no
public reaction from city officials. There has been no response
from Freddy Ferrer, Gifford Miller, Betsy Gotbaum, or William
Thompson.
Ms. Babalola writes, "Mayor Bloomberg knows what they are
doing and remains silent, even though I met him three times on
the steps of City Hall, and told him what was going on and gave
him the court documents ... his silence is mystifying."
Ms. Babalola contacted me at The New York Sun after she read my
column about what is happening to African vendors being run out
of the Bronx Market. She said she hoped I could help her
situation. I did not get any response from the Bloomberg
administration. I contacted the Public Ombudsman's office and was
advised it didn't handle cases like this and that Ms. Babalola
should get a lawyer. What do they handle, I wonder?
Even though I was stunned by the court documents I read, I can't
say I was surprised by the callousness displayed by this
administration. Remember the stories of a heavily pregnant woman
being issued a summons for resting on a subway stairway; a
middle-aged woman sitting in a playground without a child getting
a ticket; a video store operator getting ticketed for having an
empty ashtray on the counter? Common sense need not apply here
any longer.
In the City Journal, Stephen Malenga writes, "there is
little within the realm of good government that justifies an
administration that will shake down its citizens and its
businesses for every last nickel, making ordinary citizens feel
like lawbreakers just to balance the books."
While the city will pounce on the homeowner over a late water
bill, it will stiff Ms. Babalola what she is rightfully owed.
That is so cheesy. There's just no other word for this particular
City Hall.