To: All of our neighbors and friends
From: Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett and Marceline Donaldson
49 Hawthorn Street
Cambridge, MA. 02138
We just received a request for money from Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services. That same request was sent to everyone in this neighborhood and probably beyond.
We would like you to know where your money is going and what it is supporting. From the experience we have had and what we have seen others experience we ask that you please take a look at our experience and reconsider where you put your money and/or volunteer support.
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In February, 2020 Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett had brain surgery at MGH. The surgery was successful and after seven days he was discharged by MGH.
Two days after he left MGH eight white policemen, 5 or 6 EMT’s, two ambulances, police cars all over the block arrived without notice, without either of us having called them nor did we know anything about why they were at our front door. It was such a circus people came running from the Charles River to see what was happening.
They were there to force Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett into Mount Auburn Hospital. We understand, from one of the policemen that they were waiting for him at Mount Auburn to put him into the psychiatric wing of the hospital to be kept indefinitely.
No complaint issued, no investigation showing the need for such, nothing.
A “sectioning” is a psychiatric term. A section 12 applies to a person who has had a psychotic break, overdosed on drugs, alcohol, etc. and imposes substantial risk to the public or to themselves.
Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett does not drink alcohol, does not smoke nor take drugs nor has he had a psychotic break not shown or been suspected of a mental illness of any kind at any point in his life. He is a quiet, shy, unassuming Episcopal priest who is neither a threat to himself nor to anyone else.
A “Section 12” type action is beginning to be used by “front companies” across the country under different names to incarcerate blacks and other minorities in ways the IRS has been used in the past with people the government wants to silence, demean, discredit, disgrace, shut-up.
Guardianship companies are being formed to take over the life and assets of the elderly, spend them down, incarcerate the elderly in hospitals, nursing homes, substandard assisted living or other kinds of housing until their assets are gone and they are then indigent, destitute, etc.
Because of the lack of “reach” – the lack of political and other power of those so treated and the refusal of the media to investigate and publish this destruction of human beings, with only a few exceptions, you haven’t heard about this. Hopefully, that will change.
Jews are being targeted as well as other minorities and immigrants. Why? Because it is a way to reduce the influence of the next generation and “knee cap” the family.
What follows is being written by people we hired to investigate this:
Who ordered this and for what reason? Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services. Under the control of SCES or other such ‘protective services’ one can incarcerate, claim any kind of mental deficiencies (without proof and without such diagnoses) , store the elderly in out of the way places and when their assets are gone walk away and give them over to the state. Not only is SCES doing this, but so are the Protective Services across the Commonwealth as our investigation has begun to uncover. The central place where this is happening in a very developed structural way is Las Vegas, Nevada. Massachusetts is setting up to follow in their foot steps.
Dr. Rebecca Warner, psychiatrist, signed the order to have Rev. Dr. Bennett picked up by the police and forcibly incarcerated at Mount Auburn Hospital under a “section 12”. Dr. Bennett had never in his life had even a hint of mental illness ever and “sectioning” is a psychiatric term under which all kind of destruction of the individual, their assets and more can happen and be sanctioned.
There are those who are serious about their vocation. There are also those who will use their vocation to acquire more than they should destroying others in the process and money is not the only goal. Power over others is high on the list, an instrument for bullying, especially where families try to gain an advantage over other family members using this ploy.
Robert’s brain surgery at MGH was because of a fall he took after unsuccessful eye surgeries which left him with limited vision. His eye doctor provided no information nor guidance in such a circumstance and a few months after the two eye surgeries he was not as acclimated as he is today.
Dr. Warner said in this paper she signed for the police to immediately incarcerate Rev. Dr. Bennett in Mount Auburn Hospital, that she had never met Dr. Bennett, never examined him, never been to his house. Neither had Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services.
That is a serious default in the law and Dr. Warner’s lack of professionalism and lack of concern for others is screaming in what she chose to do and how she chose to use her psychiatric credentials. Sign a paper, make a disclaimer and take away a human beings freedom while she went ahead with her life uninterrupted.
And it gets worse.
Dr. Bennett and his wife of 37 years – having lived in their home for 36 years were stunned.
This large contingent of police refused to give the Donaldson/Bennett’s any court papers which gave them the right to demand Robert be removed from his home. They said he would either walk out of his house voluntarily or they would drag him out. If they did any damage in the process that was not reimbursable because they had permission to take him out however and could break down the door to enter the house if they were refused entry..
What the Donaldson/Bennett’s were experiencing was the out of control power of the health industry. Did you know about the police power of this industry and what it can do to you?
The Greater Cambridge/Boston areas is one of the most racist places you can live. It is a place where structural racism is rampant and is kept in place with its set of denials by the educational institutions where “the spook who sits by the door for all to see and draw inaccurate conclusions”, or, “the minority held up as an example to say we are not racist” is an apt description of how this is allowed to continue. The racism is substantial and unassailed.
In the Donaldson/Bennett neighborhood they have been racially harassed during all of the 36 years they have lived in the Harvard Square/Brattle Street neighborhood. A neighborhood that was red-lined and to this day is almost totally free of African American home ownership. We tried to make an offer on a house just within weeks past and were told it was sold. When someone else called it was not sold and is still being advertised for sale.
The latest extremely racist incident the Donaldson/Bennetts experienced – before Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services came along to make that last incident seem minor – was a new neighbor on the block who moved in bringing their racism to spread around by using the Donaldson/Bennett’s garden as a dog toilet. When Marceline Donaldson went outside to tell the ‘gentleman’, who had just lifted his toy dog into their garden to pee and shit, that it was criminal trespass to do this and that she knew and had seen him and his dog in her garden several times, his response was to be physically threatening and stomped her toes to show his “superiority” and ability to relieve himself with no consequences?
But that pales compared to forcibly being able to take an African American man out of his home to incarcerate him in an institution – without notice – without a court hearing – without cause – to deprive him of his freedom for weeks.
The Donaldson/Bennett’s insisted Dr. Bennett be taken to MGH instead of to Mount Auburn Hospital, as Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services was insisting, since he was just discharged from MGH two days ago.
The police did that. MGH discharged Dr. Bennett within hours without any medicines prescribed and with all vitals normal including his blood pressure and with comments by several of the professional staff that he should not have been picked up in the first place.
If Dr. Bennett had gone to Mount Auburn Hospital – where Dr. Warner is connected – the results of all of this would have been far different and has been different for many people so trapped. An investigation into SCES and its connection with Mount Auburn Hospital and how that has affected other people seriously needs to be conducted and not with the result pre-determined and a letter of exoneration written before any investigation has happened, but with the serious intent to correcting a wrong which has and is destroying families.
Two days after he was discharged from MGH on this section 12 Dr. Bennett was again forced out of his home by the Cambridge police and forced into MGH and this time kept for 5 weeks. Within hours of his arrival at MGH this second time he was given medicines he did not want – mostly over the counter, but also hallucinatory drugs, anti-psychotic medicines, anti-seizure medicines, medicines for schizophrenia and bipolar disorders without a diagnosis of such and more.
This time he was forced into MGH on a section 19/20 which accused his wife – Marceline Donaldson – of medical abuse. If they couldn’t incarcerate him on one thing they would try another.
The people who did this did not even know her name. They claimed, in papers they filed with the Court that his wife’s name was Davidson, etc. Their ‘facts’ showed they had not investigated anything if they didn’t even know the names of the people they were accusing.
Rev. Dr. Bennett was kept in bed on an alarm blanket so if he moved or tried to get out of bed the alarm went off and a nurse came to make sure he was back in bed. He could go from bed to chair next to the bed in a space roughly 7 by 9 feet. One arm of the chair hit the bed, the other arm hit the wall – in a double bed, that defines the space in which Dr. Bennett was kept for five weeks without cause, but suffering under all of this because SCES could use the health industry’s unbridled police powers to pick up and incarcerate a person just because
The “team” over Dr. Bennett while in MGH for those five weeks was mostly Somerville Cambridge Protective Services. We know that because we were able to get an email sent to this “team” which included almost exclusively Somerville Cambridge Protective Services people. This second time he was picked up the claim was that Dr. Bennett’s wife was medically abusive and he had to be immediately removed from his home or he would be seriously damaged.
When they could not seriously incarcerate Dr. Bennett on a claim of mental illness, they came back two days later to remove him from his home on a claim of an abusive home situation. Prior to this invasion there had never been a hint of any abuse in that home at all. Dr. Bennett did not make such a complaint to anyone. Talk to him and he will tell you he loves he wife – has loved her for 37 years – they have a good marriage and some neighbors have sent us letters describing what they have seen of their relationship – all very positive about seeing this “caring relationship between the two of them for years.”
Dr. Bennett tells you he takes care of his wife and she takes care of him and that has been their relationship. Neither one has gone to doctors or taken medicines over those years, not even aspirin. That is their belief system and it has served them well over their years together.
Both are over 80 and in good health except for Dr. Bennett’s fall – and that happened because of eye surgeries. They will tell you they should not have and did not want the surgery. Marceline’s daughter insisted and Rev. Bennett decided to go along – a decision he now seriously regrets.
What exactly was this invasion and violation of their basic rights guaranteed under the constitution about? Is this the new way to be bigoted? If you are black you don’t have to have committed a crime or be involved in the criminal justice system to be incarcerated, it can be done through the health care institutions with police power. The assumption that it will always be used for good is nothing which is assumed in other parts of the society – why is there such a leeway for these things to go off the rail in the health care areas?
You can be incarcerated and force fed medicines just because that is how you can be incapacitated and moved full time into this health care system with your money and insurance drained in the process with no repercussions to the people and/or institutions which do such?
Are the traditional institutions with their structural racism and now defunding the police being moved out willingly and changed willingly because this new way and this new structural racism is being moved in as a replacement?
The five weeks he was in MGH Rev. Dr. Bennett was not allowed visitors, no telephone calls, kept in bed – until the last week when he was going to be released. His wife was allowed to visit only three times during his five week stay. She had to call the day before, make an appointment to see him, could only visit between 11am and 1pm, with her visits limited to 30 minutes strictly enforced and a Security Guard had to be present during the entire time of their visit.
The week before he was going to be released he was able to walk the halls, receive telephone calls, and he was moved to the larger side of this two person room where before, his curtain was kept closed so he could not even see or know there was a window in the room. Getting ready for release he was finally able to see outside through a very large picture window with space to breathe.
When Rev Dr. Bennett arrived home from MGH, he was in his stocking feet because his feet were so swollen his shoes did not fit. He left his house forced into MGH walking on his own, talking, in good shape. He returned totally disheveled, not able to walk and somewhat confused. He had a walker and had to be helped into his house by two people – one on either side to hold him up because he could not stand on his own. To see the man who returned when you had seen the man who was forced out of his home made your heart break.
Why did this happen?
The day after Dr. Bennett was released from MGH a Constable came to the Bennett home to serve papers to put Dr. Bennett under the Guardianship of the Jewish Center for Family and Children who would also have control of his assets to be able to draw them down to pay his expenses. The Guardianship would then place Dr. Bennett immediately into a Hebrew Nursing Home (did we mention that Dr. Bennett is a retired Episcopal priest?) These papers were asking the court’s permission to administer psychotic drugs to Dr. Bennett in this situation and to keep him restrained. The papers claimed Dr. Bennett was “incapacitated” and even the newest technological innovations would not be of help to him because his “incapacitation” was so severe nothing would help.
So far, it has cost the Donaldson/Bennetts tens of thousands of dollars to fight this.
We put the entire saga as it happened in Bettina Network, inc’s blog because we didn’t know what was happening and wanted to make sure all of this was publicly recorded in case the worst happened there would be a record for anyone interested to know about these incidents.
The Donaldson/Bennetts lost their business and the time spent on all of this took over their lives.
Because this was published in Bettina Network’s Blog we have received telephone calls, emails and people stopping us on the street to tell us their story.
It is beyond appalling that this has happened not only to Dr. Bennett, but to others. Those who contacted us included Jews, African Americans, immigrants and other minorities. Their families and lives have been destroyed by Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services as well as Protective Services across the Commonwealth.
To incarcerate Robert Bennett a second time, SCES went to court for an emergency motion during which SCES, through its attorney James O’Sullivan, asked the court that Robert Bennett not be notified of the hearing and he was not. We think this violated Massachusetts Laws because major things were done during this “ex-parte emergency hearing”.
In that hearing, Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services asked the Court to invalidate the Health Care Proxy Dr. Bennett had drawn up by a probate attorney in November 2019. Dr. Bennett had that November, 2019 Health Care Proxy created because he discovered there was a Health Care Proxy in existence which he did not sign, did not want and did not want the person named as his Health Care Proxy. He was very consistent that he wanted his wife as his Health Care Proxy. When he discovered its existence he invalidated it by having the November Health Care Proxy created which was signed November 18, 2019.
SCES, in its emergency hearing – about which Dr. Bennett was not notified – also asked the court to invalidate the Health Care Proxy MGH created. It was totally amazing that SCES would accuse MGH of being so irresponsible as to have created a Health Care Proxy for someone SCES described as being unable to understand what he was signing. That from SCES who interrogated Dr. Bennett without anyones’ knowledge or consent when he was just out of surgery and minutes after he was out from oxygen and barely knew where he was. The stress, anxiety and much else they put on a man just recovering from serious surgery is amazing and ugly.
In the place of these two Health Care Proxies, Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services asked the court to validate a Health Care Proxy which they knew Dr. Bennett had not signed and they knew Dr. Bennett did not want that particular person as his Health Care Proxy. This unsigned and unwanted HCP was validated by the Court at SCES’ request and was put in place of the November 2019 Health Care Proxy and the MGH Health Care Proxy. It is amazing that a Court would take that stand, especially in a hearing to do exactly that while excluding Dr. Bennett from any knowledge of the hearing. The Court invalidated two Health Care Proxies that Dr. Bennett had created and wanted as his choice and validated one he specifically did not want and had moved to have invalidated by replacing it with a new one dated and signed November 18, 2019 created by a probate attorney.
An attorney was appointed for Dr. Bennett by the court who he has never seen, nor met, nor spoken to and who did not return his telephone calls nor the telephone calls made to her by his wife, nor emails sent to her. The attorney so appointed was involved in another case in Peabody, MA in which the family claims a Jewish man was so treated because access to his assets was the goal – over $6 million in assets.
The attorney appointed by the court, during this “emergency motion”, has served as a space holder so others could not file motions nor do what is needed for Dr. Bennett. This has also discouraged other attorneys from stepping in to take this case because they did not want to start with a fight to remove a court appointed attorney.
Major things happened in that hearing which, we believe, made it illegal under the laws of the Commonwealth. You do have the right to defend yourself in these United States. That ex-parte emergency hearing totally took away that right from Dr. Bennett.
Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett – with a Harvard University doctorate; full tenured professor at Episcopal Divinity School (retired); was adjunct professor at Princeton University, Atlanta University and others – living for 36 years in a seven figure home was characterized in court as “indigent” with no one around to take care of him. SCES had their attorney describe someone in a destitute position. This was some of the reasons Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services gave the court requesting Rev. Dr. Bennett’s immediately removal from his home of 36 years and to be forcibly separated from his wife of 37 years. This request was made through SCES attorney James O’Sullivan who apparently uses emergency motions for such activities with frequency.
What was the Bennett/Donaldson family doing when this happened? What was this “indigent” man who was destitute, as described by SCES, and in despair in his home doing? – The police arrived moments after he sat down to a candlelight dinner with his adult son, daughter-in-law, daughter and his wife. His children were visiting and staying at the Donaldson/Bennett home to spend time with their father because of his recent surgery. They were there to do whatever they could to make sure their father was comfortable and had whatever they could provide.
How did the SCES describe this to the court? A man who was destitute with no one to look after him or protect him from his abusive wife. This destitute man in so much danger he had to be immediately removed from his home by white police, ambulance, EMT’s and more was happily enjoying the company of his son who was VP at CBS, a daughter who is a film producer and more, a wife with a masters in Theology running a business with her husband which they created decades ago , which had a great reputation and through which they met some of the world’s leaders who stayed with them at different times throughout their career.
SCES managed to demean, disgrace, destroy this African American family. That is beyond vicious and clearly borders on evil. When you support SCES with your money and/or volunteer work this is what you are supporting.
What does SCES say to those who have contacted them and questioned what was happening? They say “It is complicated.” We think it is straight forward unless you are trying for a cover-up.
To so abuse the emergency court motion puts the opposing side in a very bad position because lots can be done without the other side present and you have a willing and cooperative judge – which apparently was the case. The judge was called out of retirement to hear this case which had no proof. It only had a sworn affidavit from Ms. Nora Al Wetaid who is head of Protective Services at SCES.
We believe her testimony rises to the level of purgery and have asked several times that this be investigated. Especially when other minorities have had the same experience. The other minorities were destitute at the end of their experience with SCES and other such groups, but not at the beginning.
In addition to the incarceration, this entire incident opened the door for Dr. Bennett to be sexually abused. He was threatened that if he did not strip naked and get into the shower it would not go well for him.
We could go on for pages, but we are asking that you seriously consider what you are supporting when and if you make contributions to such groups which have a vicious structural racism and sexism which is denied by everyone, not investigated and when it was investigated at Ms Donaldson’s request the organization investigated itself and found itself not guilty of anything.
Mr. Paul Hollins needs to be removed as head of this organization.
Mr. Hollins claimed to investigate – without the particulars of the complaint from Ms. Donaldson even being considered. She called the elder hotline to make the complaint. She was told it was recorded and would be investigated. On information and belief, Mr. Hollins made his decision without access to the hour long recording from the hot line. It was an hour long because they claimed that was the limit of such recordings allowed over their hotline. Who is that hotline? Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services. So they investigated themselves without identifying to Ms. Donaldson that this is who would be investigating her complaint against Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services.
Ms. Donaldson brought the complaint to the next level up in this state hierarchy and sent a written complaint.
Ms. Bree Cunningham called Ms. Donaldson to say she could not find the written complaint and would Ms. Donaldson send her another copy. However, without having received another copy of the complaint, Ms. Cunningham found no basis for the complaint in a letter which was an exact copy of the one sent to Ms. Donaldson by Mr. Hollins.
The Donaldson/Bennett’s rights were stripped in every way. Dr. Bennett was incarcerated for no reason and forced to take medicines which he neither wanted nor needed and was subjected to horrors in the process.
The complaints were so flimsily regarded that when the court complaint was sworn out, Ms. Al Wetaid didn’t even know Ms. Donaldson’s name. Any basic investigation would start with moving against a person knowing who it was you are so charging – in Ms. Donaldsons case – with abuse. She was named Davidson by Ms. Al Wetaid and Ms. Angela Clary and that misnomer continued for quite some time without anyone from SCES knowing who they were actually filing against.
If you want to read the details as we recorded them – see www.bettina-network.com/blog
If you have questions we can be reached at 617 497 9166.
The racist tropes are clear and certainly don’t need to be spelled out further.
There is an affidavit from Ms. Nora Al Wetaid who is head of SCES Protective Services in which she claims under oath that this time (this second time picking up Dr. Bennett) she would “conspire” with others at MGH to make sure Robert Bennett was not immediately released (as he was on March 4th) but would be kept in the hospital
This was a first for us. We had never heard anyone talk about “conspiring” to keep someone in a hospital. It certainly calls into question the hospital’s ability to do its job.
Several things happened to Dr. Bennett during his stay at MGH:
- He was put there, not for medical reasons, but the SCES claim was he had to be removed from his home to get him away from an abusive wife. Yet major medications started immediately.
2) In spite of that he was treated the way one would treat a human being you wanted to “incapacitate” for other reasons. Isolate – Medicate leads to Incapacitate. Someone who called us gave us that formula for what happened to them.
3) He was given an assortment of medicines daily – usually five pills in the morning and five later in the day – to someone not in the hospital for medical or psychiatric reasons. The psychiatric part had been put to rest by Dr. Bennett’s discharge from MGH from the section 12 claim.
4) The pills Dr. Bennett was given included anti-psychotic pills; anti-seizure medication; hallucinatory drugs which kept him in a horrible state. This given to him after he was discharged from MGH the first time on March 4th at 3:30am with “no medicines prescribed”. Two days later, MGH allowed heavy medications to be given to Dr. Bennett.
5) We were able to get the name of several of the pills Rev. Bennett was forced to take, but were not able to get the names of all – only the reaction Rev. Bennett had after taking them. We sent the list to MGH’s compliance department.
6) Rev. Bennett and his wife were told by Dr. Schweitzer, the doctor who headed the surgical team doing the brain surgery on Dr. Bennett, that he was given anti-seizure medications the seven days he was in the hospital after his surgery. That was the limit and Dr. Bennett should not receive anti-seizure medications after that period because that could be harmful to his recovery, his brain. Ms. Al Wetaid was outraged that Dr. Bennett’s wife had not even continued anti-seizure medications and after such serious brain surgery.
7) Rev. Bennett was given ( by a different group of people from the neurologists who performed his brain surgery and in a different area of MGH) anti-seizure medication for the five weeks he was in MGH having been forced into the hospital by the police and the court. When Dr. Bennett was finally sent home after 5 weeks, medications were sent with him and he could only go back to his house if his wife agreed to make sure he received those medications daily as was happening in the hospital for those five weeks. They also insisted that the Blissful Home Care Agency visit daily to make sure Robert Bennett took the medicines the SCES sent home with him. SCES also insisted that the only Home Care Agency the Donaldson/Bennett’s could use was the Blissful Agency.
8) MGH also insisted the only way Rev. Bennett could leave the hospital was if his son, Mark Bennett came from Washington, D. C. to pick up Rev. Bennett from the hospital to take him home to Cambridge – the home he was forced out of five weeks earlier by the police and forced into MGH because he was so poor and alone and endangered because of who Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services called a “medically abusive wife.” They were now sending him back to this wife.
9) It seems to us the medical abuse came from the “team” MGH allowed to be over Dr. Bennett while he was in MGH and from the Home Health Care Service SCES insisted be the only one he could use who had to come into his home daily . When that happened, the only one properly dressed to do that in this Pandemic time was the nurse.
10) Dr. Bennett was also subjected to sexual abuse at the hands of one of the Blissful Agency people.
11) After Robert returned home from this second forced stay at MGH his son, Mark Bennett, called Dr. Goodson to complain about all the medicines his father was given and to describe to him what happened when Rev. Bennett took some of those medicines. Dr. Goodson said those were some of the medicines given to Rev. Bennett while he was in MGH. He agreed that all of the pills except the blood pressure medications could be stopped.
12) The day after Rev. Bennett returned home – on a Monday – that Tuesday Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services through their attorney James O’Sullivan – sent a Constable to Rev. Bennett’s home to serve Guardianship Papers – a motion to commit Rev. Bennett to a nursing home because, as the court papers claimed, he was “an incapacitated person” who not even the latest technological advances could help. The papers also asked that the Jewish Center for Family and Children be appointed Guardians over Rev. Bennett which Guardianship included control of Rev. Bennett’s assets being able to draw down whatever was needed to cover Rev. Bennett’s expenses and that Rev. Bennett be immediately sent to the Hebrew Nursing Home for life with constraints allowed and anti-psychotic also allowed to be given with Dr. Bennett in constraints because of his extremely incapacitated state.
For those of you who have seen Rev. Dr. Bennett and his wife around the Harvard Square area that can be a bit hard to believe that this is a man who Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services claimed was so “incapacitated” he had to be consigned to Guardianship; taken out of his home for life; taken away from his wife of 37 years and separated from a large family who cares about him and did not want to see this happen; and to be incarcerated for life in a nursing home under constraints.
At that point we understood why the person who gave us the three word code was so concerned. Their experience with their family member had been – Isolate – Medicate = Incapacitate. That family spent all of its resources trying to get their family member – an African American elderly gentleman – away from SCES. He had been isolated – medicated – and while he was not incapacitated from the experience he was treated as though he was and stored in a nursing home. He escaped and left the state. He is not the only one which is probably why SCES asked for constraints on Dr. Bennett in the Hebrew Nursing Home.
Contemplate these things as you think how you will respond to this request for money from Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services.
Please, also, pass this around to as many people as possible. We are trying to make sure everyone in Cambridge, Somerville and surrounding areas in the Commonwealth receive this information.
Responses from Bettina Network Lifestyle Community Members!
Saturday, July 4th, 2020Member 1
Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett is the second African American – that we know of – who has had a negative interaction with the police. He is the second African American who had done nothing even remotely criminal and yet the police came to his house twice and forced him out and incarcerated him. The second time for five weeks.
The first we heard about was “Skip” Gates.. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder.
The attempt was to arrest Skip Gates. There are now pictures in the papers which show him on his porch in handcuffs with the police standing around.
Even if they could not be held, their images could be tarnished and it gives jokes among white supremacists.
And, by the way, how come the police in Cambridge, Ma. are becoming whiter along with Blacks being “arrested” for no reason.
Why was Gates “arrested”? For breaking and entering into his own home.
And Bennett? To be “sectioned” at the local and apparently ‘going along with the program’ hospital. He who had never had a hint of any kind of mental problems was picked up by the police, forced into the hospital to be psychiatrically examined because he was considered a threat to the public. Someone who might do harm to those around and about.
Both are living in areas of Cambridge which are known to be “for white patrons only.” It is an area which traditionally was and is “red lined.”
Rev. Dr. Bennett lives in that area and he is not Harvard connected. Well, except for a Harvard doctorate, however, he was supposed to live in faculty housing so the neighborhood would be confident he and his family would be moving along once he retired. Disappointed and having to come to grips with the reality of where they lived, they decided to sell their house, but then took the house off the market. Shortly thereafter white anger was unleashed and this is the result?
Member 2
What is incredibly disturbing in what I have read about all the things happening to Rev. Bennett is the fact that he had a probate attorney draw up a Health Care Proxy – which we are all advised to do – and that was drawn up months before he went into the hospital for surgery. Apparently, a judge, at the request of an attorney- who really seems ‘sketchy’ – invalidated that Health Care Proxy and put in its place a Health Care Proxy that Rev. Bennett did not want, had not signed, with a proxy he did not want and that Health Care Proxy was the reason Rev. Bennett had this new Health Care Proxy drawn up. Rev. Bennett was forced by the judge’s decision to have that proxy. Rev. Bennett apparently tried to correct that awfulness by having a probate attorney draw up a Health Care Proxy which invalidated the one he knew nothing about and the Court validated that proxy – the one not signed by Rev. Bennett, one he did not know existed and invalidated the one he clearly wanted. It is mind blowing! Are our attorneys and court that crooked? That said clearly to me this is all about setting up the situation to rip off Rev. Bennett’s assets and not about anything else.
Attorneys who have no ethics about what they are doing and who possibly have hidden interests in so doing can change our wishes to what benefits those attorneys and their clients. What kind of court system do we have? The way it is developing is that of an extreme dictatorship that wants to present a good “front” with no problems letting such things happen. Sadly, some folks have discovered the pots of gold at the end of United States citizens lives and have figured out how to put those citizens into extreme pain, make the end of their lives a torture and wind up with everything they managed to save so that end of life would be decently lived.
People who do not have endless money to be able to hire attorneys to go to court for as long as is necessary to correct this horrible wrong are at the mercy of tainted courts and -should we say ‘crooked’ attorneys? Even then, I suspect it would be a waste of money because the first attorney and judge did ugly things. Isn’t that illegal? Shouldn’t that be illegal? And what recourse do you have except continuing in court – bleeding money to attorneys – and even then – nothing.
Keep publishing. We need to know these things!
This entire thing has upset me and my family unbelievably because we have a probate attorney we hired to make sure we were all covered with what we need and want for those times we might not be able to or not allowed to control our own lives and this says to me that was just a waste of time and money. Money well into four figures. The court and an attorney can invalidate all of it in seconds.
Whatever happened to the United States and its honest court system? Was there ever such a thing and we only knew the image and not the reality?
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Member 3
Thank you for all of your postings about what is happening to Rev. Dr. Bennett. I was a student of his years ago and it grieves me to see what he is going through today.
He is a lovely person. Very quiet, self-effacing and extremely shy!
I was a student at EDS at the time and took his Hebrew Bible Class and a class on Racism he co-taught with his wife, Marceline Donaldson. They also taught that class at Trinity Episcopal Church in Boston, but it was more complete at Episcopal Divinity School.
At the time, when they invited the class to tea at their home, my thoughts were – one day this community is going to attempt to destroy them. They were the only African Americans owning a home in that neighborhood and I knew a few of their neighbors who were not happy with “those folks” living close to them. Besides their comments to me, they smiled nicely when they encountered the couple. I know that because I was with them when one of the neighbors greeted us. They didn’t know Dr. Bennett and his wife so I introduced them. I was so shocked at their response – smiling, lovely, welcoming and just two days prior they were bitter in their comments to me about “such people” living so close.
If there is any way I can help, please let me know. They can’t be left alone in this fight because it is one that affects us all.
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Member 4
My husband and I have been calling Robert and Marceline who we have known for years. At first, I could not believe what was happening to them. After some thought, I realized the same could happen to any of us. My work has made me aware of the result beginnings of these Guardianship Corporations which fly under the banner of “helping the elderly who are alone”. We had one problem in our church with a member who was fairly well off and all of a sudden was embroiled with one of these Guardianship groups trying to take them over. It became clear that they were trying to take over and drain off their assets.
Given what we went through with that family, please know that we are here to do whatever we can for Marceline and Robert. They have always been a very beautiful couple. Their sense of humor with each other is great! It is a shame that this is what they are experiencing at this time of life.
We are praying for them – however, we also want to know what else we can do. My husband thought about organizing a group in the church to work with them and keep that group going after their problems are solved to work with others in the same place.
Stay in touch and please keep those write-ups coming so we all can keep up with what is happening with Dr. Bennett and his wife. When I receive mine I send it around to as many people as I can think of who would be interested and the feed back has been dynamite.
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Member 5
Reading about all of this it is startling and very disturbing.
We have pictures of Skip Gates – from Harvard University – in handcuffs on his own porch – being arrested by the police for breaking and entering his own home?
And now we have Robert Bennett picked up in a huge drama, which we watched and were appalled at the Cambridge Police for allowing themselves to be so used. Or – were they a part of this whole drama before it happened and were attempting what was attempted with Skip Gates?
Do you realize how the Cambridge and Boston police are becoming “whiter”? Now that we are decades away from what caused these areas to attempt to diversify their police force, that has gradually slipped away and we see the whitening now happening. Will we now see more of this happening in Cambridge? Clearly, African Americans can be picked up in Cambridge, by the police, even though there is not even a hint of criminality involved and they can be imprisoned for indefinite periods of time for no reason. And what happens after that? Any and All Americans can be picked up in Cambridge, by the police, even though there is not even a hint of criminality involved and they can be imprisoned for indefinite periods of time for no reason. Do you doubt that? After this, I don’t!
I guess we consider ourselves so influential that we can make those same African Americans pay for their own imprisonment. Isn’t that what happened with Robert Bennett? I would love to know who paid for all of this? Hopefully, not my tax money and hopefully not the Bennett’s insurance money. Either way I am getting ready to protest all of this somehow.
If you are all sleeping and not paying attention to this and not intervening to make these things stop you could be next. I was raised with the saying – Nazi Germany is what happened because good people did nothing. You are seeing the same thing happening in these United States and what are you doing about it?
#BlackLivesMatter
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