Complaint Review: Salvation Army - Detroit Michigan
- Salvation Army 1627 W. Fort Street Detroit, Michigan United States of America
- Phone: 3139657760
- Web: SalvationArmy.org
- Category: Civil Rights Violators
Salvation Army To be included in future revisions of this report. Indentured Servitude - Slavery - Civil Rights violations - Enironmental Laws - Safety - Labor Laws - Public charity scam Detroit, Michigan
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Salvation Army = SLAVE NATION ARMY!
Im going to try to open your
eyes the publics eyes - and minds - to the biggest
charity scam operation based in southeastern Michigan. I hope my revelations
may encourage someone to do something to stop the plundering of the public
under the guise of a Christian-based charity!
Im speaking as a beneficiary
of the Salvation Army Southeast Michigan Adult Rehabilitation Center. What I hope to expose is based on my
observations, experiences and investigations of the Salvation Armys so-called
rehabilitation program and the operations of thrift stores as an insider.
I have read numerous reports from
various sources on the internet, and other sources, and I empathize with all
those who have filed negative reports/complaints about the Salvation Army in
various forums. But all I can report on is the S.E. MI A.R.C., and its operations. I am myself, a victim of this organizations atrocious behaviors. Im willing to do my best to ensure this information
will also be dispersed throughout numerous public forums, including: the
internet, as many governmental, civil rights and news agencies as it takes to
force a full investigation of the entire Salvation Army organization and to
prompt appropriate action be taken to correct the wrongs this so-called
Christian, non-profit charity has perpetrated against those truly seeking help
and to the general public.
What I have learned in my time
there is that the abuse of the publics trust and the mistreatment of all who seek recovery from
their addictions is exploited by the Salvation Army nationally, if not
globally.
The Salvation Army has two
rehab (Adult Rehabilitation Center) centers in this area the Detroit center
is all male and the Romulus center is all female. The organization also
operates thirty-four retail stores and a number of warehousing centers in the
area.
I am a beneficiary at the
Detroit center.
A beneficiary can be best
described as someone who is attempting to recover from an addiction,
homelessness, joblessness, alcoholism, or any other alienation from family and
society. Some beneficiaries are walk-in
(those who seek recovery under their own volition), and court-ordered those who are forced into the program by the
Department of Corrections as an alternative to probation and/or parole
prerogatives. Non-the-less, they are people who may be seeking a way to better
themselves and their lives.
During the intake process at the
center, the question is raised as to whether a potential beneficiary has a Bridge
(food stamp) debit-EBT card. If so, the card must be relinquished. If not, the
intake director makes arrangements to obtain one (it is guaranteed that the food stamp debit card will be approved due to
the Salvation Armys deal with the Family Independence Agency & Health and
Human Services departments). It is explained that is how your stay at the center will be paid for, and, very well, may be food stamp FRAUD. Because the cardholder has no longer any control how the
debit card may be usedbut has been coerced into relinquishing that control to
the Salvation Army.
Residing at the Salvation Army
is not free!
You are then told that the program is
not a rehab program, but a work therapy program! And, it is
explained, that is another
part of the way that your stay at the center is paid for. The
S.E. MI A.R.C. administration has the audacity to call it work therapy, but it is
actually slave labor. The beneficiaries are DOING THE MOST WORK! Beneficiaries
are the back bone of this organization, although much of the general public has
been duped into believing they are volunteers.
Most of the work is
done in numerous areas by the beneficiaries with little or no recognition and
no real compensation at all. And, the beneficiaries are treated as if they are
sub-human at the job sites.
If a person is court-ordered to participate in the ARC
program, the Salvation Army receives payment from the Department of Corrections. That way, the Salvation Army is
profiting three ways on court-ordered beneficiaries! The organization obtains
the Bridge-EBT card, gets free labor and receives a reimbursement from the
court system/Department of Corrections. Any area, or department a beneficiary
is assigned to is included in that departments operating budget and a salary
value is attached. It is just another way the ARC can get another revenue-earning
deduction which is included in operating costs.
The beneficiary does not get a salary,
the Salvation Army gets to report the
salary, and the Salvation Army gets to cook the books on operating costs
in its annual report. I believe a closer look at the organizations books
should be taken by a legitimate governmental oversight agency on a continued basis to guarantee the legitimacy of this organizations reports. I
do not believe the Salvation Army would survive such scrutiny.
We (beneficiaries who are hoping for
recovery from our shortcomings) expect to be treated like human
beings, not used to reap a profit for a corrupt organization, not
exploited, not violated, disregarded, discriminated against, harassed, flagrantly
punished, denied our freedom of speech, denied our freedom of privacy, treated
like criminals, regarded as having no credibility whatsoever and subjected to
psychological abuse - brainwashing...ormost importantly, forced into indentured
servitude! Slavery!!
It is really human trafficking
practiced by an organization that claims to be opposed to it.
Human trafficking (also referred to as trafficking in
persons or TIP) is an umbrella term used to describe the process by which
millions of people become enslaved each year. A widely accepted definition of
TIP has been created by the United Nations (UN). The UN definition is as follows:
"(a)
'Trafficking in persons' shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring
or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of
coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a
position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits
to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the
purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the
exploitation or the prostitution of others or other forms of exploitation, forced labor of services, slavery or practices
similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;
(b) The consent of a victim of
trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in sub-paragraph
(a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in sub-paragraph
(a) have been used;
(c) The recruitment,
transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of a person for the purpose of
exploitation shall be considered 'trafficking in persons' even if this does not
involve any of the means set forth in sub-paragraph (a) of this article;
(d) 'Child' shall mean any person less
than eighteen years of age"
The
UN definition of trafficking in persons can be divided into three parts: acts,
the means used to commit those acts, and goals for which those acts are
committed. At least one element from each of the three parts of the trafficking
definition is required to create a TIP case.
Each
year millions of human beings are subjected to the trafficking process and find
themselves exploited in settings such as brick kilns, sweatshops, chicken
farms, cocoa plantations, mines, fisheries, rock quarries, or for compulsory
participation in public works or military service, Salvation Army operations, as well as a variety of other
settings. Countless others, predominately women and female children, but also
boys, are trafficked into the commercial sex industry where they are used in
forms of commercial sexual exploitation like prostitution, pornography, and
nude dancing. Some are sold as "brides."
Slavery
is Trafficking in persons is frequently referred to as modern-day slavery. an
apt analogy that shocks and challenges us. Americans in particular are moved by
this comparison. To us, slavery is a sordid, indelible stain on our national
heritage, but nevertheless it is an evil most believe we conquered and
relegated to the history books. However, news media accounts, on-the-ground
intelligence from nongovernmental organizations, and reports from agencies such
as the U.S. Department of State and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
create a different picture. They reveal the inescapable truth that trafficking
is one of the principle means by which slavery survives.
The definition of trafficking
in persons is met by the Salvation Armys actions: a) forcing beneficiaries to
work in Salvation Army facilities as part of work therapy, b) threatening
beneficiaries with punishment up to discharge from the A.R.C. if they do not
comply, c) the goal being to maintain the process that produces profit for the
Salvation Army. In other words, beneficiaries are kept in a state of indentured
servitude.
The beneficiaries and
resident employees are the prostitutes of the Salvation Army, to be pimped out to the organizations
various profit making concerns for the sole purpose of generating revenue for
the Salvation Army, the most profitable, non-profit organization in the world!
The whole
operation here stinks of a religion-based cult! It violates every
constitutional, labor, safety and environmental law there is! (I will address
these separate areas throughout this report.)
The only god worshiped by the Salvation Army is money. The program is run by relentless
mini-dictators who have taken their positions to the extreme and will yield to
no one and believe they do not have to answer to anyone. Their illegal
practices should not be ignored any longer.
They
are a disgrace to the idea of A Salvation Army and
religious beliefs of all faiths.
The Salvation
Army may appear to provide excellent and reliable service in helping
domestically, and in foreign countries, but only when a photo opportunity
presents itself, when television news and newspaper cameras are present, or
when the organization stages a self-promoting event.
The
program here is a total fraud and an outright failure when it comes to helping
people with homelessness and addiction issues. It is what it is, A
FRONT for a money-making machine exploiting human suffering. The only
homeless, helpless, addicted, alcoholic persons it HELPS are the ones who
it is able to SNAG into the so-called rehab programs.
This
organization does not help the
general public, or anyone on the street, it only tries to snare people into a
program that is only designed to generate profit! This organization provides no real services
for the public, no safe houses for battered women, no temporary shelters for
street people, no alternatives for children who may find themselves separated
from their parents, (and, as far as I have seen) no food service trucks for
people on the streets. The only food trucks I have seen are the ones that
service the Salvation Armys catering concerns. This organization does not
actively seek out and help anyone who will not result in a profit. The
beneficiaries are provided only donated food, while the catering services
provide first-rate, purchased food specifically for the catering services.
Their
oppressive approach has created a hostile, stressful, mentally unhealthy
environment for the beneficiaries and employees alike. For example: Employees
and beneficiaries (after 13 weeks in the program) are mandated to attend AA/NA meetings, which may be unconstitutional
and illegal due the religious nature of those meetings.
Also,
it is mandatory that everyone must
attend chapel services every Sundaymen and women alikein the church/chapel at
the Detroit-Fort street facility (unless they are in work therapy). Also, on
Wednesday evenings, beneficiaries must attend a chapel/bible study service. We
are being forced, against our will, to attend church services that most would
not attend otherwise. That is a clear violation of our Constitutional rights!
You
do not need a church to worship your higher power. I worship my higher power
every day. I believeas I look around at this wonderful universe I am part of,
and think that this all did not get here by chance. But why is the Salvation
Army permitted to tell me who my GOD should be?
Beneficiaries
are required to attend various classes throughout the week such as: Living
Sober, Relapse Prevention, Anger Management, Domestic Violence, Bible Studies
and various others. These classes are thinly-veiled brainwashing sessions. They
are run by facilitators, not teachers, because they are not
certified as teachers in the state of Michigan. Somehow, regardless of
the supposed focus of the class, the facilitators relentlessly direct all
thought back to the Salvation Armys religious point of view.
A number of the facilitators also double as
counselors. Beneficiaries are required to schedule counseling sessions around
their work and class times. The focus of the counseling sessions is also mainly
religious in nature. Beneficiaries are required to complete journals
religious in nature to be enabled to toward completion of the program.
The
inmates run the asylum in Detroit. Everyone in control of anything is someone who
has been through the program (sometimes several times), a recovering drug
addict, a recovering alcoholic, a convicted felon, a child molester, or some
other type of reprobateand it appears they make the rules as they go along.
Many are the biggest thieves and liars in the place! They run the place like a
prison slave labor camp. They confiscate beneficiaries items, at will, from
and keep the items for their own use. They allow thefts from the warehouses,
only to do dorm raids so they may confiscate the goods for their own use!
They are also the first to steal as soon as worthwhile shipments come to the Detroit,
Pontiac and Romulus warehouses. (Just look at their shoes, clothes they wear,
electronic devices they have and various & sundry itemseverything has been appropriated!) Yet, they act as if they are above the laws of
society, because they are running their own kind of society! They believe they
dont have to live by the laws the rest of society must. I will be naming names
throughout this report.
At
the thrift stores the managers, assistant managers and paid employees are the
ones who have first pick of any valuable merchandise that
is received from donors, and they take unabashed advantage of their positions.
Each store has its own production line to receive merchandise at the donation
area, a number of sorters, people who price and tag goods and the people who
place the goods in the store showroom. When clothing is sorted and placed in
the showroom, it is never washed. So, when you buy articles of
clothing at a Salvation Army thrift store you are getting clothing that some
paid employee has determined to be clean enough to sell. In some cases, this practice could be a
health issue.
The
pricing in the stores is based on the Salvation Armys value chart and the
prices still end up being near
prices you would find at any other retail stores such as: Wal-Mart, Target,
Macys and many others that sell brand new items.
The
working conditions in the back of the stores are run like sweat shops. The
production quotas are set at unbelievable demands. If the quotas are metthey
are raised. Many times beneficiaries are working on the lines and are
threatened with possible discharge if they do not perform up to expectations,
or to the demands of the paid (civilian) management types. The people who are
under pressure (paid management employees) from their higher ups, for quota
numbers, pass their frustration on to the people working the line. And, again,
the beneficiaries are the ones who bear the brunt of any retribution. They
always face being penalized, up to discharge, because of some employees blunder. How in the world
does it benefit a beneficiary, who may be truly trying to put their life back
together, to continually face the possibility of being put back on the
streetsand in most cases, actually being put back on the streets, because of
some marginally employable persons mistakes or incompetency?
And, this is a Christian organization? This
is clearly a money making organization. Production numbers,
and profits to be made, are clearly put before any beneficiarys recovery. Money before helping your fellow man is the
message here.
Many
of the stores are also mini-warehouse facilitieswhich provides the Salvation
Army with even more cubic feet of storage for merchandise that is donated TAX FREE from the unsuspecting public,
sorted out, picked through and then sold back to the public (if it is not
stolen first, or sent to the trash compactor!).
The
three main warehouse facilities (and many other hidden warehouse facilities
in this area) affords the Salvation Army approximately over 500 thousand square
feet of storage for merchandise donated by the unsuspecting public. In the more than 500 thousand square feet of warehouse
storage, it must be kept in mind that the storage bins used (4x4x4sized-and
sometimes larger- cardboard boxes-gaylords) are stacked, most times, three
units high (approximately 16), affords the Salvation Army the storage of more
than a billion dollars of free surplus merchandise in 8 MILLION CUBIC FEET OF
SPACE! This is not a poor, or suffering charity operation! They put more, perfectly
good, merchandise into their compacters, as
trash, than they ever present to the public for sale. Apparently this
organization gets paid more for landfill trash than it would make by selling to
the public living on limited means. This is for the southeastern Michigan
operations alone!
An
enormous amount of donated merchandise never reaches the stores, but is sent as
trash to the compactors at several of the warehouse facilities and stores.
And, although this website has scrambled the format of my original text somewhat, this report and the continuation of this report will appear on other websites including: The Slavenation Army on FACEBOOK and many others...just GOOGLE 'Slavenation Army. Please, be patient. this is a very complex issue relating to a very complex organization that has had over one-hundred years to formulate its approach to perpetrate a very complicated ruse on those seeking help, the general public and the very governments that enable this organization to be classified as a tax free, charitable, church, religious organization that reaps more profits that any other charity in the world!
MORE TO COME!
(Additional notes and points)
Resident employee rent increase and policies
Deception
The PROGRAMMING = cult
Work therapy
Conditions
Labor laws
Safety laws
Environmental laws
Theft
Fraud
Complaints by workers
Sexual harassment
Misuse of funds
Employee treatment
Duping the public
Complaints around the country
Falsifying reports
Public image
Racism
Embezzlement
Officers
Coercion
Class action lawsuit
Contact appropriate government agencies
Contact ACLU, et al
Profits
Do not donate to these scam artists
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 03/01/2013 07:06 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/salvation-army/detroit-michigan-48126/salvation-army-to-be-included-in-future-revisions-of-this-report-indentured-servitude-s-1022317. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content
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