Community Corner
Stuck In The Middle
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Stuck In The Middle
“There was a misunderstanding. My dog's nickname is nigger. He must have overheard her calling the dog”, said my white former neighbor as he tried to explain to the police officer that his wife had not committed a hate crime. Later, the officer told me that he found that explanation hard to believe, especially when I told him that their dog's name is Sissy. The officer informed me that there was nothing he could do about the incident. Several months later these neighbors moved away ; my white wife and I thought,”Free at last.” If only we knew that evil and hatred were only beginning to raise their ugly heads in West Coast suburban lives.
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The neighbor's house was sold to a lady who happened to be white and she has been the nicest most friendliest neighbor in the world. However, the neighbor on the other side of us moved and the house was vacant for six months. The grass was at least waist high when our new neighbor moved in. Soon after she moved in, my in-laws came for a visit us and when they saw the waist high grass, they assumed that no one lived there. They parked in my new neighbors driveway. My new neighbor, who happens to be black, threw an absolute fit about them parking there. My in-laws apologized immediately about their mistake, but she had harsh words for them anyway. I went over to explain the situation, but she just responded, “I just don't want any trouble from neighbors.”
Later that summer, our daughter played with her daughter. Those play dates ended for two reasons: after we found out that her daughter kept threatening to kill our daughter for playing with another child, her own sister; and when we found out that our neighbor tried to give our daughter money for doing nothing, that sounded suspicious to us.
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One night a terrible storm blew through town, everyone's garbage cans were turned over by the storm and in my neighbor's case , her garbage was scattered all over her yard. One of he garbage bags had landed in the entry to our driveway, so I just set it back on her property. The next day, she called the police, told them that she watched us go through her garbage and that we spread her garbage all over her yard. The police questioned my wife about the incident and she told them what really happened. The officers could find no reason to charge anyone with a crime and told my wife that the allegation was far fetched.
Shortly thereafter, my wife heard my neighbor talking on the phone loudly saying “ that white bitch this and that white bitch that”. On most nice days, my wife would be sitting by our pond and look up to see our neighbor glaring at her.
A couple of weeks later, my son and I were playing basketball in the street when our neighbor walked by with her daughter and said, “tell your son to stop spitting in my yard.” I responded, “ is this a joke? Spitting in your yard, really?” To which she quickly retorted, “ How would you like it if I spit in your yard.” I responded, “You can spit in my yard all day long if you like.” She proceeded to spew out profanities and threatened to call the law.
A couple of days later, my wife got served with an anti-harassment order from the County court. My wife had been accused of harassing my neighbor and her daughter. In addition, she had been accused of going through the neighbor's mail and throwing garbage all over her yard. Anyone that knows my wife, a person who would rather stay away from crowds and dislikes drawing attention to herself, would find my neighbor's claims absurd. We went to court and refuted every one of my neighbor's bizarre claims against my wife and our children. The judged denied her anti-harassment order because she failed to show cause.
A month later, our neighbor's filed a claim in Small Claims Court against us. She claimed that she watched us, through her window, damage her wooden fence. The fence that she was referring to was a dilapidated wooden fence that separated the two properties, hers and ours. Twenty years ago, the fence poles were put in without concrete bases and because they were made of untreated lumber, they were tilting over and even falling down in places. Before our neighbor moved in, the previous owner had give us permission to patch the gaping holes in the fence with chicken wire to stop our dogs from getting into his back yard. My wife and I took pictures of the ailing fence line and presented it to the judge. In addition, we built a new chain link fence to separate the properties to keep our pets secured. After weighing all the evidence, the judge ruled against her claim. The only real casualty was that ,both times she took us to court, I had to take off from work and lose pay because of her frivolous and blatantly false claims.
For about 6 months after the last court appearance, our neighbor left us alone. Then one day, the City's garbage crew accidentally knocked over our neighbor's garbage can. Later that day, she responded to seeing garbage in front her house by dumping kitty litter, a large stone, a rusted-out barbecue grill, and an old broken wooden chair over our fence and into our yard. We called the police, but we were told that without surveillance video footage, showing her committing the act, there was no way to charge her.
Over the past several months, our neighbor and her partner have been constantly throwing stuff over our fence-line. Several weeks ago at about 3:30 in the morning we heard a loud noise outside our window. I investigated in the dark but saw nothing. Later that day, my wife discovered that my neighbor had egged our house just below our bedroom window. Later that week, my wife overheard my neighbor and her partner's plan to jump my wife because she is white.
My neighbor is a military veteran who claims to be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She only pays the property taxes to stay in her home, because her house was a love gift in a community property settlement between two male former owners of this property. She has a daughter that is half-white , but she absolutely hates white people. I would like to thank the government and the do-gooders for making my life a living hell. America, my neighbor is a good example of your tax dollars at work and charitable intentions gone awry. A true racist bully has been enabled by our society and there is nothing I can do about it. As songwriter Bob Dillon eloquently stated my situation in his song Stuck in the Middle with You, “ clowns to the left of me and jokers to right, here I am...”