Neighbourhood watch?

Is their anything I can do to get these guys to leave me alone? I live in a pretty upscale neighborhood and have so for 19 years however it seems in the past few years (around 5) a couple new families moved in and took up the neighborhood watch.

My problems began when I was tired and my girlfriend drove the car to my house after dinner. We were just talking in the car when one of the neighbours (who I had never met or seen before) bursts out of his house with a flashlight runs up too the car and shines the flashlight in my face asking me "what do I think im doing" while asking my girlfriend if "everything is alright". He then proceeded to sneer at me and ask me where I live "I told him it was none of his business but i lived "right there" and i pointed to my house. He then stated that he was the community watch and that it was his job to ensure the community safety. My girlfriend felt awkward seeing as this jerk stuck around until we said goodnight.

Since this incident we have had our windshield wipers broken on our cars a couple times as well as our house egged. When we have guests over and they park on the crescent/side street (where the initial incident took place) their cars are damaged (broken mirrors/keyed/dents) almost without fail while every other car is undamaged. Not to mention the times I've been jogging and have had cars speed by with people giving me the finger or yelling the "N" word out the window.

It's particularly disheartening cause we get along great with the rest of the neighborhood It's just the new people who moved in...

Also we have had the police begin following us when me and my girlfriend go out (this has since stopped after I talked to my cousin who is a police officer) not to mention the time our family went downtown to church and received a call that truckloads of police were at our house wanting entry to investigate a "disturbance where someone threatened to kill someone" which was phoned in apparently at 12:00 by god knows who when we had been in the city since 9:30 (the service was recorded thank god)


I would just like to know is their a point at which you can slap these guys with a harassment charge seeing as we have been approached by the watch more than once? It seems that the reasoning for approaching us and acting the way they do has been: Nice car+Black Guy+White Girl+Nice neighborhood = something must be wrong. I've NEVER seen or even heard of them approaching anyone else.

Didn't know this was 1950's Alabama

Dude that is soo ****ed up. I can't believe that **** happens here so openly. I have no idea about the legal stuff, but man, my sympathies to you.

I'm guessing you're black and your girlfriend is white? Sorry, but you know deep down this is racially motivated and you live amongst bigots and racists. I'd say move or film them doing stuff to your car/property and file a hate crime but you honestly know this is more trouble than it's worth. Moving is probably your best option, I'm afraid.

Sorry, I didn't read the whole post. So you have someone in the police force. At this point I think the police could be pretty neutral and they do have record of someone calling in a false report of a crime. That's probably enough grounds to file a harrassment charge against the family or individual responsible for the neighborhood watch. As always, we're only amateurs offering advice here and the best you can do for yourself and your family is to contact legal counsel. These people sound like they're on an ego trip thinking the neighborhoood watch thing is their passport to harass people with impunity. Put them in their place!

Failing that, you should harass them back. Ask them what they're doing and such and such.. don't stew in your own juices over this, get even.

But he's lived there for 19 years! That's total ******** that he should be literally forced out because of his nationality.

Is going through the police the best option?

So...I'm just going to ask for some clarification on a few things...

These two families who moved in...Are they large or small or what? Because when you say families I think parents with a couple kids...and for 4 parents to coordinate and be responsible for hurling racial epithets, damaging your property, and falsely calling in police seems a significant effort with very little provocation....

You say they moved in 5 years ago but it's only started recently? I don't think people just suddenly turn "racist"...

These people who speed by and yell things at you...are they from your neighborhood? Or are they just passers by? Because if they're part of the families who've moved in shouldn't you recognize their vehicles?

You say your property has been damaged, and that of your guests, you say almost every time. Have you reported it to the police? At least that way you have a record of these events, and it would be pretty damning if it occurred every time and it was only you and your guests who were affected. Plus, if it occurs so regularly, have you ever stayed up and watched to see who would come? Or at least set up a camera? That would be the smoking gun right there...

That event where the police showed up at your house....for that to occur and it proven false, the person who made the call should have had significant repercussions placed against them almost immediately...people can't just make fake calls to the police without the cops being pissed about wasting their time...especially a call that used significant police resources and was very serious.

I'm not calling you a liar...it's just that there are some serious inconsistencies...

Also, you know what this reminds me of?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakeview_Terrace

take pics/vids of him committing the act, then call the police. This is destruction of property.

I would move. no way you can get rid of them one by one anytime soon.

Originally Posted by Mattones

I would move. no way you can get rid of them one by one anytime soon.

i think only one person is doing it, so getting that one person arrested seems to be a better option.

Originally Posted by mkerian

So...I'm just going to ask for some clarification on a few things...

These two families who moved in...Are they large or small or what? Because when you say families I think parents with a couple kids...and for 4 parents to coordinate and be responsible for hurling racial epithets, damaging your property, and falsely calling in police seems a significant effort with very little provocation....

You say they moved in 5 years ago but it's only started recently? I don't think people just suddenly turn "racist"...

These people who speed by and yell things at you...are they from your neighborhood? Or are they just passers by? Because if they're part of the families who've moved in shouldn't you recognize their vehicles?

You say your property has been damaged, and that of your guests, you say almost every time. Have you reported it to the police? At least that way you have a record of these events, and it would be pretty damning if it occurred every time and it was only you and your guests who were affected. Plus, if it occurs so regularly, have you ever stayed up and watched to see who would come? Or at least set up a camera? That would be the smoking gun right there...

That event where the police showed up at your house....for that to occur and it proven false, the person who made the call should have had significant repercussions placed against them almost immediately...people can't just make fake calls to the police without the cops being pissed about wasting their time...especially a call that used significant police resources and was very serious.

I'm not calling you a liar...it's just that there are some serious inconsistencies...

Also, you know what this reminds me of?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakeview_Terrace

+100

Especially the bolded part.
OP is saying that "people" speed up to him and call him the N word - is it the same "Neighbourhood Watch" people or not?

And let's be real for a second now - Aurora is a relatively small town, with mostly WHITE people. So facing "racism" in a situation like this is nothing huge or dramatic...it's just the way life is sometimes. You can't really change people and how they feel...if they're racist, they're racist. Calling people the "N" word is not against the law, and as for the damaged cars...you should have been filing police reports (hopefully). But considering you/your family seem to be on the "bad side" of the police (since you stated they were following you at one point), I don't know how effective that's going to be either....

The only part of your post that had anything to do with the neighbours is when they came up to your car. Are your neighbours speeding past you, are they the ones damaging your car, are they the cops who are following you? You seem to be blaming a whole lot of unrelated events on your neighbours. Maybe they are all related and you just didn't indicate it in your post, right now I don't see what your neighbours have to do with what's happening to you.

Are you related to Professor Gates by any chance?

Why not just cut to the chase and say "all white people" in your post? Because thats where you are going. You made it sound like all that stuff was your neighbours doing it.

Maybe do like Obama and invite them over for beer?

Its sad what happened to you but I've bee picked ( racial slurs, assault) on by every colour/religion during my life (blacks, whites, asians, mexicans, italians, jews, arabs(from a few different countries), Muslims, jewish, aglican, even catholics, even gays.

I just decided one day to grow a pair and ignored them. Life is too short to worry about dumb people trying to hurt you. They'll only hurt you mentally if you let them.


If they are causing property damage well thats where you need security cameras and get them caught and arrested by the police.

Of course you may never catch them. I had my car keyed a few times but the perps were never caught.

The people egging you house can get easily caught using a video camera.

A gay guy filmed an assault on him by his neighbour and that was gold in court.

What I found really stupid was 2 weeks ago I passed my local park and there was a huge black family with many kids around, with radio with huge speakers was blaring music that sang every second word "n....." this and "n...." that. Although I got offended and it give such a bad example to the kids (and for any one else), what could I do? Just ignored it and walked on. Put the bad things out of your mind or it will ruin your day.

Originally Posted by Emancipated

I'm guessing you're black and your girlfriend is white? Sorry, but you know deep down this is racially motivated and you live amongst bigots and racists. I'd say move or film them doing stuff to your car/property and file a hate crime but you honestly know this is more trouble than it's worth. Moving is probably your best option, I'm afraid.

Ohh, I couldn't disagree more! Unless someone's life is in danger, there is no way in hell I'd give up my home to these thugs. I hope you've at least been calling police and reported each incident, or at the very least documented them each time yourself.

I have to agree with those saying something doesn't add up. Just the whole idea of the neighborhood watch doing this stuff simply makes no sense. It's the opposite of what they're giving of their time to do. If you haven't seen them doing it, why do you believe it's them? Sorry but this just doesn't seem like the kind of behaviour I'd expect from neighbors in general, but especially those putting themselves out there to stop the exact thing they're there to prevent.

[/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by mkerian

So...I'm just going to ask for some clarification on a few things...

These two families who moved in...Are they large or small or what? Because when you say families I think parents with a couple kids...and for 4 parents to coordinate and be responsible for hurling racial epithets, damaging your property, and falsely calling in police seems a significant effort with very little provocation....

Yeah, all of that makes me suspicious as well.

Install surveillance cameras in front of your house, and any property that could be damaged. Also record every single unlawful act with a date and time. If they do pull that stuff again you will have evidence to file a harassment lawsuit against said "neighbour hood watch". Sue for every nickel and dime so they will be forced to sell their property and move out of your hood jigga.

Well living in Aurora I would like to say that from my experience the people have been mostly friendly... That is when they are not looking down their nose at you.