So it's 4:49 in the morning as I begin typing this.
I have spent the last nearly 2 hours trying to put
an end to the next-door neighbors' incessant radio
playing which has been going for about 13 hours now.
It's a country station, and every 'twang' and reverb
and bass note goes straight through my house.
From a distance, even music you like is obnoxious to
listen to: Everything reduced to a mewling chorus of
the distorted parents' voices from Charlie Brown
cartoons.
My dogs and cats are on edge, their ears being so much
more sensitive than ours. They just sit staring off, unable
to relax with this annoying sonic torture. I can't calm them
and that is where my real rage comes from--that a psycho
is being given free reign to harm me and mine, and nothing
will be done about it.
I recorded the music, but recordings don't pick up
all the shrieks and dull-roars from hearing it live. I
yelled over at them to turn it off. That doesn't work
for two reasons. First, they aren't outside because they're
asleep. Second, they aren't 'unaware' that the radio is on.
The music isn't for them, it's to harass me and my
animals and my elderly mother.
After hollering didn't produce anyone, I honked my
car horn. Still nothing. Then I set off a series of
blaring car-alarms. Still nothing.
I didn't call because she's a new mother who can claim I
was harassing her by calling in the middle of the night.
He never picks up his phone when I call.
The sheriff's department sent someone out. They pulled
into the drive, set for about 10 seconds, and pulled back out.
The dispatch said the officer couldn't hear anything except
an air conditioner. I explained--just as I had a dozen times
over the course of last summer--that you have to pass all
the structures out front into the back yard. That's where
the noise is, where it reverberates and reflects over to my
house which is also back from the road.
The officer did not return. He did not return my call.
The history here is that they really don't think it's a big
deal, and that they don't like having to come out here, and
really aren't I just either hearing things or making stuff
up or being too sensitive? Why am I involving the police
in 'our' squabble?
'Our' squabble is that a right-wing zealot gun-nut and
Trump supporter moved in next door and came with the
express purpose of 'teaching that faggot a lesson.' From
the minute he moved in, there's been ongoing targeted
harassment and abuse.
It all culminated with an awful summer last year where noise
torture was carried out with radios that played outside
24-7, high-pitched frequencies aimed at my home, days
and days of illegal fireworks that deafened us and literally
shook our home, and on and on.
The visits from police didn't work. Talks from neighbors
didn't work. I can't go over there because that would be
the excuse he desires to shoot me. (Oh yeah...high-powered
rifles and shotguns and AK-15s being shot right outside my
home were also a part of the intimidation and terrorism.
Also things the sheriff doesn't care about, it turns out.)
I also contacted every conceivable agency, organization,
individual, representative etc that I could think of for
assistance, all to no avail.
Many of you are probably thinking what I have: "There's
only one way to handle somebody like this." And you're
probably right. But he has an arsenal, cameras everywhere,
the place lit up like Christmas, and all the backing of every
other good-ol'-boy in the area.
He's in it for the conflict. He's in it because he thinks he
picked an easy target that won't fight back. He thinks he's
golden because police and local government don't appear
at all concerned about what he's doing, mostly because they
all share the same political view.
It finally did die off. It subsided. Things were still tense
and unpleasant, but the most obvious and aggressive
damage was over. And then, just like that, it all started up
again.
It's a hell of a thing to not be able to relax in your own
home. To not be able to attain quiet and peace. Not
sleeping has a host of health problems related to it. And
all of these issues have a cumulative effect...which is the
desired impact of all terrorism.
It is terrorism. Maybe a watered-down version of it:
Passive-aggressive. Deniable actions. Wishy-washy childish
nonsense done from a safe distance. Intimidation tactics.
Most people have lives they focus on: This guy has made me
his one-and-only obsession. An outlet for all that quiet
incel rage and upset over false-oppression. He wants a
feud because nothing else gets him hard.
All I want is to be left the fuck alone.
Their absolutely-stated objective is to make life here so
unliveable that I will up and move from my home. And no
one in authority seems to have a problem with that.
So much for the false promise of welcoming small towns,
law enforcement that cares, 'all citizens created equal,'
and the American Dream.
