User Panel
Posted: 1/20/2006 8:07:27 PM EDT
My wife and I had an interesting conversation tonight. She's at our kids elementary school quite often and knows their respective teachers quite well. She retells me of a conversation she had with my son's third grade teacher about a new student that came in after Thanksgiving. Now keep in mind that this is a THIRD grader I'm talking about.
1) The kid, let's call him "Tony" never turns in his homework. 2) "Tony" claims to be doing drugs, smoking and drinking. 3) The kid looks like he's actually stoned while in class 4) He gets reduced/free lunches because they're low income 5) Tony's mom has recently been released from prison. She's also apparently looks young enough to be a high school student. 6) Tony's uncle is also a recent parolee living in the same house 7) The teacher told us that the police had said uncle in handcuffs in the school parking lot one day. 8) My wife has seen Tony walking a Pit Bull around the neighborhood - not exactly someone responsible enough to handle that animal I would say. Now, it turns out that he lives in *our* neighborhood. We live in a nice suburban nieghborhood and nothing has happened around here in the 12 years we've lived here. As a matter of fact, he's right around the corner of some very close friends of ours whose daughters are the same ages as our kids. Their mom told us that he pushed a girl from down the street down on the ground and tried to hump her. The house has people coming and going at all times too. She won't let her daughters play in the front yard anymore. So now the question is: How can they afford that house. The mom of the daughter mentioned above said that apparently one of their close relatives is a NFL player. When we got home, I checked the address for a name, which does happen to be the same surname as Tony's. The house is appraised at around $200,000, so it's a decent spread. I check the owner's name against the NFL rosters, and sure enough - there is a rookie playing for an NFL team by that name, and not only that, but he went to high school here in town as well. That part of the story sure seems to check out. I really don't know what to think about all this. It's sad that this kid's life is most certainly going to have an unhappy ending, and it won't be his fault. Regardless - I now have to worry about my third grader being exposed to that, and I'm not a happy camper. This has nothing to do with being to aloof to handle someone with a lower income; we're genuinely worried for the safety of our kids and the neighborhood in general. [Edited for syntax and corrected a reference] |
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Concentrate on keeping your kids away from the trailer trash. Just ignore them unless they start to impact your life with their life style. Worry about your kids is enough stress, no need to worry about someone else's.
Do you have a homeowner's association? |
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Get together with your neighbors and start filing complaints on everything you see them do. Complain about the excessive noisy traffic at night, about the dog if it even looks crossways at anything, on the family if they don't keep their grass to specified height, if they park a car in the street for too many days...ect.
You might not be able to anything to directly get them to move away but if you make living there a pain in the ass they find some place else to live. |
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Won't be easy, but it's best not to let it get started. If he does anything, call the law.
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No charges filed? If not, WTF are her parents doing??? |
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Thank goodness I've already had several "drugs are bad" talks with my son. THIRD GRADE, for crying out loud though - I didn't think he'd need it that soon...
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Drugs, I would imagine. |
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Baltimore City has a program where they move innercity types out into the 'burbs.
The whole "nature" -vs- "nurture" thing. The idea is that if you put a scumbag in a good setting, they will play well with others. Basically, it exports crime to nice neighborhoods like yours. |
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Just got a correction from my wife - it wasn't the daughter of our close friends, but a girl from a house just a little down the street. No idea why they didn't - can't speak for them... |
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Sometimes you just have to wait it out. Likely they will get foreclosed on but it may be 12-24 months. In the mean time explain to your daughter that you do not associate with people who act like Tony. Shoot the dog first chance you get. |
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Doubt they'll get foreclosed. The NFL guy probably bought the house for cash. |
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Well that sounds like a winning fucking program. |
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zhukov, so you have some pollyanna like expectation that everyone in suburbia is a boyscout?
if so, take off the rose colored glasses and welcome to the reality that there are scumbags everywhere... |
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I have a "family" next door to me..... Fucking lovely bunch too....
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There are Federal programs, I think, that subsidize this kind of stuff (HOC? Housing Opportunity Commision or the like?). If so, there is a silver lining, believe it or not. I am told that if the beneficiaries of these programs misbehave, they can be kicked out. At our homeowner's association meeting we were told to complain about every time these characters misbehave; file charges, make complaints, etc. It can eventually get them evicted if they are on the dole. Find out if this is the case, and make their case manager your best buddy. Look into it. |
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Once again - the house is owned and paid for by a very close relative who is playing in the NFL. It is NOT a federal program.
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I could tell you to put sugar in the gas tank, but I won't- that wouldn't be nice. I could also tell you to put anti-freeze out for the dog, but don't do that, it would be cruel. And I could also tell you to burn down the house when they're not home, but, Gosh darn it, that wouldn't be neighborly, so, don't do it.
And I won't tell you to shoot shovel and shut up about the offending persons either. That would be illegal if you did that. And not nice. |
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Don't worry it won't last long.
They will go back to jail, eventually. |
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Buy 10 acres in the country and put a double wide on it. Fuck suburbia....
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Yeah, had a similar thing happen where I used to live, in Seattle. A house across the street was owned by an absentee landlord from California who had put the house in the "Section 8" housing program (city-backed rental plan for lowlife scum). There had been a longterm tenant in the place who was pretty decent, but that guy got sick and tired of all the problems with the house that the landlord refused to fix -- things like no heat for two years (the furnace had completely broken down), a leaking roof, that sort of thing -- things which the landlord was legally obligated to fix, but refused to do. Anyway, said tenant got sick and tired of paying for substandard housing and left. Oh, yeah, he totally trashed what was left of the place before he moved out -- I don't blame him a bit.
Unfortunately, the scumbag landlord decided to fix the place up to the bare minimums and keep renting it out to lowlifes. The new batch were a white woman and her two half-black kids (each by a different black father) and her current white boyfriend. The woman and her boyfriend were ok, but the kids were gang-member wannabees who brought all their garbage black friends into the neighborhood to break into cars and houses and to vandalize places. I almost had the opportunity to put several loads of buckshot into one at 3am one night, but my front door was too sturdy. Oh well. Good luck, keep hassling them and maybe they'll get tired of it, or maybe their sugar uncle will lose his NFL contract and have to sell the house. |
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Kid from the neighborhood I live in, beat, raped, and left for dead an 8 year old girl. He's 13. As it turns out all the neighbors had frequent problems with the kid. But nobody had done anything about it. |
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Trailer trash isn't just in Trailers anymore. I have a neighbor I would just as soon plug as look at.
Thus far I have controlled my temper. |
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Camcorder for the kid. If you have a revolver or semi-auto pistol might I suggest mag-safe ammunition[I am aware that you live in the burbs] for the boy's pet bull. Check with your local gun shop for details. |
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Oh, I've got the neccesary supplies. Long before this began. |
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Good point. That's at least sexual assault. Heck, a call to child services should be placed too. If he's doing that, my guess is that his uncle and mommy are having sexual relations. Maybe his uncle is his daddy too. When there's even a hint of some type of inappropriate sexual behaviour in a household, child services usually make those cases a priority. |
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Cities come up with programs like this all the time in order to economically diverisfy the area in order to prevent class stratification. (whatever that means). I've also heard it prevents tham from concentrating all the poor welfare people in one area, which creates it's own special kind of hell. Also, it might be cheaper for the city to spend it's welfare housing (from grants from HUD) on renting houses across the city than build welfare compounds (millions), maintain the properties (millions), and then tear the building down when the inmates inevitably tear the shit out of the building simply because it (the housing provided for them) didn't meet their (welfare resipients) expectations (millions). I don't like either idea and firmly believe the .gov needs to be out of the business of providing housing, housing assistance, or .gov controls of the housing market. |
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Could be some fraudulant goings on with these [ex-wards of the state]people.
Folks like this usually will run a con with everyone they come in contact with. You say ''uncle dick'' is on probation? |
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My crystal ball says they're gone in three years. Of course, the intervening time could be "interesting" but I wouldn't count on your new neighbors to be exactly stable residents. I read somewhere that the average lottery winner is broke in 18 months. I imagine the proceeds from an NFL salary last about as long. Of course, he could have a very long, distinguished career. But, if you can judge people by the company they keep, I'd say that's doubtful . . . |
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You've already gotten some good advice. I see a lot of children/teenagers like this in my practice. I call them 'Satan's Little Helpers'.
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Thankfully I think everyone involved is very proactive and this won't get too bad. I know one of the city council members, and with the uncle having been in handcuffs on school grounds, I'm sure the police are well aware of their presence too. Our good friends that live just a couple of houses away will have the worst to deal with. The street is filled with cars of "friends" that hang out there all the time; she won't let their kids play in the front yard anymore.
The tenants there won't last long outside of a penal institution I have a feeling. |
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Welcome to the new socialist movement. Its called HUD. Its the replacement for government housing putting the under privilaged in a privalaged enviroment. I guess they expect morality to be contaigeous.
Unfortunately, its like plague as typically over time more and more homes get HUDded out and the neighborhood shifts to a hard wall trailer park. This movement has been going from once nice blue collar neighborhoods to the suburbs at a steady pace. Ultimately, we are seeing the results of decades of social engineering that puts emphasis on educating the female while letting the male fall behind while exhaulting single parenthood in a vain effort to make up for past social wrongs. Its the swing of the pendulum as one wrong is replaced by numerous new wrongs. We continue this path dispite all the statistics that tell us a child especially a male child without a positive adult male role model is almost doomed to failure. In short, you are now being impacted by the bold social experiment. This is social economic integration at its peak. I can't tell you what to do for I haven't figured it out. My son has befriended a number of these socialy and morally deprived youngsters over the years. Talking to them its quite depressing for the "Your daddy should have taught you this" list is so long you don't know where to start. All we can do is make our stabs at it as we can and hope some of it rubs off. In our case, my son's now in highschool, its been about 50%. Half seem to have gained some respect for what's right while half by my best guess are doomed to a failed life. I can tell you that 3rd grade, there's time for a change, however if their home enviroment doesn't change the odds are against them. I don't know how many times I've said, "They don't stand a chance in hell." Tj |
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The government has, for the most part, gotten out of this business. No new Section 8 units have come on line in years. It's all about the LIHTC now. |
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You're not thinking like a 9 year old ... which is what you have to do if you're going to beat him in his court.
Of the first eight things you listed none are important to your business save number 8. Your reaction sounds almost emotional, I mean do I really care in the kid down the block doesn't turn in his homework? To me it sounds like the child has been watching Thug Life (aka MTV) a bit and is trying to put on. Having been a 9 year old boy once and knowing quite a few of them now they do tend to role model their heroes. When I was a kid we'd copy our favorite baseball player or movie star. I had a set of revolvers and a matching western belt to match one I had seen John Wayne wear in a movie ... "the boy down the street is wearing guns and using them to shoot at my daughter!" If it were me my child(ren) wouldn not allowed to associate with him in any way >.< If the dog gets lose shoot it. If there is a minimum age for possession of a pit bull in Texas have the regulation enforced. I seem to recall there's a city/state where you have to be 16 to possess one. IIRC Miami has banned them completely. If the boy was giving my child(ren) any sort of trouble beyond which I would brush-off as the normal crap that kids that age do I would talk to the boy and mother directly. Any repeats would see a second effort. A third brush would call for some clever tactics. Ask yourself what does a nine year old fear the most ... the answer I come up with is a 12 year old. Do you suspect that the house is dealing drugs or are you just concerned that there are cars coming and going to the house? A $200,000 house might run $1150 a month on a 30 year 5.5% mortgage which wouldn't rent you a 2 bedroom in most of the apartment complexes within 40 miles of here where any home is above $300,000 and one in a decent neighborhood is now $450,000 to $500,000. My home is worth that and we have a dozen "Tonys" all within a rocks throw of my house. We put the local drug dealer out of business or at least changed his MO with complaints to the police and to code enforcement. Wait until you get a "clown house" move in next door where some guy rents the house and then sub-leases it out to six or ten families who each get their own room for $500 each. The biggest family sleeping in the living room. They'll have five dogs barking in the backyard day and night. Each parent has at least one car meaning the 15-25 cars that belong to the house fill the front curb of every house up and down the block. Nearly every weekend theres a loud barbeque party with a couple dozen more people coming to visit and of course, the drunken frights, and the people peeing in your bushes (automatic sprinkers work wonders on them). The beer bottles end up in your garden as do their dogs when they get lose. Come rent time there's the weekend yard-sale and on garbage day it's a good thing they they pick through your garbage for all the good stuff as there's no room on the curb for the truck to get at your cans. Their garbage pile is amazing in sheer size as they have three times the number of cans allowed for by law ... and they're all stolen. Even with the neighborhood orgranized - five of us men stand in the street and call the police one after another on our cell phones - it takes six months to a year to get them evicted. Good luck with your "Tony". |
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Bama's right. Soon the Uncle and mother will find themselves back in jail and Tony will either go live with another relative or wind up in foster care. The NFL player will sell the house and life will be back to normal. |
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And you could have a near 60 year old "jimmy" living next to you, who is just as bad if not worse than a 8 year old walking a pit bull.
Ya loads of fun. |
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+1. My "Podunks" paint grafitti on their own house !! If I see flames someone else will have to call the FD. I call it urban renewal rj |
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Quoted:
... If the boy was giving my child(ren) any sort of trouble beyond which I would brush-off as the normal crap that kids that age do I would talk to the boy and mother directly. ...quote] ----------- Beg pardon, Paul, and addressed with all respect due to site staff: Is the above WISE ? It would almost of necessity involve setting foot onto the scum's property, or meeting them on their own (percieved) turf. At the very least one would be in a 'he said, she said, situation', and considering the institutionalised libtard prejudices (yes I said prejudices) favoring the words of a child or woman over those of a man, our aggrieved gentleman would be at greatest disadvantage. Personally I feel nothing in the way of sorrow for the 'thug life' third grader. Yes, I am female and I was a social worker for over a decade. I feel nothing for them, zero sympathy. They breathe up good air and turn into even more destructive predators. Let someone else with letters after his or her name try to "fix" them. Excersize in futility. Gone are the days of hope for my nation. We are seeing the Future. And it is Here. |
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Gad-Damn, I like your style! |
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With 4 years as a juvinile officer, I can tell you it's earlier than that. |
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So who is the NFL hero who is footing the bill for all this hilarity?
Seems to me that tales of his kin turning nice neighborhoods into gangstaland would play well with sports fans (especially of opposing teams) - if their precious little pit gets loose and chomps an infant, would the NFL hero be liable? (since he paid for the house) His sports bucks are affecting YOUR neighborhood, so it seems turnabout is fair (to let the folks in HIS world know what a bunch of charmers he is supporting) |
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Bingo! Good legal mind at work here:
I would beg to differ however , Merrill, as regards the NFL sports fans caring one iota about the "behavior" for which Football Hero is footing the bill. Nonetheless... "Deep Pockets" may be something worth looking into. Does Football Hero *own* the hellhouse? Is his name anywhere on the title, mortgage, etc? If so ... *excellent*! (all this requires some research, but By the Eternal !, since we are living in the days of the Great Society; Socialism in all but name only, let us facilitate a little "Redistibution of Wealth"). Presuming Football Hero's name is to some or whole degree implicated in the ownership of Hellhouse, we move on to Step 2: Investigate (so far as possible) homeowners insurance on the property AND Football Hero's assets (such as NFL contract) 3) Research every nuance of every law and ordinance regarding dogs, dog bites, leash laws, and what I will term "actual physical control" of the Pit Bull. Let 'someone' document plenty of pictures/video of the dog 4) With *that* information, let "someone" -- or multiple folks-- (not even necesarily our good member Zhukoff) file, lodge, complain in clearly evident legal ways, one or more civil/ legal documents/ reports about the Dangerous Dog. *NOW* for #5 (drumroll) if and only if member Zhukoff or a likeminded soul is so inclined... it is Time for Egregious and Agravated Attack, Trauma from with One Does Not Recover (may need a shrink on this), plus Medical Bills. Not for the faint of heart. Nonethelss the payoff could be massive... even a suit against the city for not enforcing its dog control laws *after* having recieved complaints. Scenario: One or more persons are out for a walk. One may or may not be carrying a camera/ video cam. Oh, yes, you are quite the nature-loving birdwatcher, landscaping/ architecture buff or walking for fitness type (I forgot to mention that preliminary detail) The film/ video will first have several shots of benign 'nature', 'landscape' or 'architecture' scenes. Then, horror of horrors! One is either attacked by the pit bull, or it barks/ jumps/lunges so threateningly that you (or the volunteer) HAS to RUN (and Mirabile Dictu! just happens to trip and fall) Photos or video then show vague , non-focused, scrmbbling shots of sidewalk, sky, etc as photographer also RUNS for his or her life Great commotion and the wail of ambulence sirens are just the latest chorus of Kumbaya. Yes, yes... I plan to delete this post all in due time. Adendum: Yes something like this worked for me, although at the time the skank with the vicious dog had no assets, and I would have had to file a claim against my own homeowners' insurance. My case was unplanned, however. Former neighbor Skank kept a dog (against homeowner's association dicta) either tied to a tree, or left loose to defecate "wherever" (aka my yard) instead of fenced. I complained. I documented. I talked with both animal control and the animal shelter (yes, they informed me, if I trapped/ caught the loose dog in my yard, I could take it in to the "pound" free and clear) The latter was my original plan... but before I could impliment it... ... I came home from teaching a morning excersise class, and the loose, unleashed, unfenced dog made a vicious lunge to attack me in my own driveway. Fortunately, I carry a small easy-open knife on my key-chain (for opening letters and boxes of course), faced the attacking dog as I flipped open the blade, "offered" my left forearm to its jaws, lunged and bellowed at the top of my lungs, making my petite self as "big" as possible... *and aggressive*. The dog turned tail, and no blood was shed. Came *that* close. Documented and reported *everything* to anyone from city hall, to community homeowners' president. Dog "disapeared" within two days. Skank and her clan moved within two months. |
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