A win, of a sort

I had originally intended to have the clash I knew was coming with the neighbors on Friday. Instead, I got avoidant and we did a lot of wandering around in a store and didn’t get back until 4:30, so we didn’t have the fight then.

We had it yesterday. We had to call the police to get into our block. We arrived at the corner at 3:20; the police didn’t arrive until about 4:10.

I’m not sure whether the officer deliberately spoke to my neighbors first, or if they pounced on him determined to get their version of events in first. Predictably enough, they lied to the officer.

However, their version of events doesn’t really make sense. Why on earth would someone call the cops over being asked to wait a few minutes while the kids were gathered up? That makes no sense whatsoever.

But hey, he told the neighbors they had no right to stop me from getting on the block, and told the boyfriend and I that they had said all they asked was for us to wait for them to get the kids out of the way, so…the neighbors know I’m serious, and it’s on police record that there have been issues. He also made it quite clear (at least to us, hopefully to them) that they have no right to demand I park at the end of the block.

I think the officer believed me more than them, because he said if there were problems again, I should seriously think about contacting the Streets Department and explaining what was going on.

Also in the record – when I called for an officer, I did state that I was afraid my neighbors would turn this into a physical confrontation. If I had been by myself, that fear would’ve been quite serious. As the boyfriend, a solidly built guy, was with me, they didn’t do more than cluster around like a group of middle-school kids egging each other on. The way they did that definitely raised my level of concern that someone would’ve hit me, if it had just been me.

Hopefully, we won’t have to escalate this any farther, because if we do the likely consequence is that the kids will lose their play street. I would prefer that not happen, but not to the extent that I’m willing to risk my safety.

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