I'm a black doctor. My neighbors called the cops on me for listening to Biggie.

[csziggy]

58. I've called the cops on noisy neighbors

I live in a rural area - or at least it was when I moved here. When the acreage south of us was divided into house lots I had my first noise problem. Someone was playing music so loud I couldn't hear the radio in my barn. I drove over to find two guys working on a roof, with their boom box blaring. I asked them to turn it down and they said "Fuck you, get off our property." I said, "OK, I'll go home and call the cops." They turned it down.

A few years later there was a noise that woke me from a nap, so loud and of such a sound I thought it was a tornado. I checked outside and there were no clouds of that type but I realized it was an engine sound coming from down the hill. I called the cops. Neighbors with whom I had previous disputes (about their Rottweiller running loose in my pastures and chasing my cat) were working on their car engine with no muffler and their garage door open directing the sound at my house. The cops gave them a warning.

The worst was when we were hosting police mounted units from across the state for their annual memorial to fallen officers. Someone down the road was having a party with a live band. The party was a third of a mile away but we could not have conversations on our property. I tried calling the home but although someone answered they could not hear me. The officers who had horses at our barn asked me to call the local cops so I did.

The cops came, agreed the noise was excessive, went down the road and asked the sound to be turned down. Right after I saw the sheriff's car drive back up the road, the sound went back up. I had heard on the sound system from the party someone talk about the cops' arrival and thanking them for coming to the party.

So I called back to dispatch and told them what I had heard and that the music was back up too loud. The dispatcher was unbelieving so I held the phone out the window. Then she could hear the music clearly - remember this is over a third of a mile away! That time the sound went down (still too loud for my taste) enough that the officers on my property could talk to each other without screaming.

Every year for over ten years I had to call cops on the same house. it seems the property owner's birthday was the same week of the memorial service and they wanted to have a party with live bands and loud music every fucking year. Either the guy died, moved away or his closer neighbors got pissed at him. I haven't had to deal with his music for the last ten years.