Actually, yes there is.........

.......an answer to all of this junk with these 2 idiots living down the street. It takes quite a while to explain myself to the police every time they are called and I have to go through the ENTIRE history to get them up to snuff as to why this situation has deteriorated to the point that it has (although, that was more the next door neighbors. Ever since they put up that ugly, galvanized roofing material against their side of the fence, the problem has completely abated. I'll take the ugly roofing material over this s*** that was going on with them any day of the year!).

The obvious answer, the answer that I knew long before they advised me to do so, is to get an Injunction Against Harassment against both of them. I have wanted to do it, but going to court and getting it is time consuming and a real pain. It doesn't take much to convince a judge to give one out because the party that gets it can go to court and attempt to get it knocked down.

Of which, of course, I would be showing up for any such court dates and giving my rather lengthy, detailed side of the story, none of it made up, all of it true, and all of it very damning to them, if the judge happens to believe it. When it comes to court and these injunctions, it's all about presentation and making yourself believable. The story has to be believable, the situation that caused it has to be credible. You have to really think it through before going to court. You have to write it all out so you can see it on paper and really get the depth of what is happening and get into your mind any defense for any question. The judge doesn't want to wait for your answer, if you are not prepared, you lose credibility.

I am not afraid of such and I would definitely take the time to do all of that. I am just about convinced that it's time to really get my butt down there and get this over with. I wouldn't have to explain anything to police anymore, just hand them the copies of the papers and that would be the end of it. That would be the advantage to getting such. This is obviously going to happen again, and again and again. I am going to have to stand on my property and give this lengthy explanation, over and over.

I wouldn't have to do that if it weren't different cops, EACH and EVERY time they come to my house. I am dead serious, you never get the same cops twice. Or if you do, they come after the fact and are not the first on scene, therefore they don't really do much but give "backup" in a situation that definitely does not need backup. I will someday find it humorous that the Phoenix Police department found it necessary to send over half a dozen cop cars to this call. I am not particularly amused right now.

Rising on the list of priorities is a trip to the Justice of the Peace and filing for the injunctions against both of them at the same time. An injunction would shut them both up. They would not be able to do anything, they wouldn't be able to talk to me or come anywhere near my house.

Changing the subject, the lady that one of my tenants brought home today is the nicest, sweetest gal I have met in a long time. I think she has spent as much time talking to me as she has with him. Not that I was trying to steal her away from him, just good conversation is sometimes in the "thin" to "non-existent" department with individuals whose minds seem enveloped by current-day electronic gadgets and societal "norms" of which I do not consider normal at all. I am not sorry to tell you that if you are having a conversation with someone in person, it is totally and completely rude to start doing your texting s***, completely ignoring the person you are talking with. Your apologies about doing such will fall on deaf ears with me and I will get up and go do something else or just ignore you altogether. You will wonder why I am treating you in such a way and you might accuse me, in your mind, of being the rude jerk. I probably will not find it necessary to explain myself to you, at all, because you haven't got a clue and attempting to tell you about it is probably only going to raise tensions between us.

I know, I got completely off the subject I had started, but I find it totally unacceptable the things that many people DO find acceptable in this "modern" day and age, which I do NOT find acceptable and probably never will. This idea that you must text a person instead of calling them on the phone and talking with them is pretty much off the wall with me. I can maybe see if it's your partner and you just want to shoot a "love" line or something that doesn't need a phone call over, but this texting junk is new, at least to me, even IF it's been around for a "long, long time" as one teenager recently "informed" me. No, buddy, it hasn't been around that long.

One co-worker put it succinctly after I asked him why he would rather text a person rather than simply call them on the phone: "Well, we really don't WANT to talk to the person". This, I assume, is another extension of internet communication, a thing that to many degrees I have come to accept, especially emailing. I DO like emailing and I don't mind instant messages, either. But this is normally to people that are living somewhere half way around the world or clear across the United States, not a person I work with or someone I know. The idea that attempting to push those very tiny buttons with my very large fingers is somehow better than simply dialing the number and talking to them on the phone - another argument - doesn't really do anything for me. In a half hour's worth of texting you could speak with the person and say the same things in a few minutes.

Regardless, she asked me if had a girlfriend. No, having no clue where this might be leading. Well do you want one? If a person can wave a magic wand and instantly I am with the girl of my dreams, please do so. I wasn't really thinking that when she said it, this lady is really sweet, but it sort of crossed my mind afterwards. Ummm, well yes. She started to talk about her best friend that she has known since they were both young. This went on for quite a while. Now, looks aren't everything, but they ARE something, at least to me. I have already gone on dates with ladies that have black teeth, unkempt and generally - not very appealing looking. She got out her phone and showed me a couple of pics which just about floored me. For a lady of the age of 43, this one is absolutely gorgeous!

I had stated how sweet and nice she is, she stated how much nicer and sweeter her friend is than her. I am not a fan of blind dates. They don't normally turn out too well, but she stated they would set one up with her and Rey (my tenant) going, too. That would help things out quite a bit, I do believe.

I've been "writing-happy" lately, no explanation for it. Well, sort of. When a lot of stuff starts coming at me I find release and even some help in writing it all out. It's good to vent versus blowing up. My mind is all over the place and there is too much in it. I think church has been helping me with that - peace in the inner man. I get that in the worship services which I am finding no where else excepting maybe sitting out next to my ponds and letting things drop out of my mind.

At the same time, I have tremendous mind battles in just GETTING to church, or even thinking about going. Once I am there, I mostly have no problems being there excepting last Sunday. I didn't want to be there and I wanted it to be over with. Conversely, Wednesday I was very happy to be there and the service was great, at least for me.

Whatever.

I'm done.

ben

The Police

I guess I'll delve into the situation with the police department visiting my house yet again on Thursday.

I was in my house, online and checking things out when Mark came and asked me if I knew what was going on across the street. No. I went out there, the ex-con and the 30-something year old meth user on Shirley's property, going underneath her house for what reason I did not know.

I went inside and got my camera and started videoing them. I was still on my property and yelled over there, asking them what they were doing. They didn't respond, of course, I really didn't expect them to. For a couple of years now, I have been getting harassed by both of them and recently decided - after that idiot threatened one of my tenants telling him he was going to have me killed for catching cats - that I was not going to take any more of either of their BS - at all. I did yell at him down the street: Hey, why don't you come over here and threaten to kill me again?

Probably not the smartest move on earth, but, I have taken enough abuse from them without giving any kind of response that I vented a bit. They called the police.

I came out a bit later to find them entering my property, removing the lock off of the gate and letting themselves in. They didn't bother to try and use the doorbell button that is clearly visible out front. I had already spoken with the Department about this practice of theirs of just entering my property without even trying to use the doorbell.

These were YOUNG cops. They immediately gave off attitude. I don't tolerate it. They didn't want to hear anything I had to say, they just wanted to tell me how things were going to go. Instead of responding to it, I asked the youngest looking one - I swear he didn't look 18 years old - to please close the gate. "I am not going to close the gate". I took the time to tell them that my dogs were in the house but would eventually come out and would beeline it straight for the gate if he didn't close it.

He flatly, smugly and adamantly refused to close the gate. I wasn't going to stop asking him until he did it. His third response was: Not only am I NOT going to close the gate, I am going to fire upon your dogs if they try to bite me. Unbelievable. I stopped talking to them altogether and called the police department. "What are you doing? Are you calling the police department?!" YES, I AM. After this display of unprofessional, outrageous and juvenile behavior, I refused to talk to them further.

I asked for a manager once I got an officer on the phone. I was informed there are no managers there. Because I used the wrong terminology, they refused to allow me to speak to anyone. I then simply stated: whoever is the next up in the chain of command. That got me a supervisor. I began asking her about the police simply allowing themselves onto my property, reaching through a gate and removing a lock without any probable cause. She refused to answer my question. I asked again, she again refused to answer my question, stating a Sergeant was on his way over there and that HE would answer my questions. I asked her how long this was going to take, it was getting late and I had to get up at 3:15 am the next morning.

She never answered my question and eventually hung up on me. Meanwhile, the dogs all came out. And yes, the Danes went straight to the gate after sniffing the cop with the attitudinal problem. I said nothing, I wanted to see if he would actually let my dogs run free through the gate. They ran straight to him, he backed up, they did nothing more than sniff and then took off for the gate. This guy runs for the gate and shuts it - not all the way closed though - but enough to keep them from getting out.

I didn't say another word to these cops the entire time they were there. I waited for the sergeant. The young dude stood there, holding the gate instead of simply latching it shut. The sergeant and a slew of other cop cars arrives. I guess it was my inference that South Mountain precinct already HAS a bad reputation - NATIONWIDE - and that I could help that along further with this cop refusing to close my gate that got all of them out there. There were at least 7 cop cars in front of my house. This sergeant had a huge entourage accompanying him through the gate.

You would have thought the Prince of Persia was visiting my property. I was completely unimpressed or intimidated. Apparently this is what they wanted to do, intimidate me. With a person like me, this only makes things worse. Don't these officers have other and much more productive things to do than have THAT many people showing up at a residence that clearly is not offering any type of violence, physical resistance or anything, really, that would facilitate the need for so many officers? Apparently not. They ALL stayed there, too, the entire time the sergeant was there.

The sergeant was hardly a go-between. He informed me that I had broken the law. For what, I asked, videoing 2 guys trespassing on a neighbor's property? No, he stated emphatically, the law YOU broke was Disorderly Conduct. This is the generic thing that cops use when they don't have anything to hold against you but they want to make trouble for you. Sorry Charlie, that wasn't working with me, either. The sergeant then stated I had harassed those 2 when I approached them and started yelling at them.

I politely, but emphatically informed the officer that I had never ONCE left my property except to look at the address of my neighbor on her mailbox in case those 2 took their trespassing to a higher level. I also informed the officer that one of them is a meth head - he does nothing but get high all day long and the other is an ex-convict who spent 9 years in prison for selling methamphetamine out of his house. This guy was starting to act as bad as the kid cop who was threatening to shoot my dogs. Well, he stated, I have meth users on my street and I don't have problems with them.

????I'll bet he doesn't! They undoubtedly know he's a cop and they aren't going to go anywhere near him! ROFL!! I asked him if he had them over for dinner? Does he talk to them? Does he WANT to talk to them? Does he have BBQ's with them? Ohhh, nooooo, I don't want anything to with them. Yes, EXACTLY!!! I don't bother with these guys, they have started this crap with ME and kept it going for over 2 years now.

The end? They all left. They weren't getting anywhere with me and if they wanted to arrest me on a bogus charge of disorderly conduct, have at it. Trial by jury and then sue the Phoenix Police Department. I have now written a letter to the chief of police and if that doesn't get anywhere, I'll just have to go down there and ask for an audience with him. Or make an appointment if I have to. Any way about it, I have had enough with cops with attitudes and making up stories so they can try to intimidate you. I have SERIOUS doubts they have any legal authority to remove a lock from a gate and allow themselves onto someone's property unless they have REAL probable cause.