Terrible People

[Kamrom]

People are jerks. Like, a lot of the time. But usually theres a reason: hatred, jealousy, betrayal, confusion, and even outright malice. Im pretty sure we all have had those moments many many times. "We", as in 90% or so of humanity, know there are limits, and know what we do is hostile by design. Im not talking about these people, who simply exhibit all the signs of being human. There is a subset, one so completely devoid of understanding, that it instantly saps your faith in humanity. My Neighbors are such people.

These people are amazing. Two young adults with a boy and girl, living In a not very spacious two bedroom apartment. Their kids spend a lot of the time either trapping and torturing small animals or riding their bikes all over a busy parking lot right before dark. The glaring lights from a school make it hard to see anything except the lights, or the lights reflected off the rows ofparked cars. The children (6 and 4 years old) didnt even wear helmets, elt alone reflectors. They routinely let these kids stay up to 2, 3 in the morning on school nights, the whole of extended family activity seeming to be devoid of friction.

They have one of those awful little weiner dogs. Which is weird, because this family seems..a tad poor, and those dogs are expensive and the massive deposit needed for pets ( Manangement intentionally discouraging keeping pets, for reasons that will be clear soon.) is in the 10K range. This dog barks and growls and yaps incredibly loudly at anything within its line of sight. This usually ends up with me, on a second story balcony, being screamed at by a dog on the ground floor even though it sees me there many, many MANY times a day, for three years. It goes after anyone. When it does, they of course just shout "SHUT UP" to the dog, in the same, loud tone, not even kinda realising that validates the dog's barking...This form of 'training" is about as wrong as you can get without it turning into that awful plant Tamagotchi.

Our Mnagement issued a complex wide message directed at these neighbors between the lines, informing 'everyone' that it was against the rules to take your dogs out onto the shared lawn/picnic/grill/gazebo area, as these neighbors were one sidewalk square-lengths away from the public area, and their dog would do this nine, ten times a day, and they NEVER cleaned up. Sometimes the boy did, but no one else, and even that was rare. They were told, specificly, to do it in the designated area behind the complex. This was a whole 30 FEET away, so of course they ignored it and went about it to this day.

They honk their horns. A lot. Not for warning. It is used as a form of casual conversation, that can only ever relay information that is already known to the recipient BEFORE the message is sent! Basically, imagine two family members visiting, each with their own truck. They tend to leave at the same time, coming by at least weekly, more in the holidays. As the apartment dwellers wave goodbye to the other family members, they BOTH start honking their horns rapidly, to announce their departure, as they are being watched depart. This happens many times a week to soem degree or another.

This baffles me so much I want to cry. Heres why: 1) Their whole system, the whole reason they are able to do it, is because 99% would never even *consider* acting like that. They seem to have zero awareness of this idea, never even considering why no one else in the entire tightly packed, three-building apartment complex that acts as a massive echo chamber (I can hear people in the next building, a school about 200 feet away, talk when they come into their parking lot with astounding clarity from my position.) Nor did they ever consider why no one, anyone, ever, but them does this. They seem to be unable to determine even one of the infinitely numerous reasons they should know to not do crap like that.

the children are unsupervised and scream and hit thigns with metal bats constantly, the dad tries to bum cigarettes from me, the mom hides inside, and as anadded bonus, they leave their patio door open so we can hear them yelling and the dog barking well past midnight.

How. I mean..just...HOW?! I cant even sort of begin to fathom the most marginal thread of potential obscured, triple-locked, bleached and frayed and beaten form of logic that would allow not one, but well over six people total to act in such an utterly extreme level of blissfully unaware antagonism with everyone around them. I die a little inside thinking about this.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I am assuming you live in the US. Here's why; that family you described is behaving like the United States of America.

[Jenne]

I think we've all either grown up around folks like that or known folks like that in our lives.  The negligent to their children (seemingly, by the way, but it sounds like a good case if their kids are up at all hours before school the next morning and unsupervised in a busy parking lot), loud, surly, obnoxious, rude, unnoticing of public displays of this, uncaring about making public areas unsafe or unclean, and just generally trashy people. 

...but are all people this way?  no.  Can all people BE this way, in one way or another.  Ie believe so, yes.  What keeps "society" and "civilization" devolving into a puddle of "terrible people"?  The rejection of these practices and living by example.  When they bum cigs, ask them to pick up their dog poo, tell them their kids are riding unsafely in the parking lot, let them know that it's rude to make loud noises late at night.

If they want something from you, you can shape their public discourse by withholding.  And complain more to the management.

[hooplala]

Kamrom, you seem to spend a lot of time observing the actions of your neighbors.

To paraphrase Charlie Sheen in Ferris Beuller's Day Off:  Your problem is you.  You oughta spend a little more time dealing with yourself and a little less time worrying about what your neighbors do.

[Jenne]

Kamrom, you seem to spend a lot of time observing the actions of your neighbors.

To paraphrase Charlie Sheen in Ferris Beuller's Day Off:  Your problem is you.  You oughta spend a little more time dealing with yourself and a little less time worrying about what your neighbors do.

This occured to me as well, but some apartment dwelling spaces, you do have to interact with your neighbors, depending on how it's set up, like my mom and dad's place.  So it's good to be "personable" or at least polite so you have minimum assness going on while you're trying to live your life inside your own box.  Some people, of course, it's best to just AVOID.  

Sounds like Kamrom's neighbors are mostly loud and obnoxious--not really criminally violent or dangerous.  You can get around being annoyed by loud people who let their kids run wild with mild suggestions as a friendly neighbor, sometimes...depending on the acquaintanceship...

[hooplala]

Frame them for a crime, problem solved.

[Jenne]

Frame them for a crime, problem solved.

  not sure if you meant that tongue in cheek, ironically, or just amusingly--I took it as a funny.

[hooplala]

Mostly funny, but hey, if its really getting to him/her... it might be worth it.

[Jenne]

Well, the first paragraphh of the OP seems to indicate these people sorta ruin his/her life, a lot...so you're probably right that there's a lot of time spent watching/dealing with/thinking about these folks.  Might be time to move/get too busy to care.