Harassment By Neighbor

[jpres]

I am in Louisiana and am writing to ask what my two friends can do about a neighbor across their street. The victims are a father and son who face daily grief from the a woman who calls the police on them constantly, and without warrant. The father has a heart condition and the son is 40 with a much younger mentality and are being bullied by what seems to be a miserable woman who is obsessesed with their every move.
An uncle has control over their affairs and recieves calls by the woman saying things like they are giving their groceries away and letting people live with them, all of which is not true. Her intent is to anger the uncle and cause fights.
She also sits on her porch and calls the son obsene words as he leaves for his grass cutting jobs. He is much to afraid to even defend himself out of fear of her calling the police on HIM. He is even afraid to have any company over for fear it will set her off to cause trouble. Every time the police HAVE been called they leave without incident because nothing had been done but I dont understand why they dont get frustrated with the abuse of police resources and reprimand the woman for false or unwarranted 911 calls.
Please help I am very disturbed by the way these two harmless men are being taken advantage of and abused. Where and what should they do, they feel desparate and like prisoners in their own home.

[aardvarc]

It would seem like, as you suggest, the police would be frustrated with her repeated unfounded complaints. Next time they show up, ask them about it.

We had an older woman here who used to call 911 about every other morning (around 4:30 am) in hysterics that someone was trying to break into her apartment. Of course we responded code 3, only to get there and have her not answer the door. As it turns out, she was almost completely deaf and couldn't hear the officers knocking on her door with flashlights. We'd have to call her back (her phone ringing made her lamps flash so she knew to put in her hearing aid and answer the phone). Obviously she WASN'T hearing burglars - she simply wanted someone to come over and have a cup of coffee with her and this was her tactic for accomplishing a visit. For a while, when things were quiet, officers would just go over to "check on her" in the early morning hours. That stopped the 911 calls until we could locate her family and get her some additional attention to divert her away from using emergency services.

If her intent in this case is to anger the uncle, then the uncle has the ability to stop taking her calls. Immediately and indefinately. As long as her behavior continues to be rewarded, it will continue.