Is Parking in a Public Culdesac Illegal

[v0510]

My question involves personal property located in the State of: Missouri

My friend‘s neighborhood has a trail and its entrance is in a culdesac. Me, him, and maybe two or three other people like to get into my car to drive to the other side of the neighborhood to use said trail. I parallel park my car with the right wheels by the curb and always make sure I’m not blocking a driveway, mailbox, sidewalk, fire hydrant, etc. No music being blasted, no drugs, nothing other than a group of friends parking to skate on a trail.
There’s a family(mom,dad,son) who’s property ends about 10-15ft away from my car. They all have called me names, threatened to hurt me and my friends, and threatened to vandalize my car. They claim that we’re going to the trail to commit crimes and that I’m parking illegally, which is completely false.
They called Platte County Sheriffs claiming that I drove my 4.7 thousand pound, top heavy car around the small culdesac in the rain at over 25 mph and said I was doing drug-related business, when really I was waiting for another friend’s dad to get home so my friend could come hang out and if I went that fast around the culdesac I would’ve either tipped over or slid off the road. The sheriffs let us go after searching and not finding anything illegal.
Is parking in a friend’s public neighborhood’s public culdesac illegal? Can I report them for harassment if I collect proof of the threats they’ve given to us and my property?

[adjusterjack]

Is parking in a friend’s public neighborhood’s public culdesac illegal?

No.

But you obviously pissed off a lunatic.

Can I report them for harassment if I collect proof of the threats they’ve given to us and my property?

Report to who or what?

You're a stranger in the neighborhood. Nobody's going to take your complaints seriously. And if somebody damages your car while it's unattended there will be no witnesses and you'll have no proof as to who did it.

Use some common sense. Find another place to skate.

This is not about "rights."

[v0510]

I have a dash camera and the neighborhood has surveillance so it probably wouldn’t be too difficult to prove who damaged my car if it ever came down to that. I just want to know if I have the right to report them to local police for harassment if their harassment continues and I get evidence of the discriminating things they’ve said each time I’ve parked my car there. I wouldn’t consider myself a stranger to the neighborhood when I’ve been hanging out there for years. I’m not going to stop skating on my favorite public trail that all my friends go to because some entitled family doesn’t like me.

[llworking]

I have a dash camera and the neighborhood has surveillance so it probably wouldn’t be too difficult to prove who damaged my car if it ever came down to that. I just want to know if I have the right to report them to local police for harassment if their harassment continues and I get evidence of the discriminating things they’ve said each time I’ve parked my car there. I wouldn’t consider myself a stranger to the neighborhood when I’ve been hanging out there for years. I’m not going to stop skating on my favorite public trail that all my friends go to because some entitled family doesn’t like me.

Well, you could always pay an attorney to write a cease and desist letter threatening to report them for harassment if they don't leave you alone. That might be enough to make them rethink their behavior. However, don't count on it working, and I don't think that they have gone far enough yet where the police would take it seriously.

I do however know of a woman out in the real world who tended to harass people in similar ways, and she did eventually get arrested. She spent 30 days in jail and then got probation, and one of the conditions of her probation was that she was not allowed to report anybody, to anybody, for anything, period.

[adjusterjack]

I have a dash camera and the neighborhood has surveillance so it probably wouldn’t be too difficult to prove who damaged my car if it ever came down to that. I just want to know if I have the right to report them to local police for harassment if their harassment continues and I get evidence of the discriminating things they’ve said each time I’ve parked my car there. I wouldn’t consider myself a stranger to the neighborhood when I’ve been hanging out there for years. I’m not going to stop skating on my favorite public trail that all my friends go to because some entitled family doesn’t like me.

I said use common sense. You obviously don't have any since you want to escalate the hostilities with the lunatic. Keep doing what you are doing. Take your pictures. Report what you want to report to whoever you want to report it to (you have that right).

There are better ways to handle this. Park further away. Or ride bikes to the trail and chain your bikes to a tree while you enjoy your skating.

[v0510]

Well, you could always pay an attorney to write a cease and desist letter threatening to report them for harassment if they don't leave you alone. That might be enough to make them rethink their behavior. However, don't count on it working, and I don't think that they have gone far enough yet where the police would take it seriously.

I do however know of a woman out in the real world who tended to harass people in similar ways, and she did eventually get arrested. She spent 30 days in jail and then got probation, and one of the conditions of her probation was that she was not allowed to report anybody, to anybody, for anything, period.

I wouldn’t report them to enforcement unless they actually did end up damaging my car or hurt me or my friends. If it continues I’m going to try to get proof then I might look into that cease and desist letter depending on how much I’d have to pay. Isn’t there also something in the law about wasting enforcement’s time? Like if somebody calls the police a certain amount of times for the same reasons and the police prove that the people they reported aren’t doing anything wrong every time, they’re wasting resources or something?

I said use common sense. You obviously don't have any since you want to escalate the hostilities with the lunatic. Keep doing what you are doing. Take your pictures. Report what you want to report to whoever you want to report it to (you have that right).

There are better ways to handle this. Park further away. Or ride bikes to the trail and chain your bikes to a tree while you enjoy your skating.

I don’t want to escalate the hostilities with that family. I want to freely and legally park my car on a public curb at the head of a trail without having to worry about the lunatics smashing my windows. I don’t want to stop using a public trail because one family in the whole neighborhood has a problem with my car (which is clean and aesthetically pleasing IMHO) being parked 10ft from their property. If I stopped doing innocent and fun things every time some Karen and her minions had something negative to say, I wouldn’t really have any innocent and fun things to do.
I’m not going to ride my bike to a trail that’s a 20 minute drive from my house using the highway, let alone with 2 longboards. There isn’t really anywhere else I can park my car unless I want to park in front of someone’s property. The empty part of that culdesac is the only space big enough for my car to sit without being in front of someone’s house.

[hr for me]

are there any signs on who owns the trail? It's possible it is NOT public and only for the use of homeowners and their guests. So you might be careful about using it ONLY when you are the guest of someone who actually lives in the neighborhood. (Just be careful about your assumption that the trail is public -- it might be or it might be owned by the HOA/subdivision)...

The common place to park would be either in parking spaces near the trail or at your friend's home. This cul de sac doesn't sound like it's meant for parking if only one car can fit at a time.