I'll get to the recap later today, but have to take a rabbit trail for a moment to tell you about the mayhem that occurred outside my house last night. I know what you're thinking, "Oh lawdy not the neighbors again". Oh no. Not the ones downstairs and not the metal heads, but this time the fake rapper and his girlfriend. Here's how it all went down. Note: Usually I wouldn't bring this up, but I think attention should be brought to violence. Especially violence against women.
There I was all prepped with blanket, a bowl of cherries and the DVR when I heard the following:
"EFF (the full word, but for the sake of blog semi-cleanliness I'll just use eff) you Gary! Get the eff out my house b*tch. I mean it GET OUT." bang clank slam bang clank slam bang clank slam "I MEAN IT GARY OUT NOW!!" What on earth has happened to my neighborhood? "You mf, this, that and the other thing. Get away from me Gary!! Do not come near me, just GET OUT NOW! I am tired of you calling me names and threatening me. I'm a professional, I'm too good for this. I'm up here and you're down there--this has to stop once and for all."
At this point I get up to look out the window into Pat's yard (those little attached bungalows) to find the chronic smoking neighbors in a full on brawl. She's throwing his stuff out the door and he's hauling it back in. Rinse and repeat. Until he assumes position in the doorway and turns the tables on her. She can't get back in. This is the same nasty guy who was trying to rap to the death metal of the other neighbors when I had the whiteout and ripped them all a new one. I knew he was a hitter. Don't ask me how I knew, I just did. Cut to scene and he shoves her out the door locking her out, lifts the blinds and refuses to leave HER HOUSE. She's scared of him and you can tell. I watched him shove her and threaten her. This ended in me calling 911, her leaving and HIM calling 911 to cover his own tracks.
I called the Police three times tonight. She would leave and come back and this maniac would not let her into her own home. He would throw things at her out the window and she would leave. The police would come and he would lie to them blaming her. It's so telltale it's revolting and you think they would recognize the pattern by now, right?? One time he met the Police in the street and they didn't even get out of their car. He was going off so loudly I could hear with just a window open in my house...yet they still just drove away and left him alone. IN HER HOME. On the 3rd visit they finally went to the door and he proceeded to holler about how she on antidepressants, has anger management issues (pot/kettle), how she got mad because he was playing a song(?), and that he tried to "calm her down", but she just left. Oh yeah and "I don't live here. It's not my place. I don't have a job--well I actually I'm a martial arts teacher (ahem beater) but should have a job this week." He tells everyone and their mother that he's a martial arts teacher--including the mailman. I overheard him again the other day higher than a kite in the backyard. I mean how many of his own statements--which are basic admissions to guilt-- in addition to his yelling, screaming and puffs of marijuana smoke should have had this guy in the back of the car hauled in for questioning and possible charges on domestic violence?? Finally I called the Police again to explain what was really going on from the point of view of a sane neighbor who had been witnessing this all evening and you know what the 911 operator said to me--wait for it:
"It seems to us based on his account that she's the problem. We only have his account and he's the only one sticking around to give it." Pause for a moment and absorb this.
What in the hell was this guy talking about? They had/have my account - a front row witness. A sober person --and one of several neighbors who called on her behalf. If she would have slowed down I would have yanked her into my house.
This 911 operator proceeded to tell me that even though the guy doesn't live there because he's been staying there they consider it his home and won't remove him. Even better? They believe him--because he's the one who has stayed to talk to them. I just lost it. What kind of rationale is that? The guilty sick bastards always stay around. Scott Peterson much? This guy next door is a name caller, a pusher, a shover, a drug abusing, out of control individual who is now squatting in the home of the woman he abuses and the 911 operator thinks this same guy is in the right. Someone pass me an antidepressant.
Here is where our system is broken. Here is where women end up dead after calling 911 so many times and having zero protection from the law. When is this ever going to change? How many bodies will it take? This 911 operator was clearly discriminating against the female and siding with the male. He called HER out of control. HER. I could barely contain myself when I responded, "Sir with all due respect this woman is terrified of this man when he gets angry and she should be. I have overheard him berate her with the most profane language in the six weeks they have lived here. I have watched him smoke massive amounts of marijuana in the yard daily. I have witnessed him harass a 72 year old woman and her husband to such an extent they no longer sit in their own yard. I have heard her ask him not to push her, to get his hands off of her. And now tonight I watched him forcefully remove her from her home and you're telling me because she is scared to stay and talk to you for fear of what this man will do to her she is in the wrong and he is in the right. Am I understanding you correctly?"
And this person responded...yes.
As a survivor of domestic violence I am disgusted that nothing has changed in the past 15 years. Nothing. I can only hope she has a car to sleep in or else she's on the street tonight while that sick bastard sleeps in her bed. What is wrong with this picture? If you are brave enough to discuss it I want to know if you have ever experienced the same problems getting the Police to help out in a domestic violence situation. It is appalling the way they repeatedly side with the abuser. And if you don't want to say anything that's okay too.
We will resume regular Bachelorette trash talk later this afternoon.