I'm in complete and utter shock about this accusation

[chichi2026]

I don't want to bore everyone with the background (or out myself). Basically, I have been on the receiving end of a long campaign of harassment by my immediate neighbour. I was finally able to give a statement to police at the end of last year - then a few weeks later, her behaviour escalated to racism in January this year and after more waiting, she was charged with racially aggravated harassment. I have no choice but to continue living opposite her and it's been a few months of hell, but at least the Court date is finally approaching later this month. We live in social housing and the landlord has recently (after much lobbying on my part) decided to start legal proceedings against her. It's good news, but too little too late as the impact on me has been horrendous - and I'll probably lose my job as a result of it.

This tenant is younger than me and not the brightest - but she is extremely manipulative and has involved a couple of her friends (also neighbours) to increase the pressure of the harassment on me. It's taken me such a long time to get anyone to believe me about the ongoing situation and I personally feel that I have been disbelieved due to unconscious bias by the housing association. I try to see the best in people and I don't want to think this but I have so many examples of when I have been treated differently in very comparable situations.

My neighbour's friend was out in the garden at just after 3am today and was making a lot of noise. I opened my bedroom window and said (not shouted as I didn't want to wake everyone up) that she was being loud and could she please stop. This neighbour is very aware that her friend is due in Court this month for Racially Aggravated Harassment.

She responded by shouting "what?" and then got her phone out and started filiming (I wasn't, I was just speaking out the window). She started walking towards the area under my window. She then suddenly shouted, "what did you say, did you just call me a white bitch?"

I was totally confused and said no, what was she on about, then she started raising her voice, repeating the accusation loudly whilst still filming. She started fake crying and then looked at me and smirked. I then called 999 to report what had happened.

I can't believe it would be that easy to accuse someone of that and there is unlikely to be any meaningful police response to that. How do I trust the police as a woman of colour, knowing that we are statistically likely to be mistreated, yet the far right have now made out that the police don't care about white people because mistakes were made around one recent situation?

There is a two tier issue and it definitely isn't in the favour of ethnic minority people. If the dickheads protesting didn't attack the police they would have a much easier life.

Nobody wants to hear the reality. Brown or black people who report a crime are not going to get a blue light response. I rang 999 an hour and a half ago and have had nothing from them, even though I said that this person is likely to leave the area. That means that they can leave and I get no justice.

It sounds like you have nightmare neighbours OP. I hope you get justice for the neighbour who has been racially harassing you.
But kindly OP it wouldn’t matter who you are or what you are, no one is going to get a blue light response to what happened you tonight. If you do have to interact with this silly people I would advise having your phone set to record before you do.

Agree with the above that this doesn't sound like an emergency blue light situation. However, it does sound horrendous and I really hope it gets taken seriously. What's the likely outcome in court for racially motivated harassment? Is there a possibility of jail time? Hopefully they can make her move away from you as part of it.

In terms of tonight's incident I would make a log of exactly what happened, including all timings and your reporting of it, on your computer and save it. Try not to panic, you were NOT caught on film saying anything questionable. Conveniently beginning filming after something supposedly happened is evidence of nothing.

You are not getting a blue light response because the incident you reported doesn’t warrant it - 999 is for life-threatening emergencies. I wouldn’t interpret the lack of a blue light response as more evidence of racism. I’m white and once reported a home invasion - just got a follow up letter 2 weeks later saying there wasn’t enough evidence to investigate (they hadn’t tried to collect any - could have interviewed me, taken fingerprints, doorbell footage etc). The Police are just a complete mess.

I am really sorry for what happened to you, but I don’t think anyone would get a rapid response to this sort of event.

You called 999 and expected blue lights for that?

As above, it's a Saturday night, around club kicking out time, the police are going to be busy. They prioritise calls based on urgency and at that time, you were safe in your house, not at immediate risk of coming to any harm. Thats why you weren't a priority at that time, not due to the colour of your skin.

I'm really sorry you've been experiencing this, and fully appreciate the mental and emotional impact it will have had on you too. Do you have any CCTV cameras? If not, I'd be inclined to look at getting some that also record sound, maybe one for the back and one for the frint of your home. I know nothing about them, but they're pretty commonplace now and probably not that expensive.

And then finally, I wouldn't be doing anything to poke the bear. Yes the friend is out making noise at 3am, but is you calling down to her going to make any difference to what she's doing? Very unlikely with people who think that's acceptable in the first place. In fact all it's likely to do is inflame the immediate situation, and encourage them to continue as they can see they're getting a reaction.

Protect yourself and record interactions too. Keep writing everything down. Can you move away? They sound awful.

Childish, immature and a nightmare to live near, but she hasn't actually said anything offensive to you.

You need to ignore OP. If they’re making a noise, just let them. They’re trying to get a reaction and the more you rise, the worse they’ll get. You’ll get your day in court and they’ll be evicted.

I’m sorry you’re going through this. Some people are just oxygen thieves.

Sorry ,but I've never leaned out of my bedroom window at any time of the day or night and told any neighbours to be quiet
And there has been many times they have made noise at night
We have housing association behind us ,80 houses ,they are not quiet people.
But I've never been anything other than smiling and polite and certainly never asked or told them to be quiet... because I know that would be a red rag to a bull.
I like living in harmony with my neighbours .
Also if you knew the woman was a friend of the one going to court,it was obviously designed to get a reaction from you .
.just untill the court case is sorted out ,could you not try to just ignore them ?

If the examples you've seen of 'been treated differently in very comparable situations' include things like your statement that a lack of blue light response in this scenario is a direct result of your skin colour, I'm not certain your opinion can be taken as balanced.

Out of all the neighbours you are the only one that chose to confront the people in the garden. Have they shut their windows, ignoring it or just letting them get on with it because they know it’s a waste of time saying anything? Did you have trouble with your previous neighbours?

Why did you antagonise this woman, knowing what she’s like? The police have enough to deal with on a Saturday night.

You should not have called 999.

From what you’ve described, the friend hasn’t actually
committed an offence so the police definitely aren’t going to send a car on blues.

I appreciate the impact on you considering the history with the friend, but this person isn’t responsible for her friends actions. If she was directly involved in the previous harassment, this would be, at worst, a continuation of harassment. You are safe in your house.

It doesn’t matter if she leaves as you know who she is so if the police consider it to be a continuation of harassment (unlikely given you opened the dialogue and ith her) then it can be dealt with slow time.

But realistically, this isn’t an offence. Nothing to do with your race or the colour of your skin.

You called the emergency services over this!
Seriously that is ridiculous.
I hope you do get justice for what you are going through but do not call 999.
Make a note of the incident and report it with the rest of your grievance to the appropriate department which is handling your complaint.

I am not a woman of colour.
I would never shout out of a window for a neighbour to be quiet. That is one sure way to wind people up. I would expect a rude response in return and that it would hack a neighbour off.
It sounds like a civil dispute, as you haven’t really given out any information which would warrant police involvement.
This isn’t about colour. This is about annoying neighbours and you thinking it’s because of your skin colour. Have you tried mediation and to move on from all this?

Exactly this! Why antagonise them?

Scary what you’re going through but as others have said if you know people are troublesome just stay away! Sadly this is what Mobile phones are used to now, to catch people when they’re stressed and make false accusations. Personally I’d say move, people will say that’s letting them win but I think it’s just letting yourself live in peace

Hi OP. You have been the subject of racism and hostility that most of us here have never, and will never, experience. You’ve been very brave to pursue it through to the court hearing in the teeth of indifference from the authorities. I feel for you.

Like others, I don’t think that dialing 999 for this incident was warranted, unfortunately, I remember once in my previous home, I was speaking to a near neighbour in the block of flats about a disagreement, which I now can’t even remember anything about. We’d always got on perfectly well in the past. We weren’t raising voices but he suddenly said loudly “don’t call me stupid“. I was really taking aback by this because I hadn’t called him stupid, I didn’t even think that he was stupid, though after this incident I did think he was an idiot, but that’s by the by. What I did was carry on talking and tell him calmly that I hadn’t told him he was stupid that he must’ve misheard and did he realise that it was me he was talking to and that we’ve been speaking amicably as neighbours for years. To this day, I’ve no idea why he did it but the key to responding was not to raise my voice and not to give like for like.

There is an expression “don’t poke a pole cat“. In the circumstances I would just have nothing at all to do with this neighbour or her friends. I sympathise about the noise because noise gets me down, too and at 3 in the morning it must’ve been awful.

I once got chased by a guy down a dark street and only just managed to get away before he grabbed me. Police didn’t even attend when I called 999, follow up interview about a week later. I’m white. In any event, if you are having issues with your neighbours why would you lean out of a window and ask them to be quiet? Surely you knew this would escalate?

Knowing there is a soon to be court date you were rather naive to ask your neighbour's friend to be quiet.
And no i wouldn't expect the police to respond, in fact I'd wonder where their priorities lay if they did.

I hope you are soon rid of your racist neighbour, good luck.

I think we can all appreciate what it's like to be living on the edge of your nerves all the time about what 'might' happen, which I think would be behind your automatic dialing of 999.

But no, it doesn't warrant an immediate response because it would be highly unlikely that even the most immediate response would 'catch them in the act'.

And I also question whether addressing your neighbour (or her friends) in ANY way in the middle of the night would end positively. Did it not cross your mind that they were doing it on purpose? To wind you up, to get a response they could react to? Keeping your head down, recording every interaction and being totally and utterly blameless in every single situation is the only way forward.

You’ve played right into their hands by shouting out of the window. It was obviously deliberate and meant to get a reaction from you. It sounds absolutely horrendous what you’ve been through but knowing the court case is approaching, I would have not shouted at her in the circumstances. Hopefully nightmare neighbour will be evicted soon and you can have a peaceful life .