At about 2:30 p.m., I was suffering from one of my medication-induced coughing fits. When I say "coughing fit", it is the kind that turns you red in the face, almost unable to breathe. It's one that can't be stopped by a cough drop or syrup. It subsides when it subsides, and you hope you live through it.
While I was having this coughing fit, the children next door saw fit to bang on the wall. It increased in duration and intensity while I continued to suffer. And after my fit subsided, they persisted in aggravating me.
I was so furious that I decided "no more cops". I stomped over there, hammered on their door as hard as I could with my knuckles (made sure I hurt for a few minutes), and confronted the NOT A PARENT that answered the door. We're talking about a youth that's not old enough to have birthed four to five other children.
She was understandably terrified while I scowled at her, even though my only intention was to say, "If your children have a problem with my coughing fits, then they need to just get over it. I can't help it." I stormed off back to my apartment, and all was quiet again.
So what the officers have been told, "Oh no, Mr. Officer, my little angels have been sitting here watching TV with me the whole time," has been nothing but lies. If those "little dears" are so "innocent," then the banging racket should persist even after the confrontation. It's the simplest of logic, for goodness sake! Only the perpetrators would stop if they had a bear-sized angry woman at the door.
I've seen their mother a time or two over the past year. And last night, I caught a glimpse of their father for the first time. I knew it was the father, because he had the same voice that was yelling at Mommy about them losing their children.
What I suspect is happening: their parents work and leave the younglings alone with the eldest daughter. The eldest daughter does nothing to make her siblings stop. Nor does Mommy when the police tell her they need to cut it out.
Now for those of you that like saying, "Kids will be kids. What's your problem?" In my own defense, there's another family to the other side of me. The worst I've heard is a little banging of the pantry doors during meal times. I normally have to be in the kitchen to even hear it. And yes, that family has children too. Sweet-dispositioned children I have no complaints at all with the other set of neighbors sharing the same building floor with me. They behave like decent people. It's the other family (the ones I confronted today) that just aren't "getting it", that after a few visits from the cops, you'd better Knock. Off. The. Noise!
