Police refuse to help a Black family being harassed with racial slurs and monkey sounds by their white neighbor.
The Martinez family of Virginia Beach, VA, moved into their dream home five years ago on Jessamine Court. However, their once quiet neighborhood is now a nightmare caused by a white neighbor who blasts racial sound effects and monkey noises throughout the day to intimidate the family. Jannique and John Martinez have been dealing with the racist neighbor for almost the entire time they’ve lived in the house.
“We noticed a little erratic behavior like these blinking lights that are on a sensor. When my family or any other family leaves or returns to their homes, they all start to blink,” Jannique explained before adding that once the sensors are activated, the racist music begins, and the neighbor switches it according to which neighbor activated the system.
According to the family, the monkey sounds are a relatively new occurrence. They are blasted through a window roughly every 15 to 30 seconds or whenever the Martinez family is coming or going. Multiple neighbors in the cul-de-sac have notified the police. However, no action is being taken.
Virginia Beach police confirmed that they received two noise complaints about the neighbor on September 14th and 15th. On September 16th, Jannique says she began to hear a sound bite of the “n-word” being played loudly from the home. After calling the police again, she was told there was nothing they could do to stop the neighbor from deliberately taunting them with the sounds, despite the city’s ordinance stating that it is a Class 3 misdemeanor to play “excessive sound.” They suggested that Jannique escalate the situation to the Virginia Beach Magistrate Office, telling her that they could do nothing.
In a statement to CNN, the Virginia Beach Police Department said that while the neighbor’s actions are “appalling,” they are not “criminally actionable.”
As for the Martinez family, the feeling of hopelessness is overwhelming. Jannique says she and her husband feel they have failed their children by placing them in this environment and are considering putting them in therapy to deal with the constant racism they are forced to experience at home.
“I actually felt like, helpless a little bit. Because I’ve gone to the magistrate, I’ve gone to civil court, I’ve talked to a lawyer. I’ve done what I can to do it the right way,” Jannique stated.
The neighbor has not responded to multiple media inquiries.
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This is truly one of the most heinous examples of racist neighbors that I have heard. While the Virginia Beach police seem to be taking a bizarrely inert posture on this, a local jury is likely to be far more sympathetic to the Martinez family.
The Martinez family’s best recourse is to file a civil suit for Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress against this racist neighbor. The incessant blasting of offensive music and racist language clearly directed at them easily meets the standard of “outrageous actions calculated to inflict severe emotional distress”. And clearly the Martinez family has suffered severe and sustained emotional distress as a proximate result.
Attorneys outraged by this horrific situation aren’t free to solicit the Martinez family to file the action, but the family should have little trouble finding attorneys willing to take the case, most likely on a contingent fee basis though they may be asked to pay some modest court filing fees at the outset.
Given the affluence of the neighborhood, the racist most likely has sufficient assets to make a case economically feasible in the eyes of many plaintiff attorneys who would take on cases with far less justification than this.
Right back isn’t cheating. Blacks have been running neighborhoods for decades. I’m glad someone’s finally standing up to keep there neighborhood up.
You’re glad some racist is standing up to a couple of veterans that fought for their country, and who are just trying to live in peace? That’s truly a pathetic way to think..