NextDoor: Facebook Cyberbullying App

Everyone knows that Wiccans don't cooperate. 

Today I am thankful that I discovered the way people abuse NextDoor.

I knew about NextDoor.  I avoided it because of the stalking thing.  Too many people were posting pictures, names and ages of their children.   People even posted the names of their dogs.

I did not want my neighbors to be too familiar with the stalker.  I didn't want Mike, Doug (or another of Michael's relatives) running up to the neighbor's three year old and saying "Hey...Brian!"

No.....Brian is not his real name.

I certainly don't want them making friends with the neighbors' dogs. 

I went to Google and ran the description and location of the guy that ran into my backyard.  I found a post on NextDoor.  A neighbor down the block posted about a man wearing similar garb trying to pick his front lock about 90 minutes before he was in my yard.

Then I heard about the cyberbullying.  Another neighbor told me about my neighbor's crazy posts. 

So, the little gun-toting dude and his wife next door use NextDoor to cyberbully the neighbors.  I'm being told that my other neighbors tell them to "knock it off" and the asshats delete their posts. 

They list their hobbies as beer.....very nice.

It actually explains a lot.

They also list the names and ages of their children.  I hope they take that down. People are nuts.  Nutty people tend to attract nuttier people.  Violent and threatening people tend to attract the same kind of people, too.

I don't think they want that kind of attention. 

*****

I saw that the PAR officer wants us to start a neighborhood watch.  We did that once in 2002-2004.  I was the door to door recruiter.  I spent countless days in the sun knocking on doors and inviting people to our meetings.

It was fun. It felt like campaigning. 

Then, as the child development specialist, I was the free neighborhood babysitter.  I kept the kids busy while their parents spoke.

At the time George W. Bush started a program where neighborhood watch affiliates would get stipends for advertising and reporting.

We were promised $500.  We bought decals for every home in anticipation of the money. 

One day, in August of 2004, my favorite college professor wanted to meet with me one last time.  He was dying.  I missed the neighborhood watch meeting because I visiting with him in Boulder to say good-bye. 

I have the strangest luck of living right across the street from another professor.  She's a gossip.  Most of my professors knew what was going on.  They knew years before I figured it out - Mike was having his family stalk me.

My dying professor, on that last visit, gave me his stack of hypnotic letters he used to write to politicians to try to get them to stop the Vietnam war.  He also urged me to get a divorce.  This was 2004.  He'd been trying to get me out of that house since 1999 because Shannon was obviously stalking me.  They figured it out when she tried to get a job in the psychology department.  When they asked her why she wanted the job, she proceeded to tell them that she needed the job to "force [me] to talk to [her]."

Yeah.....they had it all figured out a long, long time ago.

The final day I spent with my professor was the day a police officer came into another professor's home (the one who lives right across the street) and shut our meeting down.

I wasn't there to do my hypnosis thingy. It probably wouldn't have mattered. 

That professor is a psychologist, master hypnotist and an NLP specialist.  She said she pleaded with the police officer but he had a gun and threatened people with arrest.

They sent me an email. 

I came home.  Checked my email and proceeded to chew out our City Councilman.

The councilman promised answers.  I told him to apologize to the host of the meeting and explain why the peace officers behaved the way they did.

I was told that the police officer thought we were a vigilante group.  The city wanted the money promised to us by the NSA.

Now they are wondering why we are the only neighborhood without a watch.

That incident is why we don't have one. 

Many of us have lived here nearly two decades.

We remember what Aurora officials did to us. 

How do we know that they won't shut us down?

How do we know they won't threaten us with arrest?

Yes, I've thought about trying again.  I just don't trust that Aurora will be transparent.  I can't even get them to return telephone calls about city code, homeless volunteer opportunities or stalking.....(on caveat, neighborhood services is good to everyone...so far).

My US Congressman has people return my calls 100% of the time and they OFFER solutions.

My council person....well, he's not so invested in re-election.  He plays nice to your face....but....my sense is that no one cares enough to find answers.

It's sad that the only way I think anything is going to be done is if I do it myself.  Yes, I am still thinking about throwing my hat into the ring.

I've got too many fires to put out now.

It's overwhelming.

******

I have a hunch that this app is where the PAR officer is getting his information now.  That could explain a lot. 

The squeaky cowards living to the west of me are harassing my other neighbors (the house to the east) on social media.  They also harass them in real life, too.  I always wondered how my neighbors knew who reported them to the police and code enforcement trying to get them evicted.  Well, they knew because the harassment tended to co-occur on NextDoor.

Color me stupid....I didn't think bullies would be that overt. 
 
Only an idiot bitches on social media using his or her name.  If they do that to the wrong people, I fear what would happen to them.

The problem with peace officers focusing on one source of information is that it is skewed to one type of demographic.  People who use social media ALL of the time are going to have different characteristics and perception filters than those who will call, those who write and those who drive down to visit the station to report problems. 

I love the posts where the police urge us to call dispatch to report problems.

Um.....

Dispatch argues too match.

I had a guy taking photos through my windows asking personal questions about my relationship with Michael.  He claimed to be with my insurance company.

It took awhile but the insurance company came back and said it was not their employee and urged me to call the cops.  I did and was informed that my ex was "messing with my head."

No officer came out. 

***

I called the police when the neighbors were arguing about parking in front of my house.  I had a migraine and could not see very well.  They refused to send an officer unless I could provide detailed descriptions of the parties and their cars. 

I wound up outside in the cold and broke up the fight myself. 

The cops didn't show up.

Look what we have now!!! An asshole with a gun threatening people who park in front of my house.  He's done a damn good job of it too.  When they do park in front of my house, they're so afraid of this guy that THEY BLOCK MY DRIVEWAY so they give the asshole neighbor enough room to have his buddies park in front of my house.

I'm thinking of parking my car in front of my house from now on so I can exit and leave my property easier. 

As I look outside, the asshat neighbor has two cars in front of my home.  I'm blocked in. 

It's a good thing I have nowhere to be right now. 

***
Several years ago, I overheard a couple fighting and heard a loud smack and crying.

I called the cops.

They came out but took so damn long the couple was gone.

There were times, when I'd call the police after catching Shannon picking the lock or dealing with someone turning on my garden hose and banging on the door when I'd be reminded of that call and told that there was nothing to it.

I think that is why they ignore me.  They probably don't take the others seriously.

That's okay.  I understand that I am responsible for my own safety.  

Ignoring me and making the officers' habit of making excuses for not taking reports is  partly why I don't call anymore.  I have taken my phone and laptops to the police station during hacking events.  They just tell me to buy new ones.

There are no reports taken.  Sometimes they say that it's just a guy playing with me and he'll stop if he doesn't get attention.  Filing a police report gives him attention.  Once I was told that they won't take police reports because the DA refuses to prosecute stalking unless it is egregious.

That DA wants to be governor.  It's NOT going to happen. 

I have called the detective that specializes in domestic violence and stalking.  She spoke to me once and told me to divorce my ex.  I've called her when things get super creepy.  She never calls me back.

Divorcing my ex didn't help the situation because he refused to leave.  Aurora would not help me with that.  I had to get advice from the county.  The Arapahoe County and Adams County sheriffs did more to help me end the stalking than my local police department.

My ex's mother lived in Adams County.   There were threats made against my mother-in-law.  The Sheriff took a few hours and called me back to inform me that it was ruse and that all of these people were working together to help my ex-husband.  He urged me to get a restraining order against all of the players. 

The Arapahoe County Sheriff told me how to evict my ex and stay safe while doing it. 

I'm hoping that the stalking is finally over.

I don't know that it is.

I think my ex will always keep tabs on me.  His methods may change, though. 

My biggest lesson from all of this is that we are responsible for our own safety.

*****
I just signed up for NextDoor only because if I follow the gun toting idiot and his wife, I can get a sense of when things will escalate again so that I can take appropriate action before he gets out of hand.

I think there is domestic violence.  It's probably fueled by alcohol.  If so, the violence will be cyclical in nature.  Getting a heads up on when the violence builds will help me know when to keep my eyes and ears open for trouble.

This guy acts out and gets quiet for awhile.  Maybe if I can figure out the cycle, I can head it off. 

*****
The worst part of it all is that, in talking to the neighbors, I've learned that the guy who ran into my yard had removed a screen and was prying on the window of a young lady's bedroom prior to hopping the fence leading to my yard.

I am afraid his intention wasn't to steal anything.  He could have had a deadlier motive.

These neighbors are too afraid to call the police because they are the ones the PAR officer came out to threaten with eviction.

THIS IS WHY POLICE OFFICERS DON'T PLAY THE ROLE OF CODE ENFORCEMENT!!!

Police officers don't want to lose rapport with people who see crime in progress.  That PAR officer needs to know what is going on in the area.  If we have a rapist, the PAR officer needs to know.  They described the face of the assailant to me. 

I'm thinking this may not be just a petty thief.  The houses he targeted have young women in them.

I could be wrong.

It's best to get a whole picture.  You can't get that if you're not listening to everybody who knows something.  Don't depend on one source of information.  Don't lose rapport with your information sources. 

At first, I just thought the guy in the backyard was connected to my ex. When I heard the neighbor's story, I thought it was their roommate's boyfriend trying to sneak into the house for nooky.  When I look at the other things being said around the neighborhood, I'm thinking it's something more sinister (theft or even rape).

The worst part of it is that the renters refuse to tell the police officers because they're terrified of further wrath from the code enforcement department. 

I didn't see it.  The guy didn't threaten me. 

This is why I bought another camera system which will keep footage available for the police if needed.

*****
I was told that I'm a target because I'm the only person on my block without a dog.  I can't get a dog because of my allergies.

If I can work through the allergies, I'll get a service dog or two.



This video cracks me up because it reminds me that government officials forget, quite often, that there are higher powers that don't answer to them. In cleaning up Mike's stuff I found several pages of nasty crap his former boss at the city, Danielle P., posted about us in the forums of local papers.  The local government excused her crap until they were sued.  The local government isn't the be all and end all in the chain of command, there are higher powers (including courts).  I wish they'd figure that out. 


I'm teasing about my desired service dog being a hell hound. If fate puts an albino dog in my path, I'm adopting him or her just to scare the pants off of superstitious people.  It'll be worth the epi-pen. 

Besides, I am allegedly a witch. 

Who says I don't have pets that protect my home now?  





Love ya lots,


S.