doomer

While the cops suck, of course, they are the only tool that is allowed to us to deal with situations like this. Don't feel bad for calling them when it was the only option you had left. Try to get some sleep, and if you can't, see if you can stay with a friend for a night or two.

We want to replace the police with better institutions, but while those institutions don't exist, you work with what you got. You are not a bad person for doing what you have to to get a basic biological need.

Scary situation with no 100% wins for you either way. Take care.

what's the alternative? shoot him?

Don't fret, comrade. A simple noise complaint call to the cops is nothing to worry about. Sounds like your neighbour is a wanker anyway.

I, too, have had to call the cops on my neighbour (although he was actually violent and a threat to everyone around him) - I mean, you don't really have anyone else to call, right?

Not your fault. Relax. and try to get some sleep

My rule for calling the cops is “Will adding an armed, paranoid maniac to this situation improve things?”

And for a noise complaint when you’ve already tried to handle it yourself, the answer is unfortunately yes. It’d be much better if there was someone else that could be called to fix the situation, but the armed paranoid maniac is the only option available to you. Thats not your fault. You’re just doing your best with the options available.

No you're not a terrible person your neighbour is a terrible person.

Nah. It sucks and acab etc. etc. but there have been times where I have had to call the cops.

We don't have community policing which is capable of supplanting the police force nor a police force under the dictatorship of the proletariat and, until we do, unfortunately there are going to be situations that require police intervention. That's just the nature of the grim reality that we live in today.

I'd recommend to people to use the non-emergency line in these sorts of situations - most states/countries have them, if you are reading this comment and you aren't sure if you've got one for your region you should take a quick look now to find out - and it's a good way to avoid putting additional demand on emergency services in situations that do not require an immediate response.

If your neighbour was a reasonable person then it wouldn't have needed to get to this point. But that's outside of your sphere of influence and so you shouldn't be taking on a degree of responsibility which is not commensurate with your level of control.

I mean, to your credit, you tried to resolve this politely without recourse to the cops despite previous threats from this person. Fuck em

Maybe I'm wrong too, but I've also called the cops for noise violations. Sleep is a real need.

Sounds like a chud to me, call the cops and let them fight, I feel sorry for you but definitely not sorry for them, you did the right thing. Cops are pigs but they're not the only ones out there.

I’m not above calling the cops on someone if they’re an absolute chode.

Also if you think you’re a bad person for that, I sometimes think about getting back at my ex-friend for basically robbing me of my self-worth by calling the cops and telling them what they do for a living (selling drugs).

You could get some Pepper spray and/or a very powerful flash light (those with a warning that they will blind u) just in case

Neighbor is a worthless chud.

Maybe the cops will ummm... deal with him in traditional cop fashion.

Fuck it, use the pigs for what you can use them for. If someone decides to be a massive piece of shit, they would have had it coming in a better world as well.

I'd literally punch this asshole if I were in your situation. Can't blame you

What a nightmarish situation, I'm really sorry you're having to deal with that. You did the right thing, at the right time. I hope your neighbor got the message clearly that you'll stick up for yourself by whatever means you have at your disposal.

You acted in your defense at an appropriate point in the conflict- he violently escalated tensions with you and it sounds like he's threatened you in the past. Menacing and then beating the door is a pretty good indicator that he'd be capable of carrying out an assault. His threats were increasing in intensity either as part of his personal anger freakout routine or to bully and intimidate you. I would have been very worried if you just hunkered down and let it blow over because the next boundary test could easily have pushed further.

Calling the cops was the rational and appropriate action. You couldn't stay and ignore it, you were in no state to leave and find a place to stay at short notice with your sanity hanging by a thread like that and further confrontation would have eventually led to one or both of you losing control, violence and probably the cops turning up anyway to a scene well beyond their will or ability to de-escalate safely.

But more importantly, the fact that you called them despite being aware and self-critical of doing it says to me you didn't have any other options. There was no rational way to safely deal with the situation or you would have tried it. Any other option I can see massively increases the chances that your shitty night AND your neighbors shitty night ended up defining the rest of your lives.

If you had made one of those other choices you would have raised the stakes far in excess of what should ever be necessary over what was essentially some fkn music, rudeness and ego fuckery. THAT would have been the unethical path to take. Dogmatic adherence to the letter of ideology in this case would have likely resulted in a brutally unjust outcome by any rational measure.

By bringing the cops in at a relatively peaceful juncture you've broken that feedback loop of escalation and call me optimistic, but I reckon he'll be a lot less likely to try you like that again. It's gonna be scary cuz bullies are scary, but they usually don't want to ruin their life indulging in power trip bullshit.

Good on you.

(I just realised how old this thread is. My bad- OP I hope things are going alright and that you ended up catching up on the sleep some.)