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There are a lot of fucked up things going on in Los Angeles at night. Drug deals, murders, gang violence, just to name a few. To me, it was hard to believe that cops would come in quick time to a domestic disturbance complaint, so I never called until tonight.
My neighbor’s girlfriend moved into his apartment several months ago. Since her arrival, there’s been nothing but cackling, crying, screaming, and slamming of doors. During her last upset, she managed to wake me up with her sobs and yelling at 2 in the morning, on a Wednesday night no less.
As my neighbor’s girlfriend stormed out of their apartment, she almost pushed over her boyfriend’s TV. Then, I speculate he shoved her. “Oww, you hurt me,” she said. “Well you almost pushed over my $3000 TV,” he cried, “you should be glad I didn’t throw you into the fucking wall!”
I wanted to call the cops that night, but I thought that the LAPD wouldn’t come unless someone got shot. Plus, I didn’t mind if the two killed each other. Maybe then I could get some sleep.
Tonight I decided to chill out at home, catch up on some Big Love, when all of a sudden I heard girlfriend screaming, “WHY! DON’T! YOU! LISTEN! TO! ME!!!!!” at the top of her lungs, all the while beating and kicking the walls. I called my roommate to let her know what was going on at home. “That’s it! Call the fucking police,” she affirmed and that’s what I did.
I dialed 911 and let them know of the domestic disturbance below me. After I hung up the phone, it took the police 12 minutes to show up and knock on my neighbor’s door. Oh man, I was so happy to see how quick the police arrived. I didn’t know the 90026 had it so good! If I did, I would have called the cops a looong time ago.
Besides being stoked at how relatively fast the cops came, I also had the pleasure of overhearing the po po’s grill my neighbor. They asked where his girlfriend was and whether or not he beat her. My neighbor explained that his better half went to take a walk around the park to blow some steam and that he didn’t lay a hand on her. Even though my neighbor didn’t do anything (this time) to cause the ruckus, I feel like the cops should’ve still arrested him for dating such a stupid whore, but that will come in due time.
Lesson learned – No blood has to be drawn; no bullets have to break your windows. If a fracas ensues close to your home, you can call 911 and the police will come. Thank God.
Photo by craig1black via Flickr
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You should have called it in as a noise disturbance, not domestic violence since that is what it was. Now the police have a record of a call for domestic violence for that guy and address which although doesn't go on your permanent record, does go down in the LAPD record. The guy now has to be questioned for domestic violence rather than just to keep the noise down, which sounded like your original problem with your neighbors.
Yay for standing up against loud neighbors! I hate loud slamming doors!
Just for the record, if readers will allow me to be nerdy for a second about people who may think the police won't show up (obviously they did in this case). The police have to respond to every call, even a 'disturbance of the peace' call (it just gets lower priority and sometimes they happen to be around the corner, sometimes they are on a busy night chasing the radio). But they do not ignore your calls, period.
That said, it might be perceived they don't show up because you call and they don't come until four hours later and now you are tucked away in bed, sound asleep. Or they may show up, find there is no noise currently and leave, all under your nose while you weren't looking out your window.
Glad you got rid of some negative energy on the other side of your wall :)
Read it again No. 1. Where does it say Sarah called it in as "domestic violence." She called it in as a domestic disturbance, which is what it was. Way to manufacture fault in the person reporting instead of the people causing the problem.
-Will Campbell
LAPD > BHPD
hahahahaha, great story, Sarah. Sorry for the bummer neighbors.
I had the same problem, same zipcode. Only as I was listening to my neighbors yell "Don't hit me" at the top of their lungs knowing they had a 10 yr old kid in the apartment with them. I called the police non-emergency number because I wasn't sure if it was an emergency and just asked them what to, and if it was worth reporting. Right away the woman asked for my address and said she was sending someone immediately. I told her they had quieted down so maybe it wasn't a big deal. But she said that domestic disturbance is a high priority of the LAPD and they MUST send someone to check it out. There doesn't need to be abuse, but any loud fighting & screaming that is audible and disruptive to the neighbors is considered a domestic disturbance and they take it very seriously. Also, since this has been an ongoing problem I've been reporting it to my landlord. Apparently 3 disturbances (as I was told) and they have grounds to evict. It's amazing how quiet people get when they find that out.
Report them on www.RottenNeighbor.com
Interesting Zach, that you say the police will come. Last week, when someone broke into three cars in the parking area for my apartment building by smashing in the windows and rifling for goods (including my car) the police refused to come out to take our reports. In fact, they refused to even take my call when I initially made it, and told me I would have to come in myself (not something I was about to do in car full of broken glass). They told me (and the other two victims of the crime) that they were "too busy" to deal with us--at 8:30 in the morning, no less, on the non-emergency number. I guess there's a lot going on in North Hollywood... I definitely didn't feel like my local LAPD were at all interested in serving and protecting me that day.
I'm glad you called, Sarah, and saw them follow through.
I also have horrible neighbors. Upstairs, there's a couple that always fights. We call the girl Stampy because she's always stamping and slamming doors. She screams. A lot. This apartment also used to breakdance late into the night. It took us awhile to figure out what that constant sound was, until one night my sister got so frustrated and pounded on their door. There was a bevy of people all circled around a board, and they all looked scared. They've thrown several parties (we've called the cops on a few occassions). One time their guests threw up onto our doorstep (from their balcony, = splatter), and next to our car. They didn't clean it up until we told them to. Another time they served shrimp (???), and their guests threw their shrimp tails onto our doorstep. WTF, we HATE those ASSHOLES.
On the other side of our building we have a straight up mariachi band that practices late into the night, and throws all night parties ALL the time. Sometimes they even rent bouncey houses for their rowdy kids. They wake up at 6am and sleep super late. As soon as they're awake until they go to sleep,they have mariachi music (live or radio) BLARING with such volume that even when we close all the doors and windows, we can hear it with such clarity that it drowns out the tv.
Whenever I call the police, I just call the non-emergency number. It usually takes awhile for the police to come, but I agree with Zach in that they definitely do respond to every call.
Sorry for the length, I had to vent.
I stay at my place bc I hate moving and the rent is cheap.
That's nice.
12 minutes is how long I had to wait for someone to talk to me on the telephone when my house was burglarized for the second time in 3 days. Doors were kicked in, items stolen, and the place trashed.
I called the LAPD at 6PM. Then I called my roommate, who was in Utah. He managed to book a flight, fly to Los Angeles, collect his luggage, and make his way home with two hours to spare before a policewoman arrived at 1:10 in the morning.
I'm in 90035. Maybe things are better in 90026?
have lived in 90026 for 10 years and have had to call the cops a dozen times for various neighbors/etc. The reason they came so quickly (and the only reason they've come quickly for me) is becuase you said it was a domestic disturbance, just like someone said earlier. Whenever I called in noise complaints, burgalaries in progress etc., it takes at least an hour. But when my neighbor was beating his girlfriend, they were there in 5 minutes. Thank OJ for it.
Thanks for the tip on RottenNeighbor, CosmicGirlAnn. Great mashup!!
Glad to hear you had good luck, Sarah. Like a number of other people here, I'm in 90026 and have had a terrible experience with police response times, and that's assuming I'm even able to get through to a dispatcher in a timely manner. The last time was a 30 minute response to call about an addict smoking heroin in his car in front of my house and refusing to leave. I've written about this issue a number of times elsewhere.
Ok the post is hilarious; yes they should totally take your neighbor to jail for dating this stupid, loud, rude idiot.
Perhaps I should move to the 90026 - considering your great response time. I only say this because my house was broken in to by our gardening crew, and we called the cops @ 6pm when we realized what had happened - surprise we went to bed @ 2am and after several calls they never showed. I live in Sherman Oaks which should have good response time.
This is after sitting on hold for a dispatcher for 15 minutes!
ive called on neighbors before, much like in the movie "rear window", i could see everything going on in the room, a couple were fighting and he began slapping and hitting her - throwing her on the bed, the cops were there in 10 minutes (and came to my building first out of confusion)
off topic a bit, but in response to #8
I had my car stolen in koreatown, I reported it the same day - a few weeks later got a parking ticket in the mail, ticket was issued one week after we reported the stolen vehicle.