I’m almost certain that my next door neighbor is into some illegal activity. Possibly drug dealing. She moved in next door 2 years ago, has 3 kids, and keeps to herself. Doesn’t try to get to know the other neighbors. Even when you see her in the morning warming up her car to go to work, she never speaks. Everything is quiet and mysterious. You don’t even hear her kids playing indoors and/or outdoors.

But once every week, always on a Thursday night, there are a lot of people visiting her home and always driving expensive vehicles. They never drive the same vehicles twice. And even if you see her visitors outside, they never speak to you either. I’m assuming that Thursday night is the “re-up” night and they don’t want to cause suspicion to their activities.

And yet, staying quiet does cause suspicion. I’m telling you, there’s something going on over there! Other neighbors are starting to notice as well. I wonder if we should call a block meeting in regards to this matter?

There’s a kid who lives a block up from me named Jamel (age 19). He has been terrorizing our neighborhood for the past year. As a matter of fact, he may have been the one who broke into my house this past fall, but that hasn’t been verified as of yet.

Anyway, on yesterday evening, he tried to attack my next door neighbor’s kid (age 15). On last week, he’d already beat the boy up and slashed his grandmother’s tires on her SUV, so she’d filed charges against him. And because she filed charges, he decided to come back this week for more retaliation.

So Jamel walked down our street while the neighbor’s kid was outside, and proceeded to beat him up once more. But this time the neighbor’s kid had backup. One of his friends was there waiting for Jamel. And when Jamel saw that he was outnumbered, he pulled out a knife.

The neighbor’s kid and his friend backed down when the knife was drawn. Jamel then proceeded to kick in the doors of the rental car of the neighbor’s kid’s grandmother. Remember, he’d already slashed the tires on her SUV, which is why she was driving a rental to begin with.

Another neighbor saw everything take place and he called the police, while trying to chase after Jamel. The police came in like 6 minutes. Guess they were already in the area, because normally they take like 45 minutes to get to my neighborhood when in essence, their precinct is only 10 minutes away. You do the math.

Anyway, the police knocked on my door to ask me if I knew Jamel’s last name and where he stayed. I gave the officer the information on Jamel, and then other neighbors started exiting their homes to give the officer a list of complaints regarding, who else……Jamel.

Seems like this wasn’t his first time slashing tires. He’d slashed another neighbor’s tires before, had attempted to break into another neighbor’s home, had stolen his own mother’s car, had thrown a rock through the window of a neighbor’s home because her daughter refused to date him, etc.

I knew Jamel was trouble, but I had no idea to what extent. But what alarmed me was the fact that out of all of the times he’d done something malicious in our neighborhood, this was the first time that anyone had filed charges against him.

What’s the use of having neighborhood meetings and Neighborhood Watch Associations if you’re not going to speak up? I was sooooo disappointed in my neighbors. And many of them are educators. They are the first ones to speak out at their perspective schools when a child is fuckin’ up, but won’t do shit in their own neighborhood. Ooooooh, I cannot begin to explain to you just how heated I am right now!

My neighborhood has a theme every year for Christmas. From snow flocked Christmas trees in your lawn, to red ribbons, etc. Well, for the past couple of years, the theme has been white lights, meaning your house has to be adorned in white Christmas lights.

Not wanting to start any static, I participated as well. I have white lights along the edge of my roof in the front of the house, but I also have a wreath on my front door, along with a spotlight shining on said wreath, and a single candle light in each window of the front of the house. Nice and simple, nothing outlandish.

But my neighbor up the block from me, Mrs. Barnes, she takes it to the extreme. She has enough white lights on her house and in her lawn that planes could use her lawn as a landing strip. It’s so bright, that even the baby Jesus in the manger on her lawn has to cover his eyes. I would love to see her electric bill for the month of December.