I just spoke to Officer Friendly about the neighbors

The BBQ Pit
1

The neighbor kids (two houses down) are at it again. Five of them, the oldest probably about 8, at least one in diapers (and I MEAN just a diaper), riding bikes/trikes and walking down the middle of our narrow, two-lane, rural, but 55-mph (and often more) road. With their cute little beagle who likes to trek up the middle of the road by himself and trespass into our yard, getting our dogs (confined in their kennels) all het up.

I’m pretty sure that the dog has never met a leash. The kids either couldn’t or wouldn’t get him to come out of our yard. They just headed off toward home (about a quarter-mile away), up the middle of the road, and left him here (I suppose hoping he would follow). Came back halfheartedly to look at him and shout a few things, then left again. I had to chase him out. (Can’t get close enough to get a leash on him.) They have had other dogs over the years, similarly untrained and neglected.

These little kids have been playing near and in the road for years. It’s mighty frightening to see a toddler in diapers playing BY HIMSELF in the gravel at the end of the driveway, less than a foot from the road (which has no shoulder). We see an adult outside with them maybe one time in 30. Granted, the house is very close to the road, but there’s a huge yard behind, or would be if it hadn’t become all overgrown with brush. Mr. S’s brother used to live there – that’s how we know. His other brother has the “fortune” to live right next door to these people (whom we call the Bumpuses). He and his wife have had to chase these kids out of their yard, including way out back behind the house, well into the (wooded) property. Tell them they need to go home, and they come right back.

A few years ago one of the Bumpus kids drowned in a nearby lake, after falling out of a “borrowed” rowboat. The obituary hinted at a splintered family, and at least one adult in the home is disabled. But where is the excuse for not keeping these kids safe? We would have thought that a dead child would be a wake-up call, but no – a few days after the funeral we saw a Bumpus kid heading up the road on a glorified metal Big Wheel in front of our house. On the crest of a hill on our narrow road with a double-solid-yellow no passing zone, with an effective height of about two feet. Absolutely no business being on the road.

Unfortunately Officer Friendly said he couldn’t really do much about the kids except talk to the adults and ask them to keep the kids off the road. I know that my sister-in-law has talked to a friend of hers at Social Services at least once about the kids, whether in an official capacity or not, I don’t know. Last year they constructed a small play yard with stakes and wire fencing, which led us to wonder whether someone had talked to them. But after it was built, we never saw any kids in it. Always out near or in the road.

Today I called the non-emergency number. I don’t want to have to call 911. :mad:

2

From your description, it sounds like calling 911 pre-emptively might not be a bad idea.\

Just remember that getting a family on the DCFS Parties of Interest list can be a major hassle if there are actually responsible adults concerned for the welfare of the children in the home.

3

If that was the case, said adult is not as responsible or concerned about the kids’ welfare as he or she should be.

4

I would make a lot of noise about this one! I don’t know where you live, but there has got to be someone who cares about child neglect. I would call everyone I could think of. To hell with the trouble it causes me or the other adults involved. One child is already dead. Do you have a camera? Document! Go over the policeman’s head! Call the sheriff’s office. Call the county. Call the state.

5

arrrrrgh, I feel your pain. I live in a largish town on a small street that seems to have an inordinate amount of both crime and dumbass parents.

About 5 years ago there were 4 small children and a bunch of feral preteens who did nothing but tear around the street and scream from about 7 am to 11pm, they built a skateboard ramp (meaning a short plank and a brick) right in the middle of the street, they’d shoot out from between parked cars on their bikes and skateboards right when a car would come down the street, and plunk themselves in my driveway right as I was trying to pull out/in and refuse to move.

Of course you never saw the parents except for one time I was shouting at one little darlin’ on a big wheel to get out of the way so I could pull out, and his mother, complete with fe-mullet, cigarette, and waaaay too small tank top came out on the porch and told me “it’s a fuckin’ public street and he can play where the fuck he wants. What, do you fuckin’ hate kids?” My answer was the driveway is my private property and if she kept up the verbal abuse I’d call 911 right there to file a harassment complaint.

The next year the mother of two of the small kids died of an overdose and the father of some of the preteens (there were like 8 of them living in half a double block house for most of the summer, no adults around) was being hunted by the state constables for leasing furnished office space, selling the furniture, and taking off.

Unfortunately I ran into the same problem Enfant Terrible mentioned, basically that if there were no obvious signs of abuse or neglect there wasn’t much anyone can do. And quite frankly I was scared of retaliation if anyone found out I was the one calling the cops.

What we really need is some better qualification for parenthood than being able to spread 'em/whip it out :mad:

6

Dayum. Sounds like a better name for them than Bumpus might be Pritchard.

7

I’m guessing Officer Friendly didn’t make a report because he didn’t witness first hand, but if you did (and continue to) witness first-hand things like NSUP (neglectful supervision) then it would be a good idea to make a formal report to your state DCFS. Sheesh, the other child drowning wasn’t a big enough wake up call to the Bumpuses? :mad:
I’d definitely document all you can and make that report to DCFS before 911 becomes a necessity. Good luck.

8

I’m not sure if this was meant to be taken literally, but you should never call 911 unless there’s an actual emergency. 911 resources are limited. God forbid someone who’s currently bleeding or being attacked gets a busy signal or a call routed elsewhere during an actual emergency because someone called in “preemptively.”

9

The definition of child neglect varies by jurisdiction. Call your local child protective services and ask if they would listen to your story and then advise you on whether you should file a formal report.

10

And we repeat: Do not ever call 911 unless it’s an actual emergency.

11

With all due respect (and I mean that sincerely – no sarcasm intended!) it truly depends on local policies.

Where I currently live, you MUST call 911 if you want an officer, even if it’s for a noise complaint or to ask how far away from the curb you’re allowed to legally park. (There is no non-emergency contact number for the police, and the fire departments are volunteer - but that’s a different rant.)

Where I used to live, dispatchers would hang up on you the moment you said, “It’s not really an emergency, but…”

Going back to the OP: I think I’d have nightmares about what might happen, living down the road from the Bumpuses. I think you’re courageous to even try.

12

I say let evolution take its natural course.

13

I know this was probably meant as a cute rejoinder, and no hard feelings, but I couldn’t let it pass. Until I was about nine, I was one of those little bastards Scarlett67 describes. With no real parental supervision to speak of, I was pretty much left to my own devices 24-7, and it’s not pretty and its not funny. Azeotrope used a good word: It’s feral.

If my brothers and I hadn’t been rescued by our grandparents, I’m sure we would have been where those little darlings are headed, namely a life defined by crime and drug addiction. The point is, they weren’t born that way, it’s not inevitable, and the kids almost certainly wish their lot was different.

I’m not a saint or a bleeding heart, saying “Think of the children.” In her shoes, I would be just as pissed off as Scarlett67. Like most of us here, I’m not sure what she should do, but there are better options than letting “evolution take its course.”

14

But one of the smart surviving bastards.

15

I originally wrote off your remark as a joke, but I’ll assume that you mean it seriously. Well, if you want to push this . . .

Did you see where I wrote that I was rescued? I meant that literally. I hardly ever think about it any more, but my being smart or not smart had nothing to do with it. In my case, I didn’t pull myself up by my bootstraps. Left on my own, I may or may not have survived, and if I had, I doubt very much how large a contribution to society I might have offered. What saved me were adults who took it upon themselves to snatch me out of the situation I was in, my own feelings be damned, and I count my lucky starts because of it.

My graduate studies were in biological anthropology with plenty of genetics and paleoanthropology. Please don’t seriously make the argument that unattended kids in an urban setting is a laboratory for evolution. It’s often a life that’s nasty, brutish, and short.

16

That was a threat to shut her up, because the police had been to that house more than once in the recent past and I’m sure there were a lot more questions they were wanting to ask other than why she was cursing out the nice young lady in #15. They had been to the street I don’t know how many times, to chase off the kids who were blocking traffic and when the idiot older kids were lighting rubber bands on fire and shooting them at my porch awning (yep.)

Also our emergency response system in my town is screwed up, we are the only one not part of the county 911 system so you have to call a dispatcher at the municipal building, and like another poster pointed out there is no non-emergency number. So at least something as admittedly petty as reporting The Nicotine Hag (if she called my bluff, which she didn’t) wouldn’t cause a much more serious call in the next town to go unanswered, plus it was at around 8 in the morning when I was going to work so I doubt there was much going on in town either.

17

Very nicely posted. I would say more, but I’m not sure what, exactly…