Photo: Getty Images
Sometimes the neighborhood watch needs to keep an eye on the people actually living in the community.
A Black mother in Virginia says every time she leaves the house, monkey noises, banjos, and racial slurs are blasted out of her white neighbor's home, and the police say they can't do anything about it.
"Whenever we would step out of our house, the monkey noises would start," Jannique Martinez told local news outlet WAVY last week. "And it's so racist and it's disgusting."
The Virginia Beach mother moved into the neighborhood five years ago and said the audio recordings seemed to be connected to motion sensors. They started about a year and half after the family moved in, Martinez told CNN Thursday (September 30).
She posted a clip of the audio on Facebook, which features the monkey noises, banjo music, and a man's voice repeatedly using the N-word.
"Everyone wave to the n***a guy. Say, hi, n***a!" the voice says, and may have been taken from an episode of South Park.
"My son is terrified of [the neighbor]. Terrified, terrified," Martinez told WAVY. "The N-word situation ... They came to me and said 'Mom, what's that?' I didn't subject my kids to that. I didn't think they would ever have to learn what this means," she added.
Martinez told CNN she has confronted the neighbor about the noises, and asked that he keep the noise down. His reply: that he wasn't doing anything wrong.
The Virginia Beach Police Department released a statement that they've responded to several noise complaints and nuisance calls to the neighbor's home, but that it's not considered criminal behavior.
"As appalling and offensive as the neighbors' behavior are, the city attorney and Virginia magistrates have separately determined that the actions reported thus far did not rise to a level that Virginia law defines as criminal behavior," the department said.
They added that they'll monitor the situation and "within the limits of the law, help this family with the most unpleasant situation."
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