Violence In My Life

SECOND UPDATE: Both Russell and his girlfriend came out alive. He is in jail. Her house is riddled with purple tear gas stains and bullet holes. I heard the shots early this morning and became upset, thinking that I was hearing the death of a man I can't even stand. I never truly wanted him dead, but he's not, and despite all the hatred I've felt for him I am profoundly relieved that he's alive. His girlfriend is practically destitute and has chemical dependency issues as well, and now she doesn't have her home. Will Russell Ferguson receive mental help treatment or, like most felons, get thrown in prison for awhile, endure violence there, and come out angrier and even more dangerous?

At least I can walk down that block past his house again for the first time in almost two years. It's amazing to see children playing outside on that block now, too.

UPDATED: I just poured out my frustration about my nutball former neighbor to WCCO News. I'm hearing that if he comes out of this alive he could go free, and I want him locked up. If I end up being on the news, I'll link to it. Things should have been done long ago, before it went this far; people have been terrorized and this man never received the help that he needs.

I used to have a next-door neighbor whom I finally got kicked out due to his incessant, foul-mouthed harassment. (He was not the first renter that I had removed, but he was definitely the worst.) This nutball moved in with a vulnerable woman who subsequently signed her home over to him. A few weeks ago I called the police on my former neighbor when he emerged from a bar and threatened me as I was walking home from my bus stop. In talking to the police officer I learned that all of his current neighbors have restraining orders against him, and that this guy has threatened their children.

At this very moment (9:18 p.m on Friday, April 14), the nutball is holed up in his girlfriend's house with a gun and an unidentified female hostage! The incident apparently started before I came home from work, for on my way from my bus stop I saw an officer carrying a twelve-gauge shot gun approach his door! Now, we have the bomb squad, animal control (because of his three pit bulls), about 10 squad cars, hostage negotiators, a SWAT team, and a sniper--a fucking sniper--standing by (along with all of the local news crews).

I consider myself to be a good citizen, and many other people do, too. We are block club captains. Both my boyfriend and I have been on the neighborhood board. Our neighborhood is considered relatively safe. Yet I was unable to do anything more about this bully than move him around a bit. The officer that I spoke to, who knows this dude, assured me that Nutball wouldn't become violent--and look what's happened. I always knew that he would come to a violent end. I just knew it. He's mentally ill, but no one did anything.

I was stalked for three years by a born-again Christian former boyfriend back in the 1980s, when women were getting killed by their former boyfriends practically every week. (He became obsessed with the idea of not seeing me in Heaven after we both died.) When I learned that he had attacked another woman, I went to the Sexual Violence Unit to attempt to get a restraining order. They told me that because I didn't live with him, never had a child with him, and because his residence was now in another state, they couldn't do anything. When I asked why his crossing state lines to harass me didn't make it a federal crime, I got a disbelieving stare. (A lot has changed since then.)

By the way, my nutball neighbor with the gun and the hostage, is a Southern Baptist. My ex-boyfriend was an evangelical charismatic who spoke in tongues. (I tolerated his beliefs.) No moral. No real conclusion that I can reach, but I can't help but ask this: I'm an atheist. I don't believe in violence. I don't believe in hating someone for what they believe, or in killing anyone for God. And America is scared of me?