Virginia neighbor accused of playing recordings of racial slurs, monkey noises
A Black family in Virginia Beach says a neighbor is harassing them with loud music, lights and racist recordings.
A family in Virginia Beach, a coastal community of half a million people where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean, is alleging that their neighbor is harassing them with blinking lights, loud music and recordings of racial slurs and monkey noises.
Jannique Martinez told CNN her clan loved their home when they first found it. “It was everything I envisioned for my family and for raising my kids in a nice, quiet neighborhood,” she said.
It turns out their home was anything but quiet.
“We noticed a little erratic behavior, like these blinking lights that are on a sensor. When my family or any other family leaves or returns to their homes, they all start to blink,” Martinez said of her neighbor’s home. “When the sensors are activated, loud music begins to play. He switches the music based on the family that is activating the music.”
Martinez said the neighbor has security cameras all around his home which, she feels, are being used to monitor her family’s movements.
“My husband parked his truck on the street in front of his house, which is city property, and instead of music, he started playing monkey noises,” Martinez said. The neighbor plays the noises, she says, whenever her family departs or arrives at home.
The family has tried reaching out to Virginia Beach police, who noted that “the activity, though appalling, is not criminally actionable.” The authorities say they will continue to “closely monitor the situation, investigate complaints and, within the limits of the law, help this family with this most unpleasant situation.”
Contact with police prompted the neighbor to escalate his actions. He started playing recordings of skits that are derogatory toward Blacks. “Since that day, he’s been playing n—-r skits that he found online,” Martinez said. “He plays skits that say, ‘Black people have nothing better to do but go to a comedy club on a Friday night,’ and, ‘Hey everyone, look it’s n—-r guy. Everyone say, ‘Hi, n—-r guy.'”
The situation, she said, has left her feeling “hopeless and sad. I’m so drained.”
Martinez told WAVY the neighbor even harasses her school-age children, playing the derogatory skits while they are outside playing.
“My son is terrified of him. Terrified, terrified,” Martinez said about her child. “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.”
“According to the law, it’s just a statement or a phrase or he’s not doing enough or bodily harm or threats to my family,” said Martinez. “Why does it have to go that far before something that can be done? People shouldn’t have to live like this. I spent 11 years in the military. My husband is also in the military. We fought for this country, but yet there’s no one to fight for us.”
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