Op-ed: Neighbor Stalking - An Underreported Crime

Today's Larchmont-Mamaroneck edition of the Patch.com newsletter contains an article on neighbor harassment and stalking. My op-ed below provides a brief description of the phenomenon, and some of the perpetrators' motivations. It also provides an email address for readers to use to forward accounts of neighbor stalking that they may wish to share.

Neighbor stalking is one of the most under-reported types of stalking. It is also one that police and prosecutors lack the resources, and often the training, necessary to be able to investigate cases and collect the evidence that will lead to convictions.

Neighbors who stalk are predators. Their object is to terrorize and demoralize their victims. They use every means possible to accomplish their goals. The smarter ones use methods that they can justify as just normal activities, such as using leaf blowers. As with all types of stalking, context is important. When that leaf blower is used every time the victim steps into his or her yard--it is stalking and harassment.

The reasons behind neighbor stalking are numerous. Race and ethnicity are but two of a long list that includes: real estate motivations, fear of discovery of illegal businesses run out of the home, grudges for perceived slights, and many more.

In the Mamaroneck case, it appears that the accused individuals are charged with harassing entire families. More commonly, neighbor stalkers will target individuals with greater vulnerability, such as the elderly, single women, the handicapped, or people without extensive connections within the community.

The methods that the perpetrators employ are almost without limit. Gas-powered garden tools are often a weapon of choice due to the outrageous amounts of noise they make. Tracking and following their victims has become a favorite due to the ease of sending a tracker program via email or text message. Setting up a neighborhood web of individuals who will assist them in their harassment efforts occurs more frequently than most law-abiding citizens would like to believe. I am aware of an instance in which the perpetrators, who put 7/24 surveillance video on their victim, set up a circle of individuals with dogs around their target. Upon receipt of a text message from the surveillant, all the individuals would let their dogs out and try to get them to bark so that the victim could never enjoy being in the yard.

Slander and lies are also part of the neighbor stalker playbook. This type of stalker spreads lies about the victim in order to win others in the community to his/her cause. The "others" are not limited to just the people down the street. Very often, they will slander and/or create false narratives about their victims to the police and to the people in the village hall. This is done to create a perception that the victim is unstable or a problem for the community.

As you can see, I am passionate about the issue. I have studied neighbor stalking and the techniques that the perpetrators use for some time. I am collecting case studies of incidents for the publications that I am preparing for police and other law enforcement agencies, which will be used for education and training purposes.

It is my goal to bring this type of perpetrator to justice. Individuals who engage in neighbor stalking are vicious, morally bankrupt individuals, often with strong narcissistic tendencies. Their actions, if not stopped, tend to escalate over time and may eventually include physical attack and murder.

If you know of incidents of neighbor stalking and wish to share them, please contact me by sending an email to: shielddefense@aol.com .

Any information that you share will remain confidential and will be written up as a case study with fictitious names.