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Disclaimer: I try to take people as they come. Skin color or ethnic group doesn't mean that much to me. Although, sometimes I may generalize about certain groups, given my experiences with the individuals who belong to them. However, in the end we're all just people. Now here's the problem:
I live in a small town which is near 3 large Native American Reservations: The Southern Ute, the Ute Mountain Ute, and the Navajo. Normally, I get along well with everyone unless they're drunks. Them I just avoid. But now a group of Ute Indians have moved into the apartment on the other end of my 4-plex. All the apartments here are fairly small one bedroom units intended for a single person or a couple.
As far as I can make out, there are two couples with as many as 7 children under age 6 who are now living in one teensy apartment. The living room is furnished with a queen sized bed and a TV. I don't know what the bedroom where the kids sleep looks like. There's also lots of coming and going - different adults, different kids, different cars. Very confusing.
The kids have no adult supervision what-so-ever. They are released each moring to do whatever they please. They don't have any boundaries at all - they'll come press their noses on the screen doors of the other 3 apartments, including mine, and ask for candy, ask to come in, ask for a quarter - you name it. I put my dog out front of my apartment on his tie-out for an hour or so everyday, and twice now, one of those kids has unhooked him and let him go. Animal control is pretty strict around here, and the last thing I need is a $100 fine, or worse yet, have my beloved Corgi hit by a car. These people started out with a pug puppy, BTW, and the poor animal ran off never to return first chance it got.
I can't go water the flowers on my porch without a pack of little kids all running over and asking what I'm doing, grabbing the hose when my back is turned and spraying each other, etc. I can't leave ANYTHING outside, because if I do it vanishes. Worst of all, these children ride their bikes (plus a grocery cart apparently stolen from a near-by supermarket) in the middle of the street, acting like fast moving cars don't exist. I don't know how many times I've heard the screech of brakes and run out with my heart in my mouth, wondering if this is the time that a driver has plowed into a shopping cart full of kids in the middle of the road.
No parent or adult from the other end of this place ever comes out to check - just me and sometimes the guy who lives next door. I've been over to their apartment several times - first time, I told the parents (?) that there was a nice playground at the pre-school a block from us. You can walk down a very safe ally to get there and the playground has it all, including a tall fence all around it. The Mother told me that she'd never consider letting the kids go down there unsupervised! ( ) Then she took a long drag on whatever it was she was smoking, got more comfy on the bed and turned her attention back to some trash on the cable TV.
Much as those children annoy me, I pity them. They are starved for attention, have no idea how to behave in an environment that's not on the reservation and have a defiant attitude which is going to get them into trouble sooner rather than later. I've called child welfare here in town and was told that since its a Native family, the Tribe will have to take care of it. Great!
Simple. Call Child Protective Services ---- they cannot tell you "the tribe will take care of it". Those children are being neglected and are living in unstable and substandard living conditions and CPS has to do something about it.
Another thing I would do is, videotape all the stuff that goes one. Tape over a course of several days. Then you and whoever else in your complex has complaints about them should write letters to the management company of the complex and include the videotape. Mail it all together in one envelope and send it certified/return receipt.
If nothing is STILL being done about it? Call the local media.
I also think you should notify the landlord/mgmt. Company of the apartment complex. They are very likely violating their lease (disruptive noise and supervising children, as well as number of people allowed to live it the apt are standard things in any generic apartment lease.)
As the property owner, they must be concerned with their liability if something happens to these kids while they run wild. At the very least, they'd get hit hard on their property insurance premiums if claims need to be made when these kids get injured or destroy property.
But please, if you are going to complain to the landlord and/or children's services, supervise your dog whenever you put him outside! I've heard horrible stories of neighbors poisoning a neighbor's dog or letting it go if the dog owner makes complaints against them. I have a corgi too.
First off, what you describe - the lack of supervision and the crowded living conditions are typical of poor and undereducated people of any background or race, who chose to procreate young and with abandon. It's sad.
The first house that we ever owned, going back over 20 years ago, was in a working class town in NY State that happened to have a reservation of Uncochougue (sp) Indians nearby.
We had a rental house full of people diagonally across from us with seven kids, a white mother and "musical boy friends". The kids were much as you describe, born close together, wild and dirty. I actually used the word "feral" at the time. They would beg for food, to watch my TV, to come in side to enjoy the A/C on hot days, use my bathroom and see my baby when he was born.
I didn't want them any where near by baby. They all had impetigo, lice, and were very dirty. Some of them had suspicious bruising around the face.
When I saw a small three year old strolling in the middle of the street, I took him home. The woman left the front door open all the time. I knocked softly on the side of the house. a male yelled "come in!" I was horrified when I saw a huge rather new king size bed dominating the room. The "mother" was in bed with two friends a male and a female. They were playing a rather expensive video game on a lage screen TV, for the time.
I told her that I found the little boy rooming in the middle of the street. She didn't thank me. She pretty much ignored me and said to the three year old "next time I hear you're running the streets I'm gonna rip your head off!"
I called CPS. There was nothing left to do. There really is a technique involved with calling CPS. You have to be cool headed and persistent. It may involve many calls. If there are other neighbors who feel as you do, have them call also.
Do not mention the children's race. At some point of the call they may ask. Say "I'm not sure. Or "white" "black" or hispanic". What ever they most closely resemble. They ask this for statistical purposes.
CPS or Child and Family Services - what ever they are called in your state, are notoriously lazy. If they can find a reason not to make a home visit, they will.
Not ALL workers are lazy, but the system is over burdened and over worked.
Having lived near that reservation, I know a little about this. Once a person leaves the Rez, they are subject to the same laws of the United States as anyone else is. It would be the same as what would happen if a US citizen crossed the border into Canada.
There are many children of American Indian Heritage who have been removed from their homes and are now wards of the state.
So the response that you got doesn't wash.
Just be persistent and do not mention the ethnicity of the children.
It really sounds as though they are in a potentially dangerous situation.
I would just add that you talk to your other neighbors(you mentioned the guy next door) and all of you call CPS and all of you talk to the landlord(you can do that as a group).
But nip this in the bud. I would also be sure to mention all these people and cars coming and going, that usually indicates drug dealing going on.
When I first read this (and before I read the post) I thought it was going to be about someone at Walmart.
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) Then she took a long drag on whatever it was she was smoking, got more comfy on the bed and turned her attention back to some trash on the cable TV.
