Pole-ar opposites

I had a little bit of a dust up at the house on Saturday night. There are currently 10 people living here. A Spanish couple, me, a British woman, a Polish man and his son, and his girlfriend (who isn't supposed to be here, but is), and a young Polish couple. As you can see, I'm kind of outnumbered.

The Polish couple like to go out on the weekends, and have friends who come to the house on occasion. I don't care about that, they live here and can have friends. We all can, and have. Having guests isn't the issue. Having guests who are rude, abusive, and violent is.

They guy has a friend who comes over several times a week. He's in his early to mid-20's. A typical punk. The way the house is laid out, I'm on the second floor just to the left of the front door as you look at it. The Polish couple live right above me. Their friend will come over, stand outside the house (my window) and shout at the window to get his friends attention. It's kind of annoying, rude to the neighbors, and just plain stupid. He's done it several different times, as late as 11 pm.

After listening to it for a month or so, I finally got tired of it. It's obnoxious, and I live in the house and pay rent, and I don't want to listen to it. And I don't have to. So one day, when he was doing it, I went to the front door. He just walked right in and tried to go past me, like I'm the door man and he can do whatever he wants. I stopped him and told him not to do it again. I told him to use the bell, knock, or call. He just laughed and went upstairs. He did this a couple of other times and I told him to stop doing it, but he didn't take it seriously.

So on Saturday, I was in the kitchen, fixing my dinner, and he did it again. I went to the door and opened it, and he tried to walk by me like he owned the place. He and his girlfriend started up the stairs, and I stopped, and let him know in no uncertain terms not to do it again, or I would call the police on him.

He started with F^*) you, which I don't take from anyone. I told him people didn't get to say that to me in my own home (shared or not), and to stop acting like a child. At that point, he started back down the stairs and told me he was going to kick my ass. Then I was pissed. Big time. And I wasn't afraid of him, but I didn't want to get something started. I'm on a visa, and I'm trying to renew it, and I don't need to get into a fight over stupid shit. So I told him to get the Polish guy and have him come down stairs.

The Polish guy, Jurec, came down to the kitchen, and as I was talking to him, the punk walked in, brushed past me with his shoulder trying to knock me off balance, and yelled, "Don't touch me."

So he's acted like a child, laughed at me, cussed me, threatened me, made contact with me, and just generally acted like a complete dick. And in someone else's house. I could see it getting out of hand, and wanted to kick his ass so badly. But he is half my age, and it's been a few years. Instead I decided not to get stupid. So I called the police and had them come over. The emergency operator told me I should wait outside until they showed up.

I told her thought that was complete bullshit. I mean, it's my house, why should I have to go outside and wait while the idiot stayed inside. The operator told me it was to keep things from escalating, but I wasn't worried about it. I can take care of myself, he was in the wrong, and he wasn't going to try anything. Or if he did, he was going to jail. But to get her to shut up, I went outside and waited. It was only about 2 minutes until the police showed up.

They came up, took all my information, and of course the first question was, "Have you been drinking?". Which of course, I had not been. Because I'm so broke I can't afford to pay attention. I always hate when they do that, like sobriety solves every problem. Then they told me they couldn't really make him leave, because its a shared house, and only the landlord could make him leave, and someone would have to call him. I informed the police that I wanted him out, I wouldn't call the landlord, and if they didn't remove him, they shouldn't get to far away, because they would be back.

They stated again that they couldn't remove him, and two of them went inside while one stayed outside to get my information. They got mine, but didn't get his. Nice. I don't know what happened inside, but it went from "we can't make him leave" to "you have to leave now and don't come back", and the punk being escorted out by angry police officers. So he must have said the magic word.

I stayed out of the way while it was going on, but his girlfriend, who I had not said a word to, now decided to get involved by walking by me and throwing an elbow into my ribs. Right in front of the cops. Stupid. They didn't arrest her, but they should have. I told the police that if I would have done that to her, they would have arrested me, and it was only fair that she be arrested, but they wouldn't.

So I went back in the house to discover he had spit in my dinner, and I had to throw it out. Since I'm pretty much broke, and only have enough food to last a few days, and will likely end up borrowing money to buy food, I was really pissed off that I had to throw a meal's worth of food away and fix my dinner all over again. Then the Polish couple started in on me, trying to tell me all the things I've done wrong, and how they are so perfect and don't bother anyone, and I was wrong to have their friend made to leave by the police.

So lets review the facts:

He doesn't live here
He stands outside my window at all hours shouting at the people above me because he thinks its cute
When I tell him to stop, he laughs at me
He cusses me in my own house
He threatens to kick my ass
He shoves against me trying to intimidate me.
He threatens me again
He spits in my dinner
He gets escorted out by the cops and told not to come back
He comes back that night at 1:30 in the morning, stands outside the window, and shouts again.

And I'm the bad guy who's done something wrong? I don't think so. The Polish couple told me I didn't have the right to tell their friend not to stand outside and shout, and that he could if he wanted to. So I told them I was going to have friends of mine come over and stand outside their door, banging pots and pans together. And when they complained about it, I would tell them it was too bad and they couldn't do anything about it. All of the sudden, they kind of, sort of, somewhat got the point.

They ended up apologizing to me for what they had said to me. I explained I wasn't concerned about their actions, but I wasn't going to be threatened and pushed and cussed in the house I live in, especially when the punk had been given fair warning to stop, and wouldn't because he thought it was funny. I explained to them that he had no rights in the house, and I did. They still aren't happy, but it's all cool now.

They did say they would have him apologize to me, but I told them that after he spit in my dinner, there was no way I was accepting his apology. I can be petty like that, but I don't care. And I told them if the girl came back and got within 10 feet of me, I would call the police again. I can't hit her, so she doesn't get to hit me.

Seems fair, does it. Man, I can't wait to get out of here.

I've lived a lot of places in my life, and been the foreigner many times. There are a lot of Poles living in the UK, and a lot of Brits aren't happy about it. They don't want them here, as the crime rate has gone up since their arrival. That doesn't mean all Poles are bad people, not by a long sight. The ones that live in the house with are great, and I've never had an issue with any of them, at least until Saturday. The problem is, when you're a foreigner, it just takes one shithead to ruin it for everyone else.