Ok I'll explain. I live in a very cheap apartment. Most people living there are trash, and they do a massive amount of noise during the night. I have problems with my two direct neighbors : those over me, and those next to me. Yelling, loud music, loud video games, talking loudly, parties and dogs barking; this happens every single night. Sometimes it lasts until 6 AM.

It is so bad, that I need to sleep with ear plugs every single night. I don't think I slept a single night without ear plugs in two months. I hate sleeping with them. After a few hours, they become uncomfortable. I tried to sleep without them, but it's impossible. Hell, sometimes they make so much noise, that even with my ear plugs I can't sleep because it's too loud.

After I endured this for some time, I made complaints to the landlord. Nothing changed, so I made more complaints. I asked him to move out of there, but he refused and wants me to finish my lease. My neighbors finally received letters to tell them to stop doing noise. The problem is they are really angry now. They know it's me, because they are all friends with each other.

Yesterday, my side neighbor started to bang at my door at 12:30 AM, yelling me to open the door, that he wanted to have a "man-to-man" conversation (I am translating) and was asking what was the deal with the letter he just received. There was at least another guy with him, and they might even have been three people. He sounded pissed off. I told him that I am not opening the door and he left. The guy seems a bit bigger than me and younger and I am not sure I could take him out in a fight.

Today, I come back from my job, and what do I find in my mailbox? The opened warning letter from my top neighbor. He put it in my mailbox, why? I have no idea. It looks like intimidation. It looks like a concerted effort. Both of them probably talked to each other yesterday.

Now what? I have no idea what will happen. I was always kinda a coward with people, and don't like fighting people face to face. But I feel that I need to do something if they continue doing this crap. I don't want to call the police, because the police never defended me with anything. They always sided with my enemies. They will probably tell me it's my fault and do nothing. But if I did the same thing to people, they would probably arrest me immediately and send me in jail. That's my relationship with the police. They arrest me for dumb crap but when people do the same thing to me, they do nothing.

Anyway I am not backing down. I don't care if they threaten me; if these people continue to destroy my life with their noise, I will continue to make complaints.

Good for you! You shouldn't back down when it comes to noisy neighbors.

I know you've had legal issues recently, but would it be wise to involve the police?

Not opening the door was probably a wise choice. He was probably doing it just to make noise, the doing it at about 1 am tells me this. He just wanted to bother you. They will most likely jack their music even louder. Its a who can last the longest contest. They just put the notice in your mail box rather than the trash to let you know they got it and they know it was you/think it was you. I don't think anything else can happen. There are special sleep ear plugs you can get that don't hurt after a few hours. I found some once. They are for prolonged noises rather than short term high ones. Keep sending the message to the landlord. I learned from my landlord that if someone gets three complaints in a 6 month period they have to ask them to leave. Just keep building those numbers.

Sometimes there are issues in life that you cannot win, with no allies or friends. The only thing that will work in the long
run is to move to a new place. I don't like backing down either, but you have to know when you are in a no-win situation.

Yes, but running with your tail between your legs every time that life throws you a curveball, isn't a solution either.

The truth is that he should try to get rid of these annoying neighbors. If it comes down to a violent situation, he should then move. He shouldn't give in, just because they try to act like bullies.

Have you considered getting a video camera, when they're making a lot of noise recording inside your apartment and setting the date stamp on the camera so you have evidence.

He can't use violence on them. He's the one building a record. He has less freedom already.

Every time they make noise after midnight, call the landlord and wake his ass up. Shit will stop fast.

You might have to do some sleuthing to get his personal phone number so he can't ignore you.

With regard to the intimidation tactic of putting the letter in your mailbox -- That doesn't strike me as a real "gangsta" move. It's more of a move that a nonviolent person would do just to spite you. I wouldn't worry about it. But certainly don't open the door to irate large men in the middle of the night, either.

Nature Boy has a point. They are preying on your social anxiety in order to get you to fold. Don't let them.

Know where you went wrong? Not talking to them before complaining. Now they just see you as a weird creepy asshole who went behind their backs.

In my experience, this strategy works sometimes, and for some period of time. But, you can't just complain once and expect them to permanently fix their behavior. You have to keep at it. You have to maintain contact with them. You have to put goodwill into the bank so that you'll have a balance to withdraw when you complain. Which in practice means pretending to be friends with them. Who wants to be friends with this kind of trash?

But weird creepy asshole is how they act.

No, the sad truth is that in today's youth culture, they're just being cool and laid-back. Partying all hours of the night is what people do to socialize, and fuck anyone who tries to interfere with their "freedom" to do just that.

Yeah it's inconsiderate, but by not talking it out with them and trying to appeal to their "good nature" first you've put them on the defensive. If you'd have tried talking with them first, maybe left a note or two, they'd probably be less inclined to fuck with you. More often than not people try not to be assholes face to face. Especially when you try to be reasonable with them. And if that didn't work then you've got land to stand on when you complain to the landlord/police.

you could tell them you can't sleep, ever. unless they're complete assholes, they should be reasonable about something that severe. maybe they wont care. probably better than just hiding behind a door, though.