Being that there were loud banjo tunes waking her up, Jannique Martinez had gone ahead and called out the man who played the music too loud. Her way in specific? Contacting the police. However, there was something very strange about this instance. And her family has been having to deal with noisy neighbors for years. She then heard loudspeakers playing racist slurs and monkey noises. The black family has been offended by this wholly. This has been repeated so often that it’s spanned the course of months essentially. The local law enforcement themselves have refused to step in, saying that they didn’t have a say in the matter. At one point, Martinez’s young child had even been asking what exactly was this “n-word” was.

In the days since news of this negligence is spreading all over Virginia Beach. In which case, residents and critics alike are calling out the law as outrageous as this hate-crime hurting black people.

Critics of this insulting neighbor suggest he should face some hate crimes and make up for being ignorant. Dana Schrad, the executive director of the Association of Chiefs of Police, had this to say: “You can walk a fine line and not cross over into something ‘actionable’ This neighbor knows exactly how to walk the line, but it doesn’t make his actions any less harmful to the family.”

This shouldn’t be something black families have to deal with.

Some other people possess a different outlook on the whole situation. Such as Attorney General Mark Herring. According to him, it would be totally important to nip modern-day racism in the bud. “Any race-based harassment and discrimination in housing is illegal in the Commonwealth, and my team and I will take any and all measures to assure that it does not happen in Virginia.”

This news comes hot on the heels of Rapper-producer Pharell Williams pulling his festival away from the city because there was little to no attention paid when Donovon Lynch, his cousin, got killed by a cop.