How would a Jedi handle personal conflicts?

I've pondered long and hard of how to apply the Jedi code to a petty conflict in my life. Recently I was victorious in a legal dispute over a homeowner who failed to control the noise emanating from their property. I did take every civilized step before resorting to the legal system such as personal and anonymous contact, law enforcement, and the city but all proved futile due to weaknesses in the enforcing of noise ordinances in my city.

After my victory it was now so that this resident was aware of my identity and location and unfortunately they retaliated. To my knowledge their teenage kid has been behind every incident, often involving their friends to make it a social event. I've witnessed this individual as a child on more than one occasion shout indecencies at complete strangers, once seemingly encouraged by the father of the child as he laughed after an insult. Because of these events it's very believable that this person is capable of such actions.

Some things I've experienced so far in use late night burnouts, thrown glass beer bottles, slashed tire, scratches on car, littering and most recently loitering near my home. The most frustrating act is the continuing of the noise in such randomized and brief occurrences that it would prove difficult to pin them for it. Most of these incidents lack enough evidence to prove it was this individual but it's the only logical conclusion. Everything has been so im personable as each act is done to make it hard to prove who's behind it but I have approached the loiterers once so far only to result in a hasty retreat from them. Once again law enforcement has been ineffective at dealing with these incidents for the most part.

I feel so much anger and rage knowing that someone could so casually use legally obtained information to attempt and grief someone. All too frequently I focus on these emotions and feel it would be right to get back if not to show I will not be trifled with. A relevant example was a case of bullying of myself that was the only time I immediately influenced it to stop then and there, two kids I'd never had interactions with before saw fit to chuck coins at me as I sat in front if them, our very old teacher didn't seem to notice this, I calmly asked them to stop and of course they chucked another so I got up, walked over and slapped the closest kid in the face, they were both stunned as they surely didn't expect such a response, his friend hypocritically asked why I had to do that instead of just asking them to stop which I simply replied I did. I was never bothered by them again as I destroyed them in that moment. The teacher surprisingly ignored or noticed none of this.

Thinking back on that situation it may have been influenced by anger it had pure intentions and honestly was the only real outcome where I could win, no amount of verbal interaction would have resulted in favorable outcomes, only swift and righteous physical justice. I often think of my actions as a form of Vaapad, the seventh lightsaber form, channeling my own weakness into a weapon of the light.

Why couldn't that example be used as a means to meet this situation in a morally similar fashion? I'm not saying I'd have to punch the kid, though that does seem appealing and would likely yield similar results of discouraging them, but something that would destroy them in a sense that they would surely choose to abandon their efforts? Jedi have met discrimination with similar swift physical and philosophical justice on many occasions but how would they deal with such a personal conflict?

They say living well is the best revenge as actively spending your time and energy to get back at someone is fragile, you may prove to provoke them further, you may be giving them exactly what they want as these types of people generally crave attention, but most of all you're spending time and energy on another person and in the end will have little to show for it. You're playing the game on their field not moving on with your life. Going by my earlier example I dealt my revenge immediately and didn't spend any time or energy after on those guys, things could have gone wrong though had I gotten caught and reprimanded for fighting though the coin throwing would likely have been addressed by the teacher before then.

Ideally I'd move on and make something out of my life but sadly I'm at one of the darkest points in my life, I lost a good friend, am unemployed, dealing with a family members drug addiction, and feel in fated to pretend my most desired dreams. I feel the darkness of these emotions fuel me yet the promise of the life I want to live maintains some purity in me. What is the path to the light side?

TLDR: Experiencing retaliation from a homeowner after winning a legal dispute, want to deal them justice as the law doesn't seem able to, don't want to go to the dark side to achieve this but feel that something must be done to discourage them from continuing. Want to know how a Jedi would go about a similar small personal conflict.

I can't reply fully now (I'll do so later) but if the law allows it, my first action would be to hook up a camera facing the front of my property and catch them in the act, there'd be evidence to take to the police then.

In my (very limited) experience, Police need an accurate time and date to go along with any audio or video evidence, and a willingness to testify in court to this effect in support of the evidence you might provide. If they are not actually breaking the law then yea you really do start to run out of options. If they were only noisy I'd just suggest using earplugs during those times to sleep, or earphones if listening to music, computer or TV... but it sounds like its gone past that now. Sorry to hear, good luck, stay safe!!

Escalation. What makes you think punching this kid, setting a standard that physical violence is now part of this conflict whilst opening yourself to prosecution for assault, is actually going to improve the situation?

It sounds hellishly frustrating, for sure. My feeling is your best bet is to continue to pursue legal options, such as gathering concrete evidence that you're being harassed and getting something legally binding to stop it. That's how you get law enforcement to take you seriously - you prove they should, by following the channels the law allows.

Most of these incidents lack enough evidence to prove it was this individual but it's the only logical conclusion.

You're certain of that? The only logical conclusion for littering near your place is that this kid is doing it to steal your peace of mind? You may be right, but I suggest that it's certainly not the only logical conclusion. You say yourself it's hard to pin this person as being behind at least some of this. What makes you so sure it's all them? I obviously have no idea, but assumptions are not helpful here. I get scratches on my car sometimes, bottles in my yard. Is the only logical conclusion that I have an enemy masterminding every civic annoyance in my life? I doubt it..

The idea a Jedi would wish to "destroy" anyone makes me uncomfortable. Jedi live in compassion and understanding.

This Jedi seeks to improve their situation whenever the situation steals peace of mind. If you can't live with it you have to work at changing it. I can't imagine any swift action of retribution actually improving this situation; sometimes the only answer is hard work to make something better. That may include getting yourself to a position where you can move on, if all else fails. Tough as a move sounds right now, no address is worth ruining your life for. You sound absolutely capable of getting out of this tough situation yourself

I wish you patience and fortitude through this difficult time.

Edan wrote: I can't reply fully now (I'll do so later) but if the law allows it, my first action would be to hook up a camera facing the front of my property and catch them in the act, there'd be evidence to take to the police then.

I actually have this exact setup, I use a program called Blue Iris, and have my own trendnet camera's and run it on my computer 24/7. There is a camera just inside my front door facing out the windows, and I can set which region triggers it to record video/take pictures, and it even sends me text messages when it gets triggered. So everytime someone walks up to my door I get a picture of it and bout 30 to however long they stand there seconds of video and audio recording.

I set this up for the same reason I found evidence of someone snooping around the windows and backyard of my house, at one point they made it part way into the house but because I wasn't around police couldn't and wouldn't do anything about it other then make note of it.

So rules of camera's, The local police, assuming they are half decent police can come in and take a look at your camera's and guide you into adjusting them so that they don't break any rules. For the most part you need to make sure that your camera's natural placement(where ever its pointing at all times) is not zoomed in, is not facing or recording someone elses front door or garage door, or appear that your are intentionally tracking when someone goes in or out of a house across the street. If there is no way around the above, at least adjust the focus to the point you can't see too many details at all of neighboring houses and the focus of the camera is up close or on your property.

You have the rights to video record anything on your property, you have the rights to record anyone walking up to your door, however, some local ordinances and laws may require you to post a sticker advising people coming to your door that they are under video surveillance, or coming near the property also.

Some locals won't allow you to record people walking on the public sidewalks(rare) but for the most part I actually had a police officer come over and I asked them about specific spots I was placing camera's and where I was aiming them, and where I was going to set the software to trigger to start recording and asked if that was ok first before I placed it.

I had one come in and look at the software itself to see the camera's in action afterwords for any adjustments and tweaks and got approval for it all even though none of that is necessary but my camera system I now know for sure any potential evidence it records is 100% legal.

Finding the right police officer willing to help you out is sometimes a treat depending on where you live but I know most of my police officers well enough since I also work in ems and other things with them on a regular basis that wasn't a big deal for me.

I also work for the the PD and every time you call it is recorded. They have to keep a record. You can request patrols on your street. They can and will identify your area as a problem area and will help you address issues. Get your other neighbors involved. I'm sure your not the only one having problems. Build a community of friends together. It's amazing how fast that can change the entire attitude of the neighborhood.


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I think tzb actually covered everything I wanted to say.

It's easy to get caught up and frustrated about a situation sometimes, but that makes it all the more important to step back and look at what it is you're doing. Sometimes upon reflection our thoughts may appear unreasonable, or another path of action may become clear to us.

Well friend, these conflicts are very complicated. Here in Brazil we did not go through these problems, because in general the violence is so great that people are very afraid of dying, you never know who has a gun here (even if illegal)
When the neighborhood is bad, it is best to do is move, in my opinion, but that in general can be unfeasible. My neighbor is very noisy, they have a habit of crying a lot and especially with daughters (I want to report it to the juvenile court), but they are good people, unbalanced, but good people. To make them stop crying, just I made them realize that I was bothered. Obviously yours case is worse than mine.
In the case of the Jedi code, it does not say you have to suffer and not defend. On the contrary, to protect the others, you could have given a beautiful punch right on the nose that kid, but a slap was something far more restrained, this is the balance that a Jedi must have knowledge and measure the acts, surely the slap hurt more in the ego than the body. Often when I have doubt as a Jedi must act, see movies or books, the book "Jedi Path," says that in combat the main blow of a jedi, is only to disarm the opponent, in extreme cases to avert the attack and in the latter case to kill. You've probably is more Jedi than you think. Always remember, a Jedi always serves others more than himself, we should protect others, and thus protect yourself.
About your other porblems, if you want to talk to someone I place myself at your disposal, anytime. I hope you're well