Oh, and we have some new neighbours!
Junkies.
This is the work of junkies -- ripping open the Sitex of boarded up flats and crawling their way in for a hit. Since junkies only need a place to score, they are unlikely to care about where they do it.
There has been a 'nest' of junkies in our council block before (and they're still there, on the first floor). It's easy to tell when they're in, usually by their arrival time -- 2 or 3am, when they clamber themselves through the metal sheets in their many, like zombies scuffling out of the dark and eager for food.
This clambering obviously makes a lot of noise, as the metal is either taken off the windowpanes or just jumped through. Also, hearing the elevator busy at work at 2 in the morning is unnerving, especially when you know that the residents who still live in this block are indoors by 10pm.
It is the clattering Sitex that brings in the attention of cops, thanks to residents dialling them in. We don't need the police around. Even though there are 'fluffy squatters' here, the police don't care, they don't see that distinction, we're all the same to them.
We don't need any annoyed police officers, restless from not having caught their 'junkie-of-the-day', sniffing around our squats in the hopes of a catch, or a reason to catch.
Right now, they're sniffing about in a street adjacent to our block which, according to USgal, has been turned into a drug net and is being patrolled by plains clothes drugs police!
Together with the few drug punters hanging about for their dealers, and using our parking lot as their waiting room, and our home feels a bit unrecognisable. It's like walking on to the set of a crime drama. The flat smashing seems not to have deterred anyone, and has instead contributed to the estate's new ambience; some might say they created it.
Although Kitchen Sink Neighbour has told the junkies that our floor is a no-go zone, it's not a helpful tactic for those families who still live in our council block. We need unity of some kind, to repel this menace. Right now, we're not sure how.
