When Authority has no authority and racism trumps all

Of all the various types of student antisocial behaviour, this, that is still happening to one resident in Burley, is the possibly the worst: a group of originally all-white students, not just deliberately keeping the long term resident next door awake night after night with loud music and screeching, but adding racism into the mix. This included mocking West Indian forenames, doing impression of Jamaican accents, and referring negatively to people of colour. And on August 8 the resident managed to obtain this very clear recording of anti-Semitic chanting. This means that the “neighbour” who is a person of colour themselves, can add feeling threatened to the loss of any quality of life. But the situation is made all the more serious because there is no authority apparently in Leeds, not the University, not the Letting Agent, not the Anti-Social Behaviour Team, not the Police, not the Councillors, no one has the power to stop it. The sleep-deprived neighbour has played the tape of the chanting to all the relevant authorities and has now waited through August and September, and halfway through October for someone to make them stop. The police considered it a race hate crime and advised their University as such. The neighbour has worked from home all through Lockdown and beyond; the first students moved into their house on Leaving Day. All but one (the Letting Agent) of the above authorities have spoken to the students, and now they know that Authority has no authority.