> If they were reasonable people and considerate of others they wouldn't be doing that in the first place.
Respectfully, you're probably giving yourself too much credit here (and your neighbors not enough). It's almost certainly the case that you (and me and everybody else reading this) has done something that annoyed a neighbor. You either just didn't realize it or you were tired or stressed and slipped up. But the odds are exceedingly good for any of us that we've had our music too loud, or our stomping was bothering the people downstairs, or we parked somewhere that annoyed somebody else.
If you'd react reasonably when called out for any of these behaviors, then give your fellow man the benefit of that doubt.
This doesn't actually make sense. Of course it matters how likely the outcome is. We all routinely engage in behaviors for which the worst possible outcome is certain death and we do so because that outcome is rare enough that the benefits outweigh the risk.[0] The base rate matters a lot.
[0] Many of these activities, like, say, driving a car, are probably orders of magnitude more dangerous than, ahem, talking to your neighbor.
Perhaps I should have said it more carefully. One should care about the distribution of outcomes and their magnitudes along multiple axes of impact, plus potential mitigation options.
All this leads me to conclude that sometimes calling the police is the right thing to do, even if the likelihood of retaliation is low.
Respectfully, you're probably giving yourself too much credit here (and your neighbors not enough). It's almost certainly the case that you (and me and everybody else reading this) has done something that annoyed a neighbor. You either just didn't realize it or you were tired or stressed and slipped up. But the odds are exceedingly good for any of us that we've had our music too loud, or our stomping was bothering the people downstairs, or we parked somewhere that annoyed somebody else.
If you'd react reasonably when called out for any of these behaviors, then give your fellow man the benefit of that doubt.