I'm having some trouble understanding, does "These people" refer to the David family referenced in the article, the Jane Minor community garden referenced, Rootwork Herbals mentioned, or some other group of people?

> some of them have told me that he's always been eccentric and hard to live with and some of them have tried to talk him out of his misbehavior to know avail

It sounds like the alleged crimes in the article are pretty rough to put up with, if it was your neighbor:

> David alleges Whittaker has vandalized her son's car, spray painted her fence, threateningly shot a BB gun in the air during a teen gardening session, removed sections of her fence and threatened to hit her son with a stick, among other offenses.

I wouldn't call that kind of behavior "eccentric", maybe antisocial. And if that behavior was directed mainly towards their black neighbor, I would call it racist.