30 July 2008

OMG. Drugs, y'all.

(He essentially called my neighborhood the slums.
Perhaps it hit a little to close to home. )

This morning (or should I say yesterday morning), I left my apartment to go to work and I saw two people standing close to one another whispering about something. I saw money and a small package exchange hands. Even though I've only ever seen one episode each of Homicide: Life on the Streets, and The Wire, I know what I saw. Drugs, y'all! People were buying drugs on my street!

First, I think that the woman buying the drugs should not have been wearing unflattering bike shorts while purchasing her daily (or weekly?) stash. I noticed her because of her navy bike shorts with matching too small stretch tank top. And the piece de la resistance? Keds. You're not going for a run in those, sweetheart. Don't kid yourself or the rest of us.

I was lugging my work bag and my gym bag and trying to seem like I wasn't being a Miss Nosy McNoserson. But I was.

Then (!) this evening, I was walking up 14th street and I saw that cops had raided this store that used to sell wall to wall carpeting. The store had just gotten a mysterious makeover. It was painting and had a for sale sign on it for a while.

Well, this evening, standing in the door of the mystery store were three cops in kevlar vests (should I feel unsafe by not having a kevlar vest?) and they were holding packs of drugs. It was like I had just stepped into the movie Blow--only I was the cute extra in workout clothes lugging a Target bag down the street. Oh and I was trying not to stare. Sometimes my growing up in the suburbs rears its head from time to time.

Then, when I turned the corner onto my street, I saw a cop car in the alley blocking another car. I don't know if any arrests were made or what, but that's the most action I've ever seen in my part of Columbia Heights. I wonder if people are selling drugs to help pay for gas?

So yes. OMG. My neighborhood is out of control. Or at least I think it is. Or at least it was today.

4 comments:

Jenni said...

There is a fine line where the ghetto ends in my neighborhood, and it's just about two blocks south of me...So I totally know what you're talking about.

Anonymous said...

Ugh. I guess you should be glad there are busts happening? Eeeek.

Claven said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dexter Colt said...

If you've ever had a chance to really observe a drug dealing operation you'd be less amazed by the actual sales and more amazed at the many different sorts of people that approach these street pharmacists.

/Spent my youthful summers working at the city parks. Drug distribution central. All walks of life. Is that you Mrs. Jones?!