Wrong Side of the Tracks

A short post to talk about my most recent evening. It was a long one.

Many of you know that I have insomnia. It's just a way of the world with me and I'm used to it. So This means that I am awake at 2:30 am and I finally decide to go to sleep. It (of course) takes me a loooong time to actually fall asleep. When I finally do hit the place of slumber, I get fairly ticked when brought out of that. So when I heard the loud knocking at the vacated house next door, I woke out of my half slumber with the wrath of God in me.

A little back story: this house has been vacant for well over a year. They did some work on it last summer, but in the winter, the owner of the house made the very stupid decision of letting a homeless man live there in exchange for keeping an eye on things (it had been broken into previously). The owner of the house knew that the man was on drugs, but found him harmless, and so decided that he could stay there as long as no one else did.

That obviously is not what happened. Soon the homeless man's girlfriend was staying there, then they started dealing drugs out of there. Finally it escalated to the point where we called the police during a particularly brutal fight and called the owner and told him it was getting intolerable. So the guy was kicked out and things were quiet.

Now recently, we've been hearing noises there again. Not big ones, but definitely things have been happening. And the late night visitors have been coming more frequently. Not good. That makes me feel totally sketched out. So I call the owner again and ask him what I should do about it. He tells me the next time it happens, I should call the police.

So I did.

At 3:00 am there was a really scary show down where the cops came in and removed a good number of people. They (of course) found drugs and people were taken away. I was shocked at how awful I felt. I don't approve of the criminal justice system as a way to deal with problems in my community, but I and Tink have told these people, my landlord has told these people, and the owner of the house has told these people that they cannot stay there. It's not safe, it brings druggies into the neighborhood, and is a really sketchy scene in general. So I finally got fed up with things and called the police. But I definitely felt horrible about it even though I believe I made the right decision.

Things died down and I went back to sleep. Until about an hour later when I heard a huge crashing. It was my door. My roommate Tink came tearing down, we locked the door to my room (mine is the only one that locks) and we again called the police. The people were the same that were kicked out of the house. Apparently, they didn't actually do anything other than slam my porch door loud enough to wake the house and scare the complete shit out of me and Tink and stand in our entry way for a couple minutes before leaving. The cop (bless his heart) stayed in the neighborhood for the rest of his shift and I finally got to sleep around 6:00 am. Terrified.

This is not to be sexist at all, but I really would have felt better if a guy had been here. Bloom was away for the weekend... and... welllll... he's not exactly the manliest of men. I think I'd have an easier go at a fight than he would. But I digress. It was a hard and frustrating feeling.

I hope I don't regret living here. I firmly believe in not hiding behind the white wall of northwest DC. I feel like I'm getting to know my neighborhood and that makes me feel safer. And I believe that getting this house next door sorted will also drastically increase my feeling of safety. But I would definitely feel better if it weren't three small women and a guy who might as well be a fourth small woman (but I heart you Bloom!!!).

When choosing to live in this community, I am definitely making important decisions every time I face a problem. What is best for our community? Is calling the police the right thing to do? It ruins the lives of many people, clearly it's leaving at least two individuals homeless, and it's a completely detached way of dealing with your neighbors. Even illegitimate neighbors. But when people so blatantly violate the codes communicated to them by their fellow community members, then how are you supposed to deal with it? Especially when they are engaging in behaviors (i.e. using drugs) that makes them unstable and unpredictable. It's interesting making the choice to live in this neighborhood. I think a lot about what community means to me, and I feel in my heart that I'm making the right decision. I feel like I made the right decision calling the police last night. But I am definitely paying for that decision, and I'm not always positive it's the right one.