Trouble in the Heights

While I am in the living room sipping on my tea and checking my emails, a cop car knocks on my neighbor's house. While he is waiting for someone in the house, two more cop cars arrive in the street, followed by a cop van with metallic grates. This is when I decide to put my tea down and unashamedly gawk at the scene unraveling in front of my eyes.

The neighbor's son is being literally carried in shackles by the cops and placed into a cop van (one cop for the legs, the other for the trunk, and the last one for the shoulders and head). Over the sounds of the wailing man, the mom shouts at the remaining cop ladies in Spanish and they answer her calmly in fluent Spanish. Columbia Heights is so multicultural!

A lady passing by, unfazed by the scene (which she's probably witnessed a few times before), picks up one of his dropped Timberland shoes and hands it to one of the cops. He unlaces it and brings it over to the van.

Last night as well, while I was apparently sleeping like the dead, my roommate witnessed a cop chase in the parking lot in front of our house. She says that, in addition to the cops, metro guards were also recruited for the chase.

Man, I knew what I was getting myself into by living in this area, but I'm now realizing that my rent is waaaaay to high. This sure ain't 90210, so why am I paying Beverly Hills prices?