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General / My First Arrest At 49

« on: April 09, 2011, 02:15:47 PM »

I was recently arrested for the first time ever. I'm 49 and the experience had me somewhere between hysteria and emotional shutdown and has done a lot to set my respect for police to almost nothing now. It started as a minor speeding traffic stop by MD State Police and escalated to a DWI, the first ever for me. I really think that the officer was prejudiced against me for being transgender with makeup and a manicure because once he  looked at me his attitude changed and he decided to test me for DWI. While I was driving my course was straight and true, I was listening to an audiobook on science while driving. I made the mistake of following the speed of a couple of other cars out on the highway and wound up in a speed trap. I still remember the whole affair that happened that night and how abusive the whole thing was from beginning to end.

I'd like to fill in a bit on what sort of person I am before continuing the story so you can get a better perspective on just what happened. Throughout my life I've proven to be a very peace-loving and honest person who's maintained a professional career over the decades. I'm anything but a troublemaker and outside of dealing with some remarks and minor harassment over my transgender appearance I haven't had a lot of big conflicts or drama in my life. As for my drinking habits, they are light. If I go out I usually nurse a drink for quite a while and it's usually a good ale and rarely mixed drinks. It's rare that I drink anything at home and a few few bottles of ale can wind up sitting in my fridge for many months. And further if I don't feel right enough to drive I won't. I'll sleep at a friends or at the very worst sleep in the car.

The officer had me out of the car and and I was relaxed and speaking entirely civilly and I had no question about how lucid I was. The officer wound up saying that he wanted to test me and said he was waiting for another officer to arrive with a test kit. Once the officer arrived he announced that there was no test kit (he lied to me) and that he was going to arrest me and at that point both of them tackled me and slammed me into the side of the one police car pulling my arms behind me which frightened me beyond belief. Then they proceeded to search my car without asking me. Later when I got my car and took it home I could see that they had rummaged through things in the car and that they opened up every pocket on my purse in the car and dumped everything out all over the place. I had remained entirely still through the whole thing. Then they pretty much stuffed me into their car as if I were an oversized box and then drove to their barracks. I was very shaken up and verging on hysteria. They led me into the building and sat me in a cinderblock walled room. Then they started asking questions, commanding me, and wanting to process me and I just wound up emotionally crashing into inertness. My mind just stopped processing and I wasn't hearing most of what they said to me. Their harangue kept getting worse and that only shut me down even more. They yanked me around some to illicit a response and I did respond at one point in an upset voice about how antisocial and violent I thought they were and that they have me so upset that I can't think or begin to hear what they're saying to me.

Then after they stopped their harangue while I was just sitting there entirely still and silent the one officer grabs the handcuffs between my hands and whips me down onto the concrete floor and then drags me down the hallway and into a cell where my head hit the side of the steel bench in it and then left me there. I was lying in there for maybe a couple hours and then they came in and commanded me to get up while kicking me and I just continued to lay there so the officer grabs the handcuffs again and drags me out and down the hallway and through the building out to his car and drives me to some other place a few towns away from where my car is sitting and once there wind up in an office where someone is rattling on about laws and legal stuff that I'm in no emotional state whatsoever to understand at all and they have me read some form without my reading glasses so I couldn't read it and then sign it. After that the officer escorts me outside into the very cold night with no way to get home or make a phone call. I just began walking and after a few hours and one very nice elderly guy offered me a ride part way I managed to get home with very very sore feet from walking in wedge heel boots. Both of my wrists were also very swollen and sore too so much so that my watch would not clasp around my wrist. I'm still waiting for a court date. It's been over 2 weeks and I think about the whole ordeal every single day. I cannot understand how anyone civilized would support this kind of sociopathic aggression on people who have done nothing.