i feel you. I had an accident and called the police. got arrested, jailed and beaten by guards. first they claimed i was drunk (i dont drink). i could not not stand on one leg for 30 seconds. after brethalizer showed 0 they claimed i was on drugs. got jailed for 2 nights. blood test came back negative for everything 40 days later. they retested it and found wellbutrin and xanax in my blood, my prescription meds. xanax i took 17 hours before the accident, and wellbutrin 8 hours. xanax was too low levels to confirm. they are charing me with DUI for wellbutrin now. everything to keep their story going. My reaction is to stop all the medications, i refuse to be blackmailed for my prescription meds, which dont even help me much. Feels good to be free-er. Hopefully never again.

Did you get a lawyer? Sounds like something that a competent defense attorney could get squashed in about 10 seconds.

Yeah but who just has $3,000+ dollars sitting around for a competent defense attorney? I make six figures and would have a very hard time doing that. Maybe some take payment plans, but my credit is shot... And don't even pretend that public defenders are worth a shit.

oh yeah of course.. spent $15000 on lawyers already. unfortunately they are part of the eco system and i made a mistake to hire one who charges hourly at first. so he dragged it out. now i got one for a flat rate, and hopefully its done soon.

I'm sorry to hear that. That's just god awful. The pursuit of "justice" in this country can make you really sick to your stomach sometimes. I hope everything turns out well for you, my friend.

thank you.. all you can do is go through a situation in a case like that and don't get discouraged.

sounds all too familar.. where did you move to?

google santa clara county jail, and see how many people they killed last year.. and only one of those murders was investigated and 3 guards are on trial. all others are written off.. mentally handicapped inmates with no family, easy target for sadist guards.. and no accountability.

did u ever have handcuffs put on you? i did and trust me, they cut into your wrists just like blades. and the cops don't hesitate to tighten them up and humiliate you with pain. and i am white. your ignorance might catch up with you, but it might be too late for you then.

i got arrested, jailed and beaten by police after calling them to help me with a car accident resolution. 4 month and $15000 spent on lawyers later they are still trying to frame me although by now all blood results show that i wasn't under the influence. and the beating, they claim it never happened and are not releasing the surveillance video of the beating. and it happened in my community into which i pay over $100k in taxes, annually. i was treated like an animal, and nobody cares since they don't believe it can happen to them. and i am white, although a european with an accent. the jail i was beaten in had 8 suspicious inmate deaths just last year, only one of them is a confirmed killing by police and 3 guards are being sued. all other deaths are written off, since the killed inmates don't have family and nobody cares to dig.

Your fist mistake is expecting anyone in America to care about your suffering. Your second mistake is not realizing that the cops don't give a shit about your money or your color once they've targeted you. Yes, they certainly do prefer to target individuals of color because that's been their primary objective in this country for its entire existence and before it was even founded as a country. But make no mistake about it; they will target you, they will beat you, they will kill you if they so like. And they will get away with it and probably with some additional vacation (paid leave) during the investigation.

This is the price we have to pay to keep oppressing blacks, latinos, Muslims, and whomever the undesirable group of the month might happen to be. Your third mistake was underestimating the cowardice of Americans especially the cowardice and fear of white America towards blacks, Hispanics, and recently Muslims. Americans have given up most of their freedoms in exchange for a brutal, oppressive police force whose sole purpose is oppression, racism, and cruelty. What happened to you is totally fucked up, but if you think paying $100k in taxes makes you immune or somehow protected from this brutal oppression machine, you simply do not understand the forces at play here in America.

While most everything you say is true, that is a terrible attitude. Becoming a negative, hate-filled cynic is the easy way to mentally cope with the situation, but it doesn’t help and actually only makes it worse by accepting it. Acknowledging these things as true but still expecting people to behave like civilized people, and speaking out when they don’t, is much harder, but it needs to be done if anything is to improve.

I expect civilized people to behave in civilized manners, but police are not civilized in this country--they have too much power and no consequences. Absolute power corrupts absolutely and what's more absolute than being able to murder pretty much anyone you want and get away with it? That's not a person, that's a fucking tyrant with a badge and expecting someone like that to behave in a civilized matter is what leads one to be beaten up or murdered and your relatives wondering why the cop got a nice, paid vacation for murdering their son. I'm just speaking from purely a pragmatic, survivalist point of view. If what you say works for you, that's great. But after having almost been murdered by an officer for peacefully having a conversation on a sidewalk, I can no longer believe these creatures are even fucking human anymore. And a lot of America thinks this way because a lot of people are oppressed and targeted by police here.

You seem to think that we disagree on the facts. We do not. It is only your attitude that I have a slight reservation against. Certainly, treat police in person in whatever way allows you to survive. But actually hating them en masse (and doing only that), will only make the problem worse, not better. What will happen is that you will transmit your fear of the police to others, thereby cementing the power police holds. The English word “expect” is problematic here; I certainly do not actually assume that the police always will behave civilized, but I do expect them to, if you see what I mean. It is what should be expected of them by society. It is what I, a citizen, should be able to demand. Having this attitude enables me to insist upon proper behavior (in the appropriate venue, at an appropriate time, of course). But simply hating the police only exacerbates fear and resentment.

sorry it happened to you. i like your writings.. i guess the more of us office gerbils get hit across the face with reality, the more light we shine on these issues and cause some changes.

Yup. I think things have to get bad for non-poor whites before there are any changes. You can see this happening right now with the opiate pandemic. When that negativity outweighs the perceived positivity of our de facto segregationist system to white people, a system mainly enforced by police, we might see changes.

For now, I think a good start toward this goal is to start seeing people--all people--as human. That's not just something the police have to do, but something I have to do vis a vis the police, and everyday people have to do vis a vis both police, convicts, and "criminals". I'm personally willing to let go of my hate for the police and the justice system in this country if and when we start treating all people like humans. That means we don't use the threat and actuality of rape, torture, and murder in jail as a punishment when the actual punishment is going to jail. To me, it means police and government officials are held not only accountable, but to a higher standard than normal citizens (worse penalties and certainly no immunity from liability). It also means not criminalizing everyday activities.

Until then, the only thing we can do is speak up, bring awareness, and hope the police don't target us. And probably one of the most important things, teaching our children the truth about police, not the fairy tale of "serve and protect."

there is a police conduct complain procedure. but it can only be used within 30 days of the incident, not an option when you are in enthralled in proccedings. also mountain view PD for example hides the complaint forms from you, and only provides them on demand. Also many Califiornia PD use an anti constitutional clause on the complaints forms, which states that any complaint can land You in jail if found unfounded. And almost every complaint will end up unfounded when filed, still worth it cause it stays in the police officers file indefinitely and if those complaints add up the officer will not be trusted by courts. Point is everybody is discouraged to complain about police misconduct. Myself, i can't dedicate my life fighting this one incident.

i lived here for 15 years and slowly its catching up with me. lack of accountability can be encountered in any country. in europe, in the african countries and especially in the middle east. but i was able to keep my idealistic view of america so far and now its crumbling. the guards arresting and beating me were white, hispanic, asian and i believe at least one was black. the guards on trial for the latest murder in jail are white, hispanic and asian. i don't think its race, its more about the executive branch to be out of control and broken checks and balances when it comes to the executive branch. hard not to take it personally of course, sure feels like i overstayed my welcome here.

what country province city state ?

santa clara county, california

Yikes. When I read your first post, I just assumed this to have happened in some rural area in a less popular state or something, certainly not in silicon valley of all places. That hits a bit too close to home for comfort to say the least.

its a parallel universe, right in front of us. its disgusting what the executive branch gets away with. When you do a little research and see what is happening there right now and how there is no accountability its paralyzing. After my arrest, there has been at least 2 murders by guards. Both unaccounted for as far as i see. One person they claim died of pre-existing condition. When i was in that jail, they blatantly refused to give me my medications. And it seemed like a norm. A second was an alzheimer person. They refused to release him to his family after the judge ordered release. They made the family wait for hours, then lied to them ( or confused ) and told them he was released already. Family rushed to streets to look for him. The sick man was released at 6AM finally. Family was on the streets looking for him for hours by then. An hour later he walked onto a freeway and got killed by a car. His crime was creating a scene at a local synagogue due to his illness. As far as i can see, all it deserved was an article in a local newspaper. And thats the norm here.

I still fall into a rabbit hole every-time i imagine infinity. it started when i was 5 or so. brain goes into a loop and imagines the infinite. for me it was and is connected to space. you have to hit a wall at some point, but then there is something behind the wall.. there can never be something that isn't there. the limited donut universe theory framed the space imagination. but the donut has to be surrounded by something. here goes the infinite loop again.

Happened to me in January, very similar, a bit more severe.. in Mountain View.. Got into an accident ( not my fault, somebody just stopped, 40mph to 0.. i reacted, slightly bumped into him.. my bumper got damaged, little damage to his car. he was a visitor in a rental car. ), called the police hoping they will help to resolve the accident.. police came minutes later, stopped me from taking his information and immediately accused me of being drunk. i was polite, a bit informal and confident that it will get resolved since i was absolutely sober. they made me close my eyes, count 30 seconds.. i counted 25... then made me stay in one leg for 30 seconds, i only managed 20 ( even now i cant do it on even ground ). then field sobriety test, which i thought is finally when they turn attention to the accident which could have killed me. test came as 0, next thing i heard was you are arrested for driving under the influence of drugs. they kept saying i am slurring my speech and am swaying also that my car was reported driving erratically ( weeks later when i got the police report, it mentioned a phone call reporting my license plate, but in a part of town where i haven't been for over a year. and my phone tracking proves it ). they drive me to police station then search my car under the pretense of looking for weapons (i was driving to work, at 5PM, work in a very senior position at a big tech company. drive a simple sports car. not much about me screamed he has weapons ). now the bad part, they found some substances in my car, a toiletry bag in my gym bag. it had an altoids can, which had some stuff from new years, which i for got was there.. they only real drug there was half a pill of ecstasy. which yes, i was dumb to have in my car. then they drove me into the jail, where i spent 3 days. in first 5 minutes there, i stood up to ask when i can make a phone call and that made 4-5 guards jump me and beat me for 5 minutes or so. all on camera and in front of 40 people or so. bail was set to $25.000, $5.000 for each drug they accused me of having. first phone call was allowed 17 hours after arrest. after they beat me, they chained me to a chair for 3-4 hours. they stabbed me with a needle, saying this is just a routine TB shot. on they court day my legs and hands were chained and i was left in some cold cell on a metal rack for about 7+ hours. the judge let me go, pending my blood test for drugs. i had to go back to jail and be there for another 7 or so hours before release. around midnight the nightmare was over and i could go. my work was already considering a search for me, i couldn't call them since i didn't have their number memorized. my blood came out clean a month later. they attorney i hired isn't very helpful. i cant sue them, since they didn't break any bones. now they are testing all the substances i had, to prove they weren't illegal drugs. i get drug tested weekly since. lawyer burned through $10.000 already. paid about $700 to get my car back. next hearing in a few weeks, hopefully all tests are finally done. i am 39, and never experienced anything like this. it was all pretty surreal. now doing research the jail i got in is one of the most notorious for abuse. they just killed a guy a year ago in his jail cell, 3 guards convicted. after me in February a person was killed by them through negligence. ( google Santa Clara County Jail ) So i guess i should be happy nothing worse happened. I do feel guilt for having on me this half a pill, and a few doses of designer ketamine like substances. i feel i should be cautious of how i talk to police. there were 3-4 very professional and polite guards in jail. from the 40 i interacted with. they just seemed sadistic. starting with police and ending with the attorney, all very alarming and eye opening. its like an eco system, which pulls you in. As a professional who is producing value, i told my lawyer in an argument.. after you eat us all, who is going to feed you then?...

This is what I was saying in my comment. Most people don't think of jail as extreme, even through it is. Anyone who has been through it know this. We continue to lock people up for dumb shit. Take your experience and imagine that as your everyday. That's how people in communities of color feel. Police circling around all day, inventing pretexts to search them, which is itself a pretext to locking them in cages. Then imagine having now way to bond out and sitting in jail for months over a charge like yours. Spread the word to you fellow professionals, because, like u before this happened, they have no idea what is going on in this country.