I arrived in the Washington area on December 19^th, 2002  to take place in a Delta training of TSA baggage screeners at Washington’s Dulles Airport. I attended meetings that evening and worked on the initial portion of the training until roughly 4pm on Friday afternoon the next day. I had lunch and upon checking my handheld (Blackberry) I discovered an e-mail from my husband asking if I wanted to have a drink.( He was at that time still in Chicago). As a surprise to me for the Holidays, my husband had purchased a last minute ticket on Southwest to fly into Baltimore’s BWI airport, scheduled to arrive at 9:45pm that night. I went shopping for clothes that would be appropriate for a night out in town, went to the Sheraton in Renton, showered, dressed and left the hotel at roughly 8:15 to drive the hour to pick him up in Baltimore. My husband arrived on Southwest flight ______into BWI  at roughly 10:05pm. After retrieving his luggage and getting to the rental car, we arrived into the Washington DC area about 11:15pm. My husband wanted to go take a look around Georgetown, but we got lost in DC trying to find it. We finally were able to get to Wisconsin Avenue around midnight, parked the rental car at a parking garage and went to have a drink at a bar called ___________. We both had 1 drink each there, but decided the music was not to our liking and we left for another bar/restaurant where we split a large beer. We spoke at length to our waiter about Turkey (as he was from there originally and both my husband and I are fascinated by exotic cultures, both of us having lived overseas in the past). As the kitchen was now closed at this particular establishment, we decided to leave to find something to eat before we walked to retrieve the car and drive back to the Sheraton, where I was to be training the next day. The weather in Georgetown on this night (December 20^th) was very temperate and we decided to walk through the side streets and alleys to look at the lovely architecture in the area. (We do the same thing in the Chicago area as both My husband and I are history and architecture buffs.) While in an alley (or more like a side “street” with no outlet that was used for parking,) my husband noticed a string of Christmas lights hanging out of a trash bin as well as a small evergreen Christmas wreath with a red bow lying on the ground. As I had to work previously on Thanksgiving and was scheduled to work as well for Christmas, my husband and I decided to take these items with us to put up in my hotel room to give it a Christmas ambiance. We left the “alley” and walked through the streets until we came upon an Italian “pizza by the slice” place to purchase a loaf of garlic bread. After leaving, we began to walk back towards where the car was parked so we could drive back to the hotel, ( I had to be at Dulles airport the next day to complete the OJT portion of a Delta training for TSA baggage screeners and it was growing quite late). While walking to the car, just before we were about to enter an intersection, a Metropolitan Police cruiser screeched to a halt at the intersection with it’s lights flashing. From the drivers seat of the cruiser, a black policeman in uniform emerged yelling something I could not hear. My husband dropped the lights he had, as he told me to drop the wreath I was carrying. (He stated at a later time that he had heard the officer tell us to “drop it”.) The officer immediately stood at my husbands face, yelling at him to “get up against the wall.” My husband then asked the officer why he had to get against the wall as he had done nothing wrong. The officer kept repeating to my husband to get up against the wall as my husband backed into the wall and was sliding towards the intersection to try and get away from me.(I was growing more upset by the moment and he was concerned about me getting caught up in any trouble). Several times the officer called my husband a “hippy.” (This particular night, my husband had chosen to wear his long hair down as opposed to his usual ponytail). By this time I was crying loudly and asking the police officer what was going on and why was my husband being forced to the wall. The officer ignored my pleas and yelled at my husband to get on his knees. I moved closer towards my husband, who was now being physically pushed to the pavement. I was asking loudly why we were being assaulted on the streets. (At no time had the officer told us we were under arrest nor did he give us ANY indication why we were being detained). The officer told me to “shut up” and he pushed me with one hand away from my husband telling me to “back off”. I told the officer no, that this was my husband and that he had done nothing to warrant his being forced to the ground. At this point, several police cars had arrived and I found myself thrown to the ground and being handcuffed roughly by another officer who had recently come to the “scene”. As I am not used to being violently forced to the ground, I was crying hysterically and was told later by my husband that I was gently rocking back and forth on the pavement keening loudly. I was dragged to a police cruiser where my forehead was slammed into the top edge of the back door while I was roughly shoved into the back seat of the cruiser. My last view of my husband was of him being forced to the sidewalk, his eyeglasses askew, by 3 uniformed police officers. 

 

 

When I arrived to the police station, I was told to remove my shoes and jacket. I was roughly searched by a black female police officer who kept laughing at my tears and telling me to shut the f**k up. When she asked me to remove my shell necklace I was wearing, I tried to comply, but the latch got caught in my long hair which was by this time hopelessly tangled. The female officer kept screaming at me to get the necklace off and I told her repeatedly that I was trying to comply. She then reached out and ripped the necklace off of my neck, ripping out a chunk of my hair in the process. I was then thrown into a cell that held no toilet. I spent my time in the cell crying and keening while my husband was trying to calm me from another cell. Several times, male faces would peer at me, laughing, while I was curled up on the metal rack. I asked on two occasions if I could please use a toilet and was ignored both times, forcing me to squat on the floor in a corner and urinate on the floor. The second time I had to do this, a male officer’s face appeared in the window and laughingly called out that I was “pissing on the floor like a dog” and telling the other officers to “come look at this” to which other faces appeared in the window. By this time I was hysterical, humiliated and angry at the way I was being treated. A few minutes later, after I had yelled out at the officers that I was being treated like an animal and that I knew I had rights, a male white officer walked in with 2 black officers and using a police camera, took a picture of me while the black cops were taunting me. My husband, during all of this, was demanding to see the arresting officer and asking that we be taken to the hospital as I have several medical conditions that needed addressing and we had both been injured while being thrown to the ground and handcuffed. After several hours, we were driven, handcuffed with plastic cuffs, to the hospital where we were thrown into separate “pens” and made to wait for hours to see a nurse. The walls and metal rack of my cell were covered in human feces and the toilet was overflowing with urine and feces. I was denied a phone call and during my hours there, a black policeman named Lt. ___________ would continually come in and taunt my husband and I . Several times Lt. ___________ told us, “peace and love, hippy” when we were loudly protesting our detainment and he constantly called me baby or sweetie despite me and my husband asking him to quit calling me such. My husband asked several times to see the arresting officer  (it was at this time that I found out that we were being charged with assaulting a police officer). My husband was told that the arresting officer was “doing paperwork” and was unavailable but that we “shouldn’t worry” because we would “see the photographs in court”. (Earlier, my husband had been told he was being charged with Failure to Obey”. The charge was changed to Assaulting a police officer after my husband demanded that we be seen by a doctor and that our wounds be photographed.) I was repeatedly called a criminal and when I would try to speak out against the way I was being treated, was told to shut up as I had no rights. I was repeatedly called a cop beater. When I finally saw a doctor (or nurse) my lacerations on both knees and the lacerations on my palms were cleaned and dressed. I was asked if I thought I needed an x-ray, and having worked 12 years in medicine previous to my career as a trainer, I told her that I did not believe I had any fractures. I told the lady that I was under the care of a physician for diverticulitis and an intermittent intersussuption ( a condition where part of my small intestine “telescopes” into itself), that I took many medications for such and was in need of an IM injection of Phenergan as I was on the verge of vomiting. She asked me to rate my abdominal pain to which I told her a 6 or 7. She asked if I needed any pain meds and I told her I thought I would only need Tylenol. After receiving the injection and having my wounds dressed, I was sent back to the cell and made to wait several hours. Lt. ___________ came back into the room and tauntingly told me that I would be spending my weekend in lock-up as I had missed the noon deadline to see a judge. He told me that this was my fault as I had lied and said I was in need of  medical attention and that “this is what liars deserve: a weekend in lock-up” and that I was going to receive “special attention” in said lock-up. After almost 10 hours at the hospital, my husband and I were taken to another police station where we were photographed and fingerprinted. We were then placed into separate cells. During this entire ordeal up to this point, my husband and I did not receive any food nor any water with exception to the sip I was granted when taking the Tylenol. I asked a female police officer if I might have something to eat as it had been over 24 hours since I had last eaten. She begrudgingly gave me some juice and a baloney and cheese sandwich. As I have strict dietary restrictions, including the inability to digest dairy, I was only able to pick the bread off the sandwich. After about an hour in this cell, I was told that I would have to be moved to once again another lock-up where they were more able to handle females. I was placed into handcuffs and into a police wagon and driven to the 3D lock-up. At the time of my arrival, I was the only female there. I was dressed in a very thin lacy bouse, blue jeans and a thin Columbia pile pull-over, (which I had to use as a pillow as no pillows were given). I asked the officer if I might be able to have a blanket. I was told there were no blankets but when the officer saw that I was physically shaking on the metal rack, he took mercy and gave me a white paper jumper. It was only because of this that I did not obtain hypothermia as the heating was turned off at night. I was given a red fruit punch only if I begged for it and most of the time I was not given it at all. On average, I was given fluids every 3 to 10 hours, depending on the individual officers. I was not given any food at all the remaining part of the first day I was there. I was denied toilet paper, (I have chronic bouts of diarrhea due to my intestinal diseases which  is exacerbated by stress) and was forced to sit in my own unwiped feces. By midnight and early morning of Sunday, the lock-up began to fill up with other females, some of which screamed and yelled incessantly all throughout the time I was incarcerated. In the 56 hours I was detained, I obtained less than 3 hours of sleep. Some of the females were denied ANY water as we were told there were no more cups. By noon on Sunday, my left knee had swollen to almost twice it’s normal size, yet I was denied any Tylenol and told that I would have to go to the hospital to get some and that I would “miss my court day” if I asked to go. By the end of Sunday, I was in excruciating pain and was unable to bend or put any pressure on my left leg due to swelling, however I no longer asked to obtain care for fear that I would be forced to remain in lock-up past Monday. In the 56 hours I was detained, I was given 3 sandwiches and roughly 10 small cups of fruit punch. By Monday morning, 2 prostitutes were placed into my cell and as the top bunk was already taken, 3 of us were forced to sleep huddled on a small metal rack. One of the women was bleeding profusely from her period as she had been denied a feminine sanitary napkin for several hours. At about 8am I was “interviewed” by pretrial services who asked me many questions about my address, what I did for a living and whether or not I had ever done drugs. I was told I was going to have to take a drug test and I was threatened that what I told them would NOT be held against me, but that if I lied, I would be placed back into lock-up. About 2 hours later, I was removed from my cell, searched once again and handcuffed to my cell mate to be driven to the courthouse. Every time the wagon would stop or make a turn, we would slide on the metal seat, unable to control our bodies being thrown about the back of the wagon. Upon entering, a Federal Marshall singled me out of the line of “inmates”, (of which I was the ONLY Caucasian) and said to me, “So, you’re the chic that likes to hit cops.”( at this point I had no idea that I had been accused of hitting a policeman with my fist). I told him I did not hit a cop .He laughed at me and said, “I bet you have a real problem with authority” and laughing loudly, walked away, telling another Federal Marshall that I thought I was a “tough girl” and liked to hit cops.

I was brought to another cell with roughly 15 other women and told to drop my pants, bend over towards the female Marshall and “cough”. I complied and after everyone else had urinated into a plastic specimen cup, I was able to give my own urine sample for a drug test. The temperature in the cell was stifling and we were told by the female officer that 2 inmates had been found to have active TB and she walked away, leaving us to fear that we too were being infected with TB. After waiting in this pen for about an hour, we were all taken to another cell to speak with someone about whether or not we would qualify for free council. I was in that room for about 20 minutes when I was called out by a male Marshall. I was led to another room where I was practically pushed before a judge. A man in a suit I had NEVER met quickly stood before me and another stood before my husband who was at my side. I was not allowed to speak and the man in front of me told the judge I pleaded not guilty. The “prosecutor” asked that it be judged that we were to not come within 5 miles of the area we were arrested. My husband and I told our “lawyers” that we were from Chicago and my husband’s lawyer told the judge that this order would be unnecessary as we lived elsewhere. We were let go on our own recognizance. It was after we were released that my husband and I were able to read the report from the arresting officer whom we had never been able to face. The report stated that we were being stopped because thefts had been reported in the past in the area we were found to be walking and that the policeman suspected we had stolen the items in our hands. The story the policeman told said that we acted guilty and that we had tried to conceal the items we had in our hands. He also stated that my husband had acted “very aggressively” and that he had tried to “walk through” the officer. The account from the policeman also stated that I had punched the officer in the face, breaking open his lip. Our charges had been dropped from a felony assault against a police officer to simple assault and we were told we had to appear for trial in February. After checking in and registering with pre-trial and speaking at length about what happened with our lawyers, we were told by said lawyers to not speak to anybody about the treatment we received in lock-up as it would adversely affect our case. The lawyers also stated that we had to appear before a judge that had a reputation for being pro-police and was on the fast track for a political career. They alluded that this particular judge had a reputation for giving the maximum penalty, which in our case was 180 days in jail and a $1000.00 fine As my husband and I are both well paid professionals and didn’t qualify for a public defender, we were told we had to pay thousands of dollars in retaining fees. We walked out of the courthouse on Indiana avenue in Washington DC, a city we were visiting and knew nobody, with no money in our pockets, no shoe strings on our shoes and smelling like animals, 56 hours after we had been detained. I have not been able to sleep or eat very well since that day. We had to spend several hours of our first hours out of lock-up, taking photographs of our many wounds resulting from our being “arrested”. Every time I hear sirens or see a police squad car, my heart races and I fear that we will be arrested again for no reason. Even though my husband is a free spirit and I was initially attracted to his long hair, I begged him to cut it and shave his goatee. I no longer feel safe in my own city among familiar surroundings. Aside from our day in court, I wish to no longer return to my nation’s capitol; not ever again. I may lose my job and don’t even know if I can return to working for a government that I have now learned has no care for the civil rights of her citizens. I trained TSA agents how to treat people with courtesy and respect, only to have other “civil servants” treat me as if I were the worst sort of animal. I was told many times while in lock-up that the police presence in our nation’s capital has become almost menacing since September 11^th; That an attitude of “we can do anything we want now” exists among police since that awful day. I cannot believe that the leaders of this country intended that “Homeland Security” means arbitrarily arresting people on the streets because they LOOK different or “suspicious”; and if this IS the case, then We The People should be very afraid indeed for the future of this great nation.