*And just to clarify – my beef is not with the law enforcement community as a whole, just those violoating their oath to protect the freedoms that our country was founded upon.*
The arresting officer immediately handed me off to a second officer who walked me down to an awaiting police car. The entire time I asked what I was being arrested for and stated that they were violating my Constitutionally protected freedom of speech. The officer on the right told me he “did not remember” if he took an oath to the Constitution. I was initially put in the second of two holding cells while Toni, the girl who was transported with me was put in the first cell.
Lori, the blond cop, would demand I do something and while I was doing it demand I do another. She came at me aggressively several times, but I never cowered at her attempts to intimidate me. I told her I could only do one thing at a time and if she’d let me finish getting my shoe laces out we could discuss the nose ring (she wanted to forcibly remove it) At one point, after she had come up and started ripping the string out of my hoodie, I stopped her, what business did she have ruining my hoodie?!??! There is just no way I would have ever got that string back in! She let me remove the shirt instead of ruining it. She told me to get out of her face. I had not moved, she had walked up to me and aggressively got in my space then demanded I get out of her face. I told her that, and she backed away.
I was told if I did not remove my semi-permanent nose ring that I would be pinned down and medical would “cut it out”. The older gentleman who was processing my paperwork during this time is the one who told me that. It was repeated by Lori. This was the only point where I was not able to maintain my emotional composure. I got very scared. They had pointed a taser at Kimberly and I was imagining them holding me down, tasing me or cutting my face open or permanently disfiguring me in some way. What the heck does “cut it out” mean? They were seriously going to pin me down and cut something out of my face when I had committed NO CRIME? I started to cry and begged for them to not make me take it out. It hurts, you see the permanent ball on the inside of my nose is bigger than the stud, this is so my nose will basically heal around it and it won’t ever fall out. When it comes out, it scraps the flesh from the piercing canal, bleeds, and hurts for days.
I agreed to take it out but had to beg to do it with soap and water at a sink. I knew it would bleed (and it did, not a lot, but it spotted) and I knew in that filthy jail that I was likely to get it infected and be in a lot of pain if I did not have a sink and soap. I had to BEG for this.
At this point Lori, the blond officer, began making fun of me. Calling me a whinny baby and a moron for having a nose ring. I was later told by Sergeant Votaw that calling their detainees names is not standard protocol.
Why did I have to BEG for access to sanitation when being forced against my will to do something I am telling them will make me bleed? Why was I forced to do something that not only terrified me, but hurt me badly? If we are considered innocent until proven guilty, why did I feel like I was being punished? Putting the nose ring back in was much worse than taking it out as the inside of the piercing canal was swollen and raw. I still had not been told what I was being charged with or why I was being put in a cage.
I spoke to every officer, individual, and detainee that walked by. I figured if I made this an experience they would never forget, that they might go home, get online and research some of the things I am talking about. They had made an attempt to silence me through force, restraints and a cage, but I knew I had committed no crime and that in their hearts they knew that too. At the least, they’d go home and talk to their spouse about the things I was saying.
After the nose ring incident I was put in the same holding cell as Toni, the girl who had rode over with me. She sat me down and said, “I didn’t know that white people felt this way”. We talked about how the police treat people in her community. I explained to her that Obama and Bush are one in the same, that our country has not been free or representative for a long time. We began talking about a plan to help her community learn their rights.
As I continued to talk about the Constitution and
oathkeepers.org to the officers, they decided it’d be best to go ahead and move me to the back before processing me. So they did. Every time an officer came back I continued speaking of the Constitution and how NOT free I was at that moment. One officer realized I was never given a blanket and came back with one for me. I talked with my cell mate and the girls in the cell down the hall about how the people are treated in their community. I heard stories that broke my heart. The girls are routinely pulled over and their plates have already been run. They said if you are black and you get pulled over in Maplewood you are either going to be beat up or arrested. They told me that officers ask them questions like “how do you afford this car” when they walk up to their window. These are girls with children, some of whom did not know who their child was with as they could not get ahold of anyone because everyone they know has cell phones. Is this really for the public good?
I knew the word about my arrest had got out because someone I know from Southern IL had called the jail and the officers told me to call him (of course I did not have his number as I was in JAIL and of course they did not write down for me). It felt good to know people were concerned.
I called my mom collect about 10 times before getting through, they had been out for my dad’s birthday (Happy birthday, huh? Daughter’s in jail). I initially told her that I did not know what I was being charged with and to help me find out and to find out what my bail is. Toni was in that cell again at that point, and my mom took her boyfriend’s number and called him to let him know where she was and what her bail was. She too doesn’t know people with landlines. When I called my mom back she reported that Maplewood had told my mother that they were likely not charging me with anything and just holding me for 24 hours.
I was devastated. They KNEW they were not going to charge me with something but were going to hold me behind bars for a day anyway? What had I done to deserve this?! At that time I gave my mother my twitter user name and password and had her log into start reporting what was happening. She did. From the response that I’ve received, Maplewood was bombarded with hundreds of phone calls throughout the night and next day.
Allison Gibbs of the Ladies of Liberty Alliance had tried to bail me out – Josh was trying to bail me out at the Maplewood Courthouse. They told people who called there would be no bail and that I was being held for 24 hours and that there was no going around it.
I was finally processed, after everyone else, even detainees who came in after me. This felt like deliberate retaliation to me.
At this point the cells were becoming extremely cold. There was toilet paper shoved in the vent blowing down on my top bunk bed in an apparent attempt by a previous detainee to stop the cold air from blowing so hard. The girls in my cell began to cry out “we’re cold”. We all began asking for blankets. After what seemed like 15 minutes of this, Lori came back and told us she was “too busy” to get us blankets or turn off the AC (it was coat weather outside!).
I called my mother a third time and let her know about the freezing temperatures and the refusal to help us. No one in there with me had been convicted of anything, just swooped up off the streets due to a warrant. These people should still be presumed innocent and there was NO reason for us to be kept in such horrible conditions. It really was miserable being that cold. My mother told me that she was getting emails from people saying I had been left go. I did not know it, but Josh had bailed me out 1.5 hours before I was let out. I still did not know what my charges were!
I started screaming at the top of my lungs that people were saying I was FREE yet they still had me in a CAGE – I sang songs at the top of my lungs about how they were lying to my friends and family saying I was free when I was not.
Lori finally came around the corner, sighed and leaned against the wall. She asked “what?”. I said, politely, “why am I still in a cage when my friends and family are telling me I’m free?”. She told me that Josh had bailed me out and opened the cage. She made fun of me saying, “you’re not a bonafied activist, this is the first time you’ve been arrested”. This surprised me, I guess it is to be expected if you are a law abiding protester that you will be arrested these days…. sad. She also said to me, “you’re not that important”. My response was a smile and, “Ask Maplewood how many phone calls they received”.
While giving me my belongings another officer tried making fun of me. Saying what would I do if he came up and urinated on my desk, or took s dump. He claimed that was his free speech and said I would likely use the cops against him for that. I tried to respond a few times but was so happy to get out that I just decided to smile when he interrupted me to make fun of me more. When Lori let me out the door she said, condescendingly, “go be free little butterfly”.
It wasn’t until I walked around to the front and found Josh and Jesse standing there that I found out I was charged with “Failure to Comply” and that my bail had been the insanely high amount of $750.
How dare they, especially after telling my family I wasn’t going to be charged.
Article I Section 1- “That all constitutional government is intended to promote the general welfare of the people; that all persons have a natural right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and the enjoyment of the gains of their own industry; that all persons are created equal and are entitled to equal rights and opportunity under the law; that to give security to these things is the principal office of government, and that when government does not confer this security, it fails in its chief design.“
– The Richmond Heights Police Department claimed they did not know the charges against me. To imprison someone, threaten them with physical harm both to person and property without having substantiated any charges against that person is destructively and criminally negligent.
Article 1 Section 10- “That no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.”
– The Richmond Heights Police Department detained me without knowing if I had even been charged with a crime. All jails have a responsibility to make sure that all detentions are lawful, and if Richmond Heights wants to sell its jail space to other municipalities, it must take steps to ensure that these other municipalities’ officers are making lawful arrests and that they are not forcibly detaining a kidnapping victim. .
Article 1 Section 21 “That excessive bail shall not be required nor excessive fines imposed nor cruel and unusual punishment be inflicted.
– While in custody at the Richmond Heights facility I was forced against my will after having been unlawfully arrested (kidnapped) and detained to cause physical pain to myself under the threat of having greater pain inflicted. I was also forced to endure (as were the other girls) unreasonable temperatures. I have later learned that this is a tactic used to keep detainees “docile”. I had committed no crime, I had no reason to be there, and had absolutely NO reason to be treated in such inhumane manors. I am not an animal.
