prison story

when they came she was readying herself to go teach, wearing only a leotard pulled up to her waist, food warming on the stove, about to eat+dress+ride. when the unfamiliar voice call out, she ask who and the response come: “police”. figuring some friend playing the arse, she throw on a jersey and go to find 2officers on her gallery, guns drawn. she say she not dressed and run back for the 1st shorts she could grab, then come out onto the gallery to try to keep them out of her space.

they claim they see her plant from the road and come to investigate and while she and anybody who'd been there know you cyah see that from the road, they were already on the gallery, guns drawn, so later for figuring out that part.

the officers claim the illegal plant give them the right to search her person and the premises; the subordinate officer all about protocol, insisting on searching, while the superior officer mejias just want to take her to the station for her person to be searched by a female officer. the subordinate came inside alone with her following closely, terrified, remembering her stash sitting on her bedside table. he start at the furthest point, her bedroom, lifted the mattress but didn’t open the floor-to-ceiling wardrobe or move anything on the open bookshelf stuffed with clothes or look in either of the full laundry hampers or any bags, look straight past the ziplock containing her stash, and ask her to open the wooden box next to it. she open the box, explaining that it was a gift and came full, a care package, as and the lid fall open she mutter a surprised curse at the forgotten (untouched for over a year) small emergency stash sitting right on top.

she worrying about the room her landlord uses for storage and keeps locked because she know it must seem like a grow-room and didn't think they’d believe she have nutting in there, never seen the inside of it, have no key to it...but when the officer left the bedroom, after his cursory glance around her storage room where he open no bags or boxes or crates or filing cabinet, and his non-venture into the bathroom area, when they reach the spare room and he try the doorhandle to find it locked, she explains, expecting him to break the door down, but he simply nod, doh even ask who her landlord is or make any further attempt to get into the room. she realise these officers on shit.

he glance around the kitchen but doh open any cabinets or fridge/freezer. in the livingroom he move no furniture or cushions, pulls not 1book from the hundreds on the shelves, look straight past the small bag of seeds on the table, and pick up her bong and ask what she's smoke in it. she say, "loose tobacco", he put it down and leave it right there, no attempt to check her story even though he grab the big bag of stems from the table right next to the same bong.

they say they taking her to the area police station to be searched by a female officer and charged with cultivation+possession. she say she have 50students waiting on her to teach and could they pretty please come back and arrest her 1st thing in the morning, or even wait for her outside her class if they want and take her right after, but they insist on now. she ask to get dressed to go as she have barely anyting on, they concede, and she went inside and changed clothes, unwatched, not bothering to point out the uselessness of searching her person now.

they take her+plants+stash to the station in their vehicle; superior officer mejias ask how much she's pay in rent, which she doh see for what it is in the moment, and simply answers. the female officer pointlessly strip search her and lock her in a cell. she wait for ages with other officers with no connection to her case wandering in to ask if the plants+stash were hers, shocked+awed at the affirmative response, until mejias come to take her personal and identifying information. when she answer "soon-to-be-divorced" he ask if he could take her soon-to-be-ex-husband’s position, then put her mobile number in his phone right in front of her after writing it on the form. she ask, "what the fuck?" and he say how after all this, he want come and see her to "reason" about how she end up in this situation.

he ask if she have scars and she say “yes”, same question+answer about tattoos, and he enter both yesses on the form with no qualifying information or inspection and she realise why criminals never get caught in this place. he say they taking her to another station for criminal processing but waiting on the rain to stop to get back in the vehicle. eventually en route, she say she eh get her 1phonecall and ask to ring her friend who was supposed to be meeting her home to come get her. they hand her back her own mobile to make the call, saying that’s not actually allowed.

she's instantly abused by asshole female officer wpc#17159joseph-francis on arrival for processing because they weren’t supposed to let her keep personal effects and now everything hadda be inventoried and she vex with the prisoner for that. wpc#17159 rough her up while taking her phone and driver's licence and was loudly verbally abusive during inventory, shouting for whole station to hear, uninvolved civilians out front included, "where the rest of the shit for the drugs?!" when she find a single clean rolling paper and the prisoner say quietly that rolling papers not illegal and sold over the counter all over the country. wpc#17159 shout+cuss some more that the inmate is to say nutting unless asked, and continue abusing her about non-existent drug paraphernalia, saying there must be crack rocks among her belongings. she was physically manhandled the entire time; found a plethora of little cuts+bruises on her body the next day. wpc#17159 grab her by the scruff of her neck and manhandle her into the search room, make her strip again, and when she try to hand over the leotard, explaining she didn’t want to throw what had to clothe her vagina on the floor, she get abused some more and made to drop it on the floor, to then be picked up and “searched”. she had to squat+cough and get rough-up some more while naked, then dressed and was manhandled out the room and into the 1st cell, already occupied.

outside the cell, leaning on the wall in the corridor was a bite-up piece of foam her cellmate, deidre, inform her was the “mattress” that the cleaner took out the cell earlier and deidre’d been asking to have it put back in for hours, to no avail. on top of it were clothes deidre say belong to a dude they strip search in the cell-corridor right in front of her and apparently put in a cell naked. dudes in cells down the corridor complaining about not being allowed to bathe for days.

deidre takes a shit and the new prisoner learns the toilet is a porcelain bowl inset into the floor so they had to squat over it, then ask officers to flush it from outside the cell, which officers then take hours to do. deidre apparently had been asking for the necessary toilet paper for hours prior, which they grudgingly provided only after putting the new inmate inside.

the new prisoner was there for hours with nothing happening except cellmates shouting and screaming for baths, toiletpaper, water, the never-given 1phonecall, deidre tryna get her children who doh know where she is for 2days now because she get no phonecall to get her medication since stealing the chicken to feed them; an officer eventually make calls for her to organise the meds but she never get to make her 1call. a male officer come to take the new prisoner's info for the same form mejias already filled out. even though they inventory+itemise+holding her personal belongings, he ask if she have a driver's licence. he ask about her height+weight and eye+hair colour, and she, angry at the unwarranted abuse by wpc#17159, say she have no mirror and he looking at her and have her driver's licence in custody so he could tell her. he ask what kinna hairstyle she have, she say figure it out himself, but when he keep asking she state the obvious, "canerows". he say that not on the list and when she ask what her options are and he say “rasta”, she refuse because she not rastafarian, but the requested “dreadlocks” wasn’t an option. he show her the form, listing about 10choices, including: rasta, natty/picky, nappy, long, and straight/jhericurl. wondering in what universe "straight" and "jhericurl" the same, she choose natty, although she also suggested long, since her locks come down to her backside. he selected “cauliflower” to describe her ears, then ask if she have scars. she say yes and he actually ask where and she say, “all over; boy days” and he went no further; she said "yes, several" about tattoos and he went no further; still no pictures of identifying marks taken.

she wait hours then was dragged out by wpc-bitch to be fingerprinted by a different female officer, who apparently could do the intricate work of applying false eyelashes when donning in her uniform but cyah fingerprint worth a fuck: too much ink on the fingers to get a clear print, everything smudged, plus when this wpc fuck it up she redip the already-too-inky finger and try to line it up to reprint on the same spot already smudged, as though one could possibly hope to line up fingerprint whorls. 3copies of the form, each finger and whole hand printed on each and the prisoner done know she’ll have to redo all. thankfully the boss reach just before the 3rd copy and tell her what the prisoner coulda long time, and start them over. the whole process took more than a half-hour.

going to fingerprint she saw her friend there to post bail but wpc#17159 was clearly processing on go-slow on purpose. more time, then another dude come to take mugshots; still no pictures of tattoos or scars. even more time then wpc-bitch call her outside and tell her to sign off on a sheet of paper. she reading what she signing and get cuss for taking long, she explain she reading it and the information inaccurate (height+weight+hair+eyecolour all wrong) and wpc#17159 shout+cuss that she looking for an excuse to say the prisoner wouldn’t sign and could thus be denied bail. the prisoner try to say she not refusing, just doh know if she should correct the form then sign, or if officers hadda correct it. wpc#17159 cuss her again and shove her back in the cell without allowing her to sign. prisoner shouting from the cell that she didn’t refuse to sign is ignored. hours later they let her friend call a judge to sign off on her release and pay bail.

mejias had said she had to be in court for 9am, then later said 1pm; the judge who signed off on her going home for the night said 9am, and when she ask, he say it should be 1pm because charge cases get called@1pm but if they choose to call the case earlier and she not there she breaking terms of the bail agreement, her friend in jeopardy, $ already paid is forfeited and full bail would be $75,000.
mejias ring her mobile around midnight just after she finally reach home, saying he’d be in court for 1pm. he ask if she have to pay back her friend the bail$ and when she say, of course, he say, doh worry, "we" will take care of all these tings after trial.

next day, court make her friend tuck his shirt in his pants, case call in the afternoon; mejias message to say he in 1 of the courtrooms and where she? when police bring in her 2plants, the whole courtroom gasp, shocked+awed, and again when her stash was presented, lawyers+bailiffs turning around to ask if tha’s she own. judge call her case, she step up, heart in her mouth as they read the charges, but before her turn to speak, police request a delay because they eh do trace yet. her case called back next day; as she leaves, an old dude tell her: "you’s a boss!"

next day, en route to court, the same man see her in the road and stop to give her a bounce and tell her again, she’s a boss. different female judge; they buff her friend for sitting with his legs crossed once their pew empty enough for him to have room, and after hours of proceedings a bailiff finally notice an old man in an untucked dashiki and actually call him over to tell him leave and tuck in his shirt, as though he hadn’t been there, undisruptive, for hours.

same reaction when the evidence come in again; she tells the truth about her habits of biological recycling, admits stupidity in keeping the plant when it sprung up unexpected because of her turning all biological matter back into the soil, explains she knew she couldn’t do anything illegal with it and tha's why she thought it was ok to let it live, plant-lover that she is; the only untruth was saying she doh smoke anymore, supported by the obvious age of the stash and the officer's admittance that she was as surprised as he to see it in the box. she wisely didn’ bother to point out errors in the police report (they never showed badges or said anything about her rights like they claim) even though she wanted to, figuring she shouldn’t bring up their incompetence unless she needed to, to fight her case. she got off. the judge could tell she eh tryna make trouble, and made her promise to go through the flat and get rid of anything illegal left. she ask for her plant pots back and judge say she could collect them at the station.

mejias rang several times after the case cleared, sometimes from different digits to trick her into answering but she refuse to engage. a couple weeks later mejias followed her friend leaving her place after midnight and pulled him over a few blocks away; when mejias recognise him, he acknowledged, say he was checking who it was, and let him go. her friend circled back to warn her police still watching, and mejias came back behind him, put on the siren to call him outside, and after raised voices for maybe half-hour, they left separately. when he reach home her friend ring and say they basically harassed him about nothing and he said as much to them. since the night he tell mejias it seem he being unjustly harassed, she eh hear back from mejias, although he still drives by.
later talk with the downstairs neighbour reveal that the officers came to her downstairs door first, guns drawn, with talk of hearing about marijuana, confirming that they never saw the plant from the road like they claim- from the road, and definitely from the time you enter the yard, if you looking at plants on her upstairs gallery, the staircase to get to them is immediately obvious, so if they see the plant they woulda come straight to her gallery+door where it was. now she know the whole ting was a setup for mejias to get in her drawers and watching anxiously to see if he return.
this is the true story, to date. draw your own conclusions, make of it what you will: this is how police handling tings in sweet t+t...walk good.