attackfish

I'll sleep fine. I had something a great deal like that already happen to me a few years ago. I picked up my friend from her house near campus, and I was driving her home around 9:00 PM for a sleepover, and the cops stopped us. I had forgotten to turn on my lights, because the campus was lit up like a Christmas tree. They directed me to turn down a dark alley and stop in front of a deserted store front. Then, they told me I had to be drunk, and started harassing me and my friend. First they demanded to see my license registration and insurance, then refused to allow my friend to open the glove compartment (where everybody keeps their registration and proof of insurance, I mean, come on) because there could be a gun! Then they spent an hour berating us for being uncooperative, refusing to allow us to call home, and telling me I was going to go to jail. I refused a breathalyzer, because I'm allergic to alcohol, and didn't want any traces of it left on the breathalyzer to be inhaled, but I was anxious, and when I'm anxious, I use very big words and perfect diction. I was pretty clearly sober. About halfway through, they decided, yes, I was sober, but I was clearly too young to be driving after dark, or with an unlicensed person in the car (eighteen years) and that my license which listed me as 20 was fake. I asked again to call my mother to have her confirm my age and my alcohol allergy. I was panicking so badly I stopped being able to breathe and needed my inhaler and oxygen, and they wouldn't let me get either out of my back seat. My best friend lectured them about bullying a disabled girl while they shouted at us, shined flashlights in our faces, and told us we were going to jail. Finally, I had enough. Wheezing, and terrified I was going to die, that I wouldn't be able to get out of there before my brain ran out of oxygen, or that the cops were going to rape us and kill us, I said that they had three choices. They could let me call my mother and have her confirm my age, arrest us, and give us our phone call, whereupon I would call my mother and confirm my age, or let us go. If they didn't do one of those three things, I would sue them for false imprisonment. They let us go. My friend and I were too terrified to leave my car until I was home. My friend crawled into the back seat to get my oxygen rather than open the door. The whole time they were yelling at us and shining their flashlights in our eyes, and holding us hostage in my car, I could see the pleasure on their faces.

This isn't moving towards a police state. That would suggest that this is new.