So, I'm homeless and at a certain point in the day I don't really have many options on where I can go to the bathroom. They've closed the public bathrooms and a lot of the bars and other public places around town do not let you use their bathrooms when you're homeless – unless you buy something, which I don't have money to buy. So, I had to pee in a bush. And, I was peeing in a bush and just – I swear to God, if the officer had been two seconds quicker, all of this would have happened with my pants down around my ankles. Just managed to get my stuff put away and all of a sudden — stuff. My junk. Put away. And, all of a sudden, somebody's grabbing me from behind. Did not identify themselves, I had no idea who was grabbing me – it was just somebody was grabbing me. So, I pulled back, which, I believe, is the normal human thing to do and so the officer then pulled me back again, handcuffed me, slammed me into the wall, threw me on the floor, and it wasn't until he picked me back up and turned me around that I saw the cop car – that I realized what was going on. So, that's public urination and resisting arrest. And, because I was bleeding, as he threw me in the back of the cop car, I think that's why he felt the need to accuse me of assaulting him. In fact, he claims that I bit him. Now, I had a witness who was standing two feet away who can tell you that that did not happen, so I've been — I came to court, I was supposed to come to court a couple weeks ago, I was late, didn't realize what time I was supposed to be here, the judge yelled at me, I almost cried, and so I had to come back again today, and the last time they were willing to — the first time I was through, they were willing to drop the assault charge and then – but just charge me with resisting and public urination and give me public service? Community service. And I was, like, "yeah, but I didn't do this." So, I said no, I pled not guilty, so I had to come back, I was late the first time, I had to come back again and they reduced the charge again to something called 220 or 240.20, which is not a crime, doesn't go on your record, it's publicdisorderly—public—public—disorder—disorderly conduct. Disorderly conduct. So, that's what's officially going on my record, it's not officially considered a crime. But, the part that I find interesting is that the police officer lied, completely lied, and claimed that I assaulted him, which never happened. Never happened. That's pretty much the long and the short of it.
Daniel
August 21, 2009
