[memecherry]

Ooooookay I have to chime in now:

For many years I never went out alone... Like never.. Was too scared to.

Last year after the latest nasty breakup I said fuck it, I'm going out, no longer living like a hermit.

Went to a neighborhood (Alameda, CA) bar, had a few drinks, noticed it was almost midnight & figured I should go home before the club got crazy. My job was running a fitbit contest at the time, and with the nice evening weather I decided to walk home. Mind you, I pay A LOT of rent to live in Alameda because it's quiet & safe (Spent many years living in San Francisco & Oakland).

I put my earbuds on & started the 30 min walk home.

I came across a warehouse with construction that had a sign on the sidewalk, I had to step into the street (mind you no cars or people around) to walk around the sign. Next thing I know there are police sirens behind me and the cops are stopping me.

They said they had been following me for a while, asked where I was coming from & where I was going to. They said I had been walking funny. I told them I had music in my ears & I pointed in the direction I came from "Churchward" pointed in the direction of my house (6 blocks away) and said "home on 9th st".

They asked me for my name, I figured ID was next so I thought I would save them the step & handed them my ID. ID that showed my house is a few blocks away.

They asked me for my phone number, I asked why they needed it. They asked again, I asked again. Next thing I knew I was being slammed into a fence and handcuffed. I have NEVER been arrested....

I started to cry and asked what was going on, they snarled in my ear "that's what you get for not giving your fucking phone number"

While crying I said they could have it, they told me it was too late, I was going to jail.

They then drove me to a jail 45 minutes away because "Oakland jail recently changed their rules and aren't taking any alameda people" (oakland is right by Alameda).

I cried the entire way to jail.. I was told they wouldn't hold me any longer than 6-8 hours. 12 hours later I was released from one of the worst nights of my life. I won't even get into how horrible jail is.. Chemda made that point clearly.

They tried to charge me with "drunk in public" even though no sobriety test was done on me. I spent the next few weeks in a panic thinking about how this arrest & possibly something on my record would affect future job searches.

No charges were pressed... They had nothing.... But I am now scared of every Alameda police officer or car I see going by, no matter what time of day or night.

Part of me is convinced is because my ID said Mariana Grajales, not Suzy Smith...

Part of me thinks I was just another number in the goal they have to meet.

All I know is that I don't feel safe around folks that are paid to "keep me safe". I also would like to believe an officer that keeps people safe would have just taken me home.... SIX BLOCKS AWAY

I actually just recently went to the same club & took the same route home walking just to work through some of the trauma. I was way more sober & way more ready for questioning, but still.... It's fucked up.