least painful of my jail experience.
The bus ride (minus the cuffs) wasn't so bad. We all sang songs of solidarity and cracked jokes to keep our spirits high. We were escorted into the jail and one of the womyn was claustrophobic and started to hyperventilate. Despite our plees that she be booked first to get her out of the small room we were contained in, the police took her last. We were all forced to take mugshots. So we all made funny distorted faces and refused to hold our heads up without very forced assistance. Then we were lead to a large holding room. We called legal immediately and told them of our situation. Then we were told we could go see our lawyers individually or not at all. We were very sketched out about being separated because they had already played a few tricks on us with that. So we demanded to see them as a group. We began chanting and banging on the glass. This caught the attention of the guys(they were in a holding room next to us), so they started angrily shouting and banging on the glass. Finally the guards gave in to our demands. We decided that we would not give our names or allow our finger prints to be taken. There was three womyn who had fully cooperated and given all information even social security number that had gone before us to see the lawyer and we found out later that they were only moved to solitairy confinement and then another room and not permited to see the lawyers. They were told that we had refused to see the lawyers, so they left. Just minutes after the lawyers left the situation became much more serious. Several guards with gloves on(gloves means they plan to manhandle someone) came in and anounced to one of the womyn that her charges had been upgraded to a more serious offense. We protested that she see the lawyers again and we formed a softlock around her. We were very painfully torn from her. I was knocked into a bed with my arm twisted very tightly behind my back. The womyn went limp to nonviolently resist. The pigz wrenched her arm behind her back and then jerked it violently and that's when we heard a crack. She screamed in pain. I'm very concerned that she may have sustained a serious injury as a result of this assault. They took her away pulling on this very possibly injured limb. Her screams(as well as ours) alerted the guys that something was very wrong. They again began shouting and banging on the glass. The guards responded by pulling out rubber bullet guns. They stood pointing the guns at them for nearly two hours. When all of this happened the phones were shut off and we were not allowed to contact legal to notify them of the changes. After this point we were constantly harrassed by the guards. They were trying everything they could think of to get us to cave and reveal our identity. They came in every 20 minutes and asked us if we were ready to give our finger prints. They kept telling us that we would get out faster if we complied. We refused every time. We were joined by folks from the garden action. We were releived to have more numbers on our side(though not happy to see our comrades imprisoned). We were soon cuffed up and moved too another room where we discovered the truth about what the others had endured for complying. Basically they were lied to and used as tools to trick the rest of us into giving our info. They put us in the same room with them only after it was made quite clear that we would not comply and our communication with the guys had proved troublesome for them. It was made quite clear that sleep deprivation was being used to wear us down. They used the extremely bright light in the room(intensified by the very white walls), the heat was turned on and it was quite hot, and they continued the harassment every 20 minutes. The womyn from the gardening action had not been allowed to contact legal so we put up a bit of a fuss about that until they finally brought a phone for them to use. I used the phone to update legal on our situation. When I reported the police abuses an officer came up and confiscated the phone. We made plans to not allow anyone to be removed from the room without their consent using softlocks. They kept coming into the room with gloves on threatening to force us to give our finger prints. They told us that we would not leave without giving them prints and names. We locked down and told them firmly that we would not comply. They pointed to me and another womyn who was with me from the start. We were tangled together tight. The police started trying to pull us apart and we held tight. They began to use the pain compliance again, using the arm twisting and choke holds. Out of breath I released for only a second in which I was violently torn from the group. My wrists were grabbed and twisted. They proceeded to drag me across the floor by my twisted wrists. They then kicked me over onto my stomach and shoved a very fat and heavy knee into my back causing bruises in the shape of my bra straps. They cuffed me very tightly again and twisted and jarred upward my wrists to the point where I was sure if I didn't stand up as they wanted my wrists would break. Even as I stood and walked they held my wrists twisted very tight and said, "why are you resisting? We're releasing you." Considering they had just told me we were going to be forced to give finger prints and after knowing what being "released" had meant for the others, we just couldn't believe them. We were violently escorted to a van and driven to the middle of nowhere and dropped off in a vacant shopping mall lot. The police used many tactics to try to keep us confused, disoriented, and disempowered. We were made to feel like nothing in our situation could be predictable. The people who were compliant got out no sooner than we did and were stripped of many of their rights. Jail solidarity seems to be the best way to survive this situation. It seems that they released us to get rid of us because we were so much trouble to deal with. Also it helps you to stay strong and not socumb to their tactics. I was released without charges, without giving my name, and without giving my fingerprints. They did not even have a useful mugshot to show for it. I have many bruises all over my body but I have protected my rights to freedom of speech and anonymity.
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