2020-12-27-1454Z


So, yesterday morning, I was off to Colonia Pitahaya with two of my bulkiest possessions, the 250W solar panel and hand truck. I made it as far as the corner of Prieto and Nayarit when a police car drove right up to me, blocking my way. They started demanding to know who I was, what I was doing, and where I was going. I asserted my human rights and refused to answer anything I hadn't already made public on social media. They ended up calling a higher-up who spoke English, because my Spanish was insufficient to get my point accross (and vice versa), but he turned out to be worse. He demanded identification and I said no. In a Tony Montana accent, he said something like "You gonna show me ID or I gonna fuck you up, motherfucker", so I just said "OK, kill me then", pointing to my forehead. "Just shoot me right now."

Then he went apeshit, cuffing me, trying to smash my head into his car, which I was able to blunt with my chest, and arrested me, apparently for "resisting arrest" from what I was able to understand later, even though I never did anything but object verbally. They first took me to a booking facility and then to the jail, throwing me in a 10-by-10 foot cell with a concrete bench and a toilet with no flush. I have to note here that once you're in the domain of the cops, there's little concern for covid-19. Masking was optional, they wouldn't let me use my good respirator, and the prisoner in the cell nearest mine was screaming at the top of his lungs and spitting.

Oh, and at the booking facility, the same cop, I'll call him Mr. Bravo, warned me that if I didn't answer every question he was going to take me to his "private room", insinuating extreme interrogation methods. I just said "Yes, sir."

On the way to the jail, I was able to get a phone message through from my cell. And it didn't take long—maybe two or three hours—until people who love me were able to improve my situation. I don't know if I can ever relate publicly what exactly happened, but suffice it to say that I'm relatively free again, that I took my situation mostly stoically throughout, and I did my best to educate my captors. It's going to cost me some significant funds, but I'm not sorry I did it. Mejor morir de pie, que vivir de rodillas.

They still have my solar panel and hand truck. I've been warned that the chance is slim that I'll get them back. And they apparently kept all my change, along with my pocketknife and wine opener that they called "armas blancas". There may be other things missing as well, but it looks like they left all my forms of ID alone, and my credit and debit cards.

I think I acted rightly at cusp, for the most part. And survived.

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last updated 2020-12-27 10:27:51. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com