#myNYPD : a two-part short story
dedicated to every victim of police brutality, based on a true story.
On March 09, 2014, she received the news that a best friend of hers, in Chile (where she resided from 2002 – 2011), committed suicide. Or fell. One or the other. She could email someone for more information. Except she couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t cry. She looked out the window and tried to forget.
On the evening of Friday, Marchl 11, at approximately 11pm, she attended a restaurant one block away from her flat.
At the restaurant, she drank a bottle of Chilean wine, grieving her friend. She is not ordinarily a heavy drinker. It is possible she had another one or two drinks. She ordered some appetizers, olives and a salad.
She arrived back home approximately 90 minutes later. She entered the apartment, put away her keys, wallet and phone where they always go, and started to prepare for sleep. Shortly after starting to undress, removing her jeans and panties, she heard a sound in the stairwell. When she went to investigate the sound, she locked herself out of her apartment – naked from the waist down.
She attempted to kick and shoulder the door open in hope the lock hadn’t completely clicked. Shortly after, two police officers arrived. As she recalls, she was immediately constrained. She was dragged down three flights of stairs in front of all tenants present, dropping in and out of consciousness.
By the time they all exited the building, she was frantically struggling and possibly yelling for help. She was utterly distraught, being dragged into public naked. Because of mher struggling, the police officers beat her black and blue and concluded with a tasing episode that involved zapping me approximately eight times.
The next thing she remembers, she woke up the corridor of ER, somewhere uptown, still with no panties on, and no blanket. She was spread eagle, strapped to some type of board, with her hands and feet in restraints. She wiggled one of her hands free. Someone approached telling her that she bit a cop and kicked a taser. Her hand was grabbed by a hospital attendant and strapped back in. People screamed at her, she screamed back, an attendant smiled about the shot they were preparing.
She woke up on a gurney, still with no panties or pants – but there was a sheet over her. Someone gave her scrubs, she put on her t-shirt and bra in a bag and gave it to the security guards. This is when she realized she was in the psych ward.