#Justice4Squall: A Seizure Story
Donation protected
On the night of Thursday, April 9, 2015, I, like many other 22 year olds, got a late-night "gamer's craving" for fast food. In this case, it was Jack in the Box tacos.
So, I packed my backpack with the essentials--my debit card, cash, bike tools, and riding gloves. I got on my bike and pedaled for the two-mile journey to the restaurant.
After I was done there, I decided to leave my bike locked up in front, and go for a stroll around the neighborhood to settle my stomach a bit.
Little did I know that I would be pulled over for the felonoius, abhorrent crime of "being black in the wrong place".
I reached the corner of S University Dr and Benbrook Blvd, and hit the pedestrian button to cross. I was facing westbound, waiting to cross in that direction. I noticed a police car with only its yellow "dims" on pass me in the lane closest to the curb, going northbound. I did not think much of it. I crossed the street when the signal changed.
I then turned south, to cross southbound. I hit the appropriate button. I waited. And then, from behind, the same police car pulls up next to me. I get illuminated by its blinding spotlight. Out steps a police officer, who stopped me--and I quote him exactly here--"because [I] look[ed] out of place here".
Now, last time I checked, "sundown towns" stopped being a thing a while ago. Or, so I thought.
Over the next few minutes, I was pummeled with all manner of peculiar questions and comments. Included were these gems (my unverbalized thoughts at the time are in parentheses "( )":
* "This is a high burglary area. We get a lot of house and car break-ins here. It's just funny how you're out here walking with a backpack." (There were loads of others out at that hour, also, most returning from bars. Many had backpacks as well, but were not stopped.)
* "Is your backpack full of stuff that wasn't in there when you left the house?" (Well, I found a nickel on the ground by the stop sign at the intersection of W Cantey St and 6th Ave... does that count?)
* "Why are you walking around at night?" (Because it's not always day?)
In a nutshell, out came the typical police tactic known as "trying to get him to say something, *anything*, that we can use as a reason to arrest him, even if he's completely innocent". I, however, invoked my Fifth Amendment right to keep my pie hole shut, and also refused to give consent to be searched, which appeared to annoy the officers more and more ("eek, he knows how to constitution!").
I felt like the protagonist of Ray Bradbury's short story "The Pedestrian", Leonard Mead. I literally got pulled over for the "crime" of going for a walk at night.
Eventually, however, I was released. Told to "get my backpack and get the hell out of there". So, I did. I walked for a few more minutes to clear my mind.
I returned to my bike, only to see that some jackass had stolen my lights. I unlocked my bike and started to ride back--this time via the sidewalks, as riding in the road without lights is extremely dangerous and very much illegal. I had just made it past the intersection of S Adams St and W Berry St. I was walking the bike by this time. I set the bike down and stopped to dig through my backpack for my headphones, so I could finish listening to the podcast I started earlier that night. As I'm doing so, a Fort Worth police officer driving westbound (I was walking eastbound on the eastbound side) does a U-turn from the right westbound lane, across five lanes of traffic (including the center turn lane), to the side of the street I was on. Two more of them sped up to the scene from the west.
Lo and behold, it were the exact same cops.
The first thing out of the officer's mouth was, "You didn't tell us you had a bike earlier... for all we know, you could have STOLEN this bike!"
I mean, really? I'm supposed to tell them about everything I had done that night? How's about the fact that I took a leak before I left the house, or the twenty-five times or so I had farted since I left the Jack in the Box.
Yeah, seriously. Those tacos give me hellish gas.
After a couple more minutes of being accused of basically the same thing I had been accused of less than an hour earlier--just with "you might be a bike thief!" added this time around--I was cuffed by one of them. I asked what the charges were. His response?
"None, YET. You're just being held now."
I was led to the back of the police car and hustled into it. From inside, I could see them pick up my backpack and start rummaging through it, pulling everything they found out of it--down to each and every last individual Allen wrench.
After a few minutes of that and other assorted silliness, the officer that cuffed me approached the car and informed me that I was being ticketed for "bicycling at night without a headlight" (never mind the fact that, at that time, I was walking the bike on the sidewalk) and also being charged with "possession of criminal instruments".
Yeah, seriously. My bike tools are apparently "criminal instruments" now. That charge is one of those that really makes no sense--a cheeseburger could be a "criminal instrument" in some circumstances, for the love of Pete!
So, I start being driven Downtown. On the way there, I have a panic attack and black out. The next thing I know, I'm cuffed to a hospital bed at JPS with two IVs in my arms. Two nurses, a doctor, and a police officer (a different one than any of the ones that had harassed me) were in the room.
I get interrogated by them this time around. Apparently, they thought I "faked" everything to "try and get out of going to jail", and that "it wasn't going to work".
Yeah. With my severe fear of needles, I definitely LOVE going to the hospital!
Good grief.
After some hours there, I am transported to the holding jail Downtown, where I am placed in a solitary cell for about three hours.
I and some of the other inmates there then go before the Magistrate, who, thankfully, dismissed the "possession of criminal instruments" charge against me for what I found out later from my attorney was a complete lack of merit or probable cause. I also found out that many details on the official police report were completely fabricated.
An hour later, I was released onto the streets of Downtown... with only my keys, cell phone, and ID card.
I went to the front desk, and sure enough, they had seized most all of my stuff, and, thanks to those lovely two words--"civil forfeiture"--said stuff was now Gone--capital "G" intended, despite the county declining to pursue any criminal charges against me. My bike, my bike tools, the backpack itself, my headphones, my riding gloves, even my debit card with my name on it--all of that is now forever gone, destined to sit in the Fort Worth Police Department property room before it's auctioned off to Nature knows who sometime next year.
Later that month, as a direct result of the Fort Worth false arrest, a warrant for my arrest was issued by Denton County, where I was under community supervision for hitting a bully back a few years ago (so much for being raised to believe I should defend myself, right?). I ended up spending a month in jail--May 11 to June 11--before I was cleared of wrongdoing (after all, the 'new case' in Fort Worth never had any "there" there) and released.
This campaign is about not only replacing my stuff, but becoming whole again after the attorney fees I incurred, as well as the backed-up bills and such I had on my plate after spending a month in the slammer.
The ticket was later thrown out in municipal court, on June 25.
=====+++++=====+++++=====+++++
What is Civil Forfeiture?
A perfect summary of what civil forfeiture is comes from the great people at EndForfeiture.com:
"Civil forfeiture—a process by which the government can take and sell your property without ever convicting, or even charging, you with a crime—is one of the greatest threats to property rights in the nation today."
You can find even more details at the End Forfeiture website, as well as by watching John Oliver's brilliant overview of it here:
=====+++++=====+++++=====+++++
This is about replacing my belongings--belongings that were taken through a slimy process (civil forfeiture) without rhyme or reason, along with recovering from the monetary costs from the fallout of the false arrest.
So, I packed my backpack with the essentials--my debit card, cash, bike tools, and riding gloves. I got on my bike and pedaled for the two-mile journey to the restaurant.
After I was done there, I decided to leave my bike locked up in front, and go for a stroll around the neighborhood to settle my stomach a bit.
Little did I know that I would be pulled over for the felonoius, abhorrent crime of "being black in the wrong place".
I reached the corner of S University Dr and Benbrook Blvd, and hit the pedestrian button to cross. I was facing westbound, waiting to cross in that direction. I noticed a police car with only its yellow "dims" on pass me in the lane closest to the curb, going northbound. I did not think much of it. I crossed the street when the signal changed.
I then turned south, to cross southbound. I hit the appropriate button. I waited. And then, from behind, the same police car pulls up next to me. I get illuminated by its blinding spotlight. Out steps a police officer, who stopped me--and I quote him exactly here--"because [I] look[ed] out of place here".
Now, last time I checked, "sundown towns" stopped being a thing a while ago. Or, so I thought.
Over the next few minutes, I was pummeled with all manner of peculiar questions and comments. Included were these gems (my unverbalized thoughts at the time are in parentheses "( )":
* "This is a high burglary area. We get a lot of house and car break-ins here. It's just funny how you're out here walking with a backpack." (There were loads of others out at that hour, also, most returning from bars. Many had backpacks as well, but were not stopped.)
* "Is your backpack full of stuff that wasn't in there when you left the house?" (Well, I found a nickel on the ground by the stop sign at the intersection of W Cantey St and 6th Ave... does that count?)
* "Why are you walking around at night?" (Because it's not always day?)
In a nutshell, out came the typical police tactic known as "trying to get him to say something, *anything*, that we can use as a reason to arrest him, even if he's completely innocent". I, however, invoked my Fifth Amendment right to keep my pie hole shut, and also refused to give consent to be searched, which appeared to annoy the officers more and more ("eek, he knows how to constitution!").
I felt like the protagonist of Ray Bradbury's short story "The Pedestrian", Leonard Mead. I literally got pulled over for the "crime" of going for a walk at night.
Eventually, however, I was released. Told to "get my backpack and get the hell out of there". So, I did. I walked for a few more minutes to clear my mind.
I returned to my bike, only to see that some jackass had stolen my lights. I unlocked my bike and started to ride back--this time via the sidewalks, as riding in the road without lights is extremely dangerous and very much illegal. I had just made it past the intersection of S Adams St and W Berry St. I was walking the bike by this time. I set the bike down and stopped to dig through my backpack for my headphones, so I could finish listening to the podcast I started earlier that night. As I'm doing so, a Fort Worth police officer driving westbound (I was walking eastbound on the eastbound side) does a U-turn from the right westbound lane, across five lanes of traffic (including the center turn lane), to the side of the street I was on. Two more of them sped up to the scene from the west.
Lo and behold, it were the exact same cops.
The first thing out of the officer's mouth was, "You didn't tell us you had a bike earlier... for all we know, you could have STOLEN this bike!"
I mean, really? I'm supposed to tell them about everything I had done that night? How's about the fact that I took a leak before I left the house, or the twenty-five times or so I had farted since I left the Jack in the Box.
Yeah, seriously. Those tacos give me hellish gas.
After a couple more minutes of being accused of basically the same thing I had been accused of less than an hour earlier--just with "you might be a bike thief!" added this time around--I was cuffed by one of them. I asked what the charges were. His response?
"None, YET. You're just being held now."
I was led to the back of the police car and hustled into it. From inside, I could see them pick up my backpack and start rummaging through it, pulling everything they found out of it--down to each and every last individual Allen wrench.
After a few minutes of that and other assorted silliness, the officer that cuffed me approached the car and informed me that I was being ticketed for "bicycling at night without a headlight" (never mind the fact that, at that time, I was walking the bike on the sidewalk) and also being charged with "possession of criminal instruments".
Yeah, seriously. My bike tools are apparently "criminal instruments" now. That charge is one of those that really makes no sense--a cheeseburger could be a "criminal instrument" in some circumstances, for the love of Pete!
So, I start being driven Downtown. On the way there, I have a panic attack and black out. The next thing I know, I'm cuffed to a hospital bed at JPS with two IVs in my arms. Two nurses, a doctor, and a police officer (a different one than any of the ones that had harassed me) were in the room.
I get interrogated by them this time around. Apparently, they thought I "faked" everything to "try and get out of going to jail", and that "it wasn't going to work".
Yeah. With my severe fear of needles, I definitely LOVE going to the hospital!
Good grief.
After some hours there, I am transported to the holding jail Downtown, where I am placed in a solitary cell for about three hours.
I and some of the other inmates there then go before the Magistrate, who, thankfully, dismissed the "possession of criminal instruments" charge against me for what I found out later from my attorney was a complete lack of merit or probable cause. I also found out that many details on the official police report were completely fabricated.
An hour later, I was released onto the streets of Downtown... with only my keys, cell phone, and ID card.
I went to the front desk, and sure enough, they had seized most all of my stuff, and, thanks to those lovely two words--"civil forfeiture"--said stuff was now Gone--capital "G" intended, despite the county declining to pursue any criminal charges against me. My bike, my bike tools, the backpack itself, my headphones, my riding gloves, even my debit card with my name on it--all of that is now forever gone, destined to sit in the Fort Worth Police Department property room before it's auctioned off to Nature knows who sometime next year.
Later that month, as a direct result of the Fort Worth false arrest, a warrant for my arrest was issued by Denton County, where I was under community supervision for hitting a bully back a few years ago (so much for being raised to believe I should defend myself, right?). I ended up spending a month in jail--May 11 to June 11--before I was cleared of wrongdoing (after all, the 'new case' in Fort Worth never had any "there" there) and released.
This campaign is about not only replacing my stuff, but becoming whole again after the attorney fees I incurred, as well as the backed-up bills and such I had on my plate after spending a month in the slammer.
The ticket was later thrown out in municipal court, on June 25.
=====+++++=====+++++=====+++++
What is Civil Forfeiture?
A perfect summary of what civil forfeiture is comes from the great people at EndForfeiture.com:
"Civil forfeiture—a process by which the government can take and sell your property without ever convicting, or even charging, you with a crime—is one of the greatest threats to property rights in the nation today."
You can find even more details at the End Forfeiture website, as well as by watching John Oliver's brilliant overview of it here:
=====+++++=====+++++=====+++++
This is about replacing my belongings--belongings that were taken through a slimy process (civil forfeiture) without rhyme or reason, along with recovering from the monetary costs from the fallout of the false arrest.
Organizer
Sergey SquallWinds Kyle
Organizer
Fort Worth, TX
