originally posted 3/4/2012
On June 6, 2010, I was arrested for failure to register. I was homeless and failed to get to the police station within the 3 days of being made homeless. When I was arrested I did not have my shirt on, but it was brought with me to the station and laid on a bench.
While being booked in, I asked if I could put it on. The Sex Offender Registration Officer told me no. I asked him why, and his response was, We don’t like Sex Offenders in our town. He then began to verbally abuse and taunt me. After several minutes of this, as we were heading out of the booking room, I reached over to pick up my shirt. The officer then attacked me and beat me severely.
He slammed my head against the wall so hard that I blacked out for a second. I then found myself on the ground with his knee in my stomach and his hand around my throat. As I lay there not resisting, he pepper sprayed me and then tasered me twice. I was then taken half naked to a freezing cold cell in the back that had no mat or blanket. I was bleeding from a broken nose but was given no treatment. The next day, they charged me with aggravated battery of a police officer. He alleged that I had attacked him and was simply doing his duty. I spent several months in jail before the charges were eventually dropped. But that was not the end of this story. I am now employed but still homeless. Nobody wants to rent to me. So I stay at various places during the week.
I have a fiancee, but I can’t live with her because of how close she lives to a school. But the local police have harassed her several times. They insist that I do in fact live with her and have threatened her with obstruction of justice if she does not admit it. We are very unsure of our future. She owns her home, but the registration laws make it impossible for me to ever live there. We are very much in love, but the law may make a normal future together impossible.
The person I harmed 8 years ago has gone on with her life and forgiven me. But I am not allowed to go on with mine despite the fact that I spent several years in prison. And although my victim has forgiven me, those who I did not harm won’t do the same.
I deserved to be punished for my crime. But now that I am back in society, I am not allowed to function as needed to live a productive life. I read all the time about how people like me are a danger to children, and anything that happens to us is deserved. Don’t people understand that this hysteria does not protect anyone, and by violating my rights, everyone’s rights are threatened?
s.