By Paul Varnell

Chicago, like many other large cities, has been plagued with numerous charges of police misconduct—torture, unnecessary shooting, drunken brawling, beating up civilians, including a 120-pound female bartender. Somehow, the Office of Professional Standards almost never confirmed any of these charges. My story is nowhere so horrific but I offer it for what it is worth.

One summer evening many years ago I was walking up Broadway on my way to the gay bars, when I was surprised to see a couple of large, burly men shoving a man I had seen around into the back seat of an old car.

Wondering if I were witnessing a kidnapping or organized crime behavior, I halted several yards short of the activity, pulled out a piece of paper and pencil from my back pocket and started jotting down a description of the car and what was going on.

After a few seconds one of the men looked over in my direction and said in a loud voice, “What are you doing.” I couldn’t think of a plausible lie, so I said, “I’m writing down what you are doing.”

“We don’t like that,” he said. “You’re under arrest.” And with that he grabbed me and shoved me roughly toward the car and into the back seat with the other man.

At no point did the man say he was a police officer. The first evidence I had that the men were police was the fact that we arrived at the police station. Bizarrely, during the trip, the police tried to talk to us about local sports teams, as if we were all just buddies out for a ride.

The two police led us inside and said to another policeman, “Got a couple more for ya.” We were duly booked and I was given a piece of paper to sign. I started to read it but the officer said, “Just sign it.” Reluctantly I did so, noting in a way common during the Reformation that I did so against my will. Was it a police report, a confession? Who knows?

I made my one telephone call to a friend to come and bail me out, handed over my belt and shoelaces, then was put into a holding cell with four or five young semi-drunks from nearby heterosexual bars. Eventually my friend arrived and bailed me out for $100.

Since I was never told what I was charged with, I called the community liaison at the station and asked. The police account claimed that I was arrested for blocking a business entrance, being loud and abusive and, as I recall, interfering with an officer. None of these were true, of course. I was nowhere near a business entrance, I have already noted my only words during the entire encounter and I was yards away from the police activity so I could hardly have interfered with an officer.

A couple of weeks later when I appeared for my court date with my attorney, neither of the arresting officers nor city prosecutor showed up, so the judge dismissed charges and I walked out a free man—free minus my attorney’s fee.

That was my first encounter with big-city police behavior and I still seethe when I think about it. But I have tried to view it as a learning experience.

What did I learn?

I learned that the police are very defensive about their tactics and hate having people monitor their behavior in any way at all. They must hate video cameras.

I learned that police are inclined to be bullies and resent any questioning of their alpha male status and the legitimacy of whatever they are doing. Whether or not they are on steroids, many of them act like it.

I learned that the police lie on their arrest reports, making things up, even sometimes “fluffing up the evidence” to justify otherwise doubtful or unjustifiable arrests.

I learned that police sometimes arrest people just to intimidate them, to “teach them a lesson” without any interest in seeing them convicted of any crime. The point is to cause inconvenience and expense so they will not repeat whatever behavior offended the police. And the police get an arrest added to their accomplishments. This is called “fighting crime.”

So was I intimidated? A little. I now avoid police whenever possible and feel discomfort whenever I am around them, even hostility. I certainly learned not to trust them. Before this incident I might not have been willing to believe the frequent reports of police assault, brutality, etc. And I might once have believed whatever police claim about people they arrest. But no longer.

Some of Paul Varnell’s previous columns are posted at the Independent Gay Forum (www.indegayforum.org). His e-mail address is pvarnell@aol.com.