“Your safety chain is broken.” the cop announced. “Yeah, I know. Go ahead and give me a ticket or arrest me.”

He did.

As I was digging through the glove box to retrieve my papers, the cop told me “This is a stolen vehicle. You’re under arrest.” Of course, I argued with him for 3 minutes, but he refused to look at my registration/insurance. He then informed me that I was also guilty of disorderly conduct. While he was cuffing me, he jerked and wrenched my arm to provoke a response; I wheeled around and yanked my cuffed hand out of his grasp.

At this point, he began to smile and his hand went for his belt. “Jesus”, I thought. “He’s going to shoot me.” But no; only pepper spray. In the squad car, en route to jail 15 miles down the highway, I pointed out to the officer, in a conversational tone, what was only obvious: that he enjoyed wielding power, without restraint or conscience. When he tried to tape my comments, I shut up.

When I asked the justice of the peace, politely but persistently, if there were not objective rules that restrained police behavior, she informed me that one more such comment would land me in jail for a week. I shut up, spent that night in the slammer, and gladly paid a $350 fine the next morning, for resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

Aside from my initial, stupid, rude remark to the cop, I was polite and restrained throught this course of events. I didn’t bother to lodge any further protest to the authorities, because I knew it was futile.