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Imagine Being Tortured In a Foreign Land...

By David Packman

Imagine that you?re in a foreign country and you happen upon a fight, you break it up only to discover that one of the people involved was stabbed. Then you get viciously attacked by a large gang of racist thugs who insist you did it. These assailants beat you with pipes, 2x4s, kick you, and stomp on your head mercilessly while shouting ?kill him? and slinging racial slurs. You?re knocked in and out of consciousness, but whenever you do come to you?re kicked in the face or head again and your last thoughts each time is that you?re going to die here, and there?s nothing you can do?

You come to yet again, the beating seems to have gone on forever but finally there is hope, you hear sirens and someone says ?you can get up now, the police are here.? You think you?re about to be saved, so you lift your head and the brutal assault begins all over again with a crushing kick that shatters your nose and sends you reeling into darkness again?

The police let the assault go on for a while longer even after they arrive. But finally they stop the dozen or so people who were trying to crush your head beneath their boots... but instead of arresting them they handcuff you and slam your head into their car door before they dump your limp body into their car. The leave you laying there, in the back seat for several minutes while the people who were ruthlessly beating you tell police that their excuse for trying to murder you was to lie and say you committed a crime.

The police take you to the station, dump your body on the floor, surround you, and scream at you to get up before they finish the job the gang of people started when they tried to kill you. You?re still dazed, only partially aware of what?s happening, but still utterly afraid. You?re body is battered, your ribs have been busted, and your head feels like it?s going to explode.

You slowly climb to your feet with your hands tied behind your back because you're afraid for your life and you are dragged through the station and shoved in a glass enclosed cell with nothing but walls and a dirty floor. You writhe in pain, unable to get back up, confused and in agony while the police laugh at you and call you names through the bullet-proof glass.

You beg for medical help, you?re having trouble breathing and you just can?t think straight, you keep fading in and out of consciousness and you think you might still die, slowly bleed to death from internal injuries. One officer finally calls some medics, but before they get a good look at you another officer stops them because he wants to interrogate you while you?re in pain and still confused from the assault. As they leave the medics tell the officer ?Well, he?s not dying yet, but?.? and the conversation trails off when they slam the door shut again.

The officer who stopped the medics from looking at you comes back and takes you to a room with no windows, he shuts the door and tells another officer there to leave. He then strips you completely naked and starts questioning you, but when he questions you, he answers the questions he asks for you. You?re standing there, naked, bleeding, confused, fearful for your life, and in incredible pain? and you get the distinct feeling that if you argue you?re going to get it even worse, so you don?t, you can?t even if you wanted to because your thoughts are coming slow and sluggish because of the trauma your brain experienced. The officer finishes the interrogation and give you a thin paper jumpsuit to wear and they take you to a van which transports you to a jail.

At the jail a nurse calls you over, she begins to ask you about your injuries and winces when she looks at your face? She says you need sutures for the deeper wounds but as you start to answer she looks behind you, someone tells her to stop treatment, and she tells you that you?re done and has you taken away. No bandages, no sutures, no diagnosis... Nothing.

You?re eventually taken to a cell that is overcrowded, everyone else has footwear except you, and you have to sleep on the floor with nothing but a thin dirty ripped mattress between you and a filthy damp floor. You struggle to stand, blood clots make it impossible to breathe through your nose, and when breakfast comes you cannot eat because of the pain and nausea. You plead for a nurse but are told to try again tomorrow.

This goes on for days, you ask for something to put on your feet and get laughed at, you ask for a doctor and are ignored. You haven?t eaten and can?t sleep because of the pain, when you lay on your mattress you convulse every few hours, and you?re afraid you?re going to die when the other prisoners tell you about the deadly infections people get there as you lay there without even a band-aid to cover your open wounds that require stitches. You?re still dazed and confused, in pain, and having a hard time breathing because of your ribs and nose? You?re certain you?re going to die... every day you wonder if it's your last.

Finally, several days later, they let you see a nurse, she looks you over quickly as you plead for something to help with the pain so you can sleep, so you can eat. She gives you a couple band-aids, and sends you back? This goes on for weeks, you don?t sleep, you can?t eat, you?ve lost 30 pounds, and the prisoners tell you that you look like their relatives right before they died. They haven?t let you change your filthy blood clotted clothes for weeks and you?re in a daze and confused all the time because of your injuries, lack of sleep, and lack of food? They take you to a courtroom like this even, and nobody thinks twice about how horrible you look.

After weeks of this they finally let you have a pair of slippers and take you to the infirmary for a physical. You feel faint and when the nurse takes you in for a physical your blood pressure is very low, a sign of shock and a symptom of a slow bleed in the brain like the ashen complexion, clammy skin, nausea, confusion, and convulsions. You tell them about how you pleaded for medicine and treatment, how you were left without, and they are appalled, they write up a complaint saying how you were treated was unacceptable? But nothing comes of it.

This goes on for several more weeks, you?ve lost track of time? you hear from others about how guards told them that they were told to intentionally ignore your pleas for help, but that they would never admit to it if asked in court. People tell you that the officer who interrogated you said he would make sure you never left the jail alive? but nobody is willing to admit it publicly.

Finally, they free you, they discovered that you didn?t do what you were accused of because a video tape caught the real criminal in the act? but still, they never entirely clear your name publicly, even though the police detective and prosecutor tell you they know you didn?t do anything wrong when they show you the tape. They also know who did it, they know his name and he has done such things before.

They keep the tape secret, as they also keep the details about the criminal and those who beat you secret too. They do this to avoid the embarrassment of mistreating an innocent person for so long. They even refuse to go after the criminal who did the crime you were intentionally tortured for. They refuse to go after the gang of thugs that nearly murdered you? just to keep the truth from getting out, that they tortured and innocent man for a crime he never committed.

No one apologizes, no body comes forward and admits how you were tortured intentionally, nobody admits that mistakes were made, and you are left with permanent scars, permanent brain damage, a ruined reputation, and tens of thousands in medical and legal bills for the suffering you endured.

Because of the debt you cannot leave, you must now walk through the streets of the city where the thugs and police who hurt you walk too, all while knowing that they could do this to you again. That the racist thugs that tried to kill you are free to do it again and that the police would let them do it? and that the police would have no problem torturing you again because nobody was ever held responsible.

So you try to do what you can to protect yourself, you go public and try to let everyone know about the bad things they do in that country, in that city. But then you get harassed and threatened by the police who say they?ll shut you up, that you will be arrested and beaten again, that they will murder you if you go to their town? but there is nothing you can do but keep speaking out in the hope that being visible and outspoken will make it hard for them to follow through with their threats. But every day you have to go out in public you fear for your life, you shake uncontrollably when you see a police car or uniform. Every day, you wonder if this will be the day they shut you up for good.

You try to attend protests against torture and are yelled at because they don't protest against the torture that occurs in this country, only the torture that occurs elsewhere. You are ignored by human rights groups, and the lawyers refuse to listen when you beg for help. There's nothing you can do to stop this from happening to others... There's nothing you can do to stop this from happening to you again. You were an innocent man, tortured for doing nothing wrong and the people who did this to you know it, but refuse to admit it... instead they threaten to do it again if you don't be quiet about it.

Try to imagine that? Try to imagine that instead of a foreign country that this happened to you, in the town where you live, not in some third-world dictatorship, but here in the United States? Imagine being tortured, being denied care, all in an attempt to get you to confess to something you never did, even after they discovered proof you didn?t do it. Then imagine how it would feel to have to walk around the streets of that town, knowing that they could do the same thing to you again and that nobody would care if they tortured you or even killed you.

Because, that?s what happened to me? Here in the city of Seattle, Martin Luther King County, Washington State, in the United States of America?

I tell you this, in this way, because I really think people don?t understand why I say I feel as though my life is in danger every day, why I shake when the police send me harassing messages in their attempts to shut me up? and why it makes me even more afraid when people say ?you should expect to be threatened and harassed by police for speaking out in the US.? Because it makes me realize that the people here support torture, that they support censorship, and that they wouldn?t care if someone like me was murdered by the police for speaking out against corruption and brutality.

This is why I fear for my life? I can only hope those of you who said I was stupid for being afraid can understand my fear a bit better now.

Full post as published by Injustice in Seattle on April 18, 2008 (boomark / email).