"lurking,"
"nefarious,"
"terrorist."
And the detention dragged on like this.
They sent dogs trained to smell explosives
to sweep the area I'd been in.
They called the federal government
to see if I was on any watch lists.
They sent a couple of detectives
to cross-examine me on why,
if I claimed I had nothing to hide,
I wouldn't consent to a search of my car.
And I could see
they weren't happy with me,
but I felt I had no way of knowing
what they'd want to do next.
At one point, the officer
who patted me down
scanned the side of the police station
to see where the security camera was
to see how much of this
was being recorded.
And when he did that,
it really sank in how completely
I was at their mercy.
I think we're all normalized
from a young age
to the idea of police officers
and arrests and handcuffs,
so it's easy to forget how demeaning
and coercive a thing it is
to seize control over
another person's body.
I know it sounds like
the point of my story