Chapter 3

Warsaw Poland; May 15th 2002

The Incident, part 2

The guy had driven into the lot with another car right in front of him. I saw him get out of his car and go over to the other. There were two people in that other car and I guess they knew each other because my guy stuck his whole torso in through the driver’s side window as if he was reaching for a pack of cigarettes from off the dash. Maybe he did reach for cigarettes, I don't know. The two guys in the other car never got out and I didn’t see what happened to them. Another cop came over and pointed to a spot at the back of the lot just past where I was standing, he was telling the driver where to put his car. The cop I had been talking led me over to another cop who spoke English. We were standing about ten meters away from where the driver eventually parked.

The guy got out and started talking quickly to the cops, pointing at his bumpers and front quarter panel and pulling his lip up showing where I hit him. I was thinking “Here we go! Look at you, you lying bastard.” He was politicking hard but he a real worried look on his face. They had to know he was lying. This dance he was doing made me even madder. I didn’t care anymore if I missed my train. I really wanted him now. I would follow this lying son-of-a-bitch all night if I had to.

We all sort of stood around a little while until two more cops showed up a few minutes later. When they did the English speaking cop left with his group to go on duty somewhere. Neither of these two new cops spoke English. I hoped that they had got the gist of my story from the other cop. I was asked for my passport and I gave it to them. They told me that other cop had briefly explained to them what I had told him earlier and that they understood. They asked me what I wanted to do. I clicked my wrists together, indicating I wanted the guy cuffed; I wanted to press charges. They called to the station on the radio and after a few minutes they asked me to put my bike in the back of their car. i suggested i could follow them, but they smiled and said it would be easier if I just loaded it in the back. They still had my passport. I rode with the cops without cuffs to the police station.

When we got there I locked my bike to a pole out front and we all walked in together. The guy who had hit me looked really nervous at the station desk. I was staring straight at him. I was really mad. “Tolko gavarish pravda.” I said to him. This is Russian for 'only speak the truth'. I know he heard me. I said it twice. He spoke to the officer at the desk for a moment and then they led him off to another room. They found an officer who spoke English and through him I told them what had happened. At the end, when they asked me what I wanted to do about it, I told them I wanted to press charges against the guy. Yes, I was willing to sign a complaint. After a few minutes I was asked to follow one of the officers across the hall and was led down a flight of stairs into a room with a cell in the back of it. A cell?!

“You’re arresting me?” I screamed. They urged me to get into the cell calmly. “Are you arresting the other guy too?” Please step into the cell. “I want a lawyer!” I screamed. This drew laughter as they closed the door. “You are not in America. This is Poland.” One of the cops said in English. This made them all laugh some more.

They left me there for about 45 minutes. My bag was still around my neck and I was still not handcuffed. The two arresting officers came downstairs and started to make out a report. While they were writing, they put a prisoner in the cell with me. He was really skinny and I found out his name was Lukasz. Lukasz spoke English really well. He said he was being held because somebody had accused him of grabbing their cell phone. He told me his whole story but I didn’t believe him. After he finished We sat there thinking for a minute and then he tuned into what the cops in the room were talking about. He whispered to me that that the cops were saying that the guy I hit was an off duty cop. What? I started screaming. “Was that bum a cop?” The cops in the cell room just laughed at me. “I want to call the American Embassy right now, immediately”. The cops told me to calm down. “Was that guy a cop?” No, no… No cop. They stopped talking amongst themselves and were quiet. I asked again and again they only asked me to be calm. I asked them to show me their badges. I wanted to know their numbers for later. A few of them smiled at me and flipped their badges backwards into their breast pockets so the number could not be seen. I looked at Lukasz. He shrugged his shoulders.

The two cops who had come to the scene, I guess now we would call them the arresting officers, had been writing their report at the desk next to the cage I was in. They put down their pens and opened the cell door. They wanted my bag. I told them they could go fuck themselves. This seemed to make them happy. After taking a minute to compose themselves, they came into the cell and double teamed me, slamming me up against the wall and pulling my arms up behind my back. They took the bag off me and then cuffed me and locked me back in the cell. They then went through my bag and catalogued what I had. When they were done, they showed me a receipt, took the bag and left.

A few minutes later the guy who hit me came downstairs with a uniformed policeman and the little girl. I guess they were showing the girl that the bad man was safely behind bars. What a bunch of shit. Did the cop understand that this little show was more for him than for the girl? Didn’t the guy understand that the girl knew the truth? Wouldn’t this little farce make it worse for her? I looked straight into the guy’s eyes. He couldn’t return the gesture. I think the uniformed cop saw this and shuffled him and the little girl out of the room a little faster. Yea, they all know it was a lie.

After another hour or so they brought my bike down and stuck it inside the cage with me. I guess they found the key in my messenger bag. And after some more waiting around, they took me and the bike outside and stuffed me, still handcuffed into the back of a van and drove somewhere across town. When we got to wherever it was we were going, I was let out of the van and led down a flight of stairs to a locked door. We had to wait for about 10 minutes before they opened the door. Once inside, they took my shoes and my hat. They wanted to take my glasses but agreed to let me keep them when I complained. I was wearing bike shorts, a jersey and socks. I was put in a green 12x12 cell with two concrete sitting/sleeping pedestals. There was another guy in there already. He was pretty big. He was pacing back and forth, breathing heavily with a slight wheeze. There was a small window with a grate on it. The room smelled like disinfectant. They closed the door and slid down the lock. I sat down on the left pedestal and watched the big guy pace for a while.

I spent the night in a cell.