I almost got arrested

When it comes to harassment from the police, my country seems to be at the forefront of such incidents, even the military isn't left out of dishing out harassment and brutality whenever they want, although theirs don't happen as frequently as the ones involving the police. One of those military incidents happened at my university a few months ago.

It was during the money scarcity period and there were long queues of people in ATMs around the country. Some soldiers came to one of the ATMs at my university, ignored the queue, and went straight to withdraw. They kept coming one after the other and went straight to withdraw, so some students started complaining. One thing led to another and they started harassing a female student because they thought she was recording the whole thing with her phone.

They wanted to collect her phone and when she refused, they slapped her. That was when all hell broke loose. The students around the area descended on one of the soldiers and started beating him while the others ran out of the school to go bring backup, but the school security shut the gate. I was one of the people withdrawing from the ATM and I went to a safe distance because I assumed the soldiers will start shooting (and they did!).

A personal encounter

The incident with the soldiers didn't affect me directly because I wasn't the one that was slapped but I will talk about an incident I had with the police some years back. Before I got admission into the university, I was working in a computer center where I do things like typing, graphics design, photocopying, and internet services.

Back then, I had friends that were into cyber fraud (yahoo) and I was surprised that day when I suddenly saw them coming to my workplace in a haste. They were all dressed up and I assumed they were going for an event. I asked them what they were doing in the area and they said they were going for a birthday party but some policemen started tracking them. I looked at the way they dressed, all of them wearing white round-neck shirts, jeans, very expensive shoes, and jewelry.

I asked them what they thought will happen when they all dressed looking like fraudsters, they basically looked like a big billboard that says "Hey look at us, will scam other people for a living". Before I could finish talking, a police truck pulled up in front of my workplace and a group of policemen jumped down, all with guns. I immediately panicked and started sweating as I thought about how I will explain to my boss and parents that I have been arrested.

The policemen approached my store and walked my friends out to their truck while 2 stayed behind and started searching my store. They kept telling me to provide what those boys (my friends) hid in the store and I told them that they didn't hide anything. They grabbed my work laptop and my heart skipped several beats. I quickly told them that it belongs to my boss and I use it for work. They went through it and only found files relating to the work I do, and after a few questions, they left.

Several hours after the whole thing, I was still shaking and kept wondering what I would have done if I ended up in jail. Later in the evening, my friends called me and said they still made it to the party. I asked what happened with the policemen and that was when I found out that they didn't even go to any police station, the policemen only took them to a nearby ATM where they withdraw some money (around 20k) and gave it to them.

With the way my friends spoke, it seems they were used to the whole thing and they probably knew those policemen personally after several "arrests". Well, that incident gave me another reason not to join my friends in what they do, I can't be living my life while constantly looking over my shoulder. But the problem is that those policemen don't harass and extort only fraudsters, if you're a rich youth (or just appear to be rich), maybe with a nice car and iPhone, you're already a prey.

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