When I was a long haired kid in 1994 or so, I had one run-in with the law that quickly adjusted my impression of “the land of the free” and landed me in a big room with a half dozen drunks in varying states eying me behind bars.

Two uniformed thugs from DPS accosted me while I was smoking a rare cigarette on the terrace of the Iowa State University Memorial Union. I was 19 years old but the officers demanded some ID. I told them I was not breaking any law and that I thought the police needed a warrant or probable cause to interfere with a citizen who was no danger to others. After some disagreement on that point, I acquiesced to get my ID from my nearby car and walked with the officers hands digging into each of my arms with an angry grip toward the staircase down to my car. As I turned to step down the first stair, one officer grabbed my hair and slammed my head down onto the concrete. The other jumped on me and I felt blows about my body for what seemed like a very long time. I was far too shocked to fight back but the officers kept after me.

Finally they must have burned up their fuel and they stuck cuffs on me and dragged me to their waiting patrol car. I shouted to my companions that I would be back in no time and that they should wait for me, not realizing what was in store for me.

I think I must have had my head hit fairly solidly because I remember feeling somewhat dizzy and everything around me seemed surreal. I was kept in the ISU Campus DPS office for awhile, and then I was transported to the Ames City Jail.

The next thing I knew I was having my fingerprints taken at the check-in of drunk and disorderly hotel, and thrown in with the drunks.

I remember very well that they had a camera pointed at the only urinal, which was just across the room from the series of green inch-thin mattresses on concrete that served as “sleep it off” beds. There were huge globs of spit all over the floor and the inhabitants all appeared to be extremely inebriated and rough looking.

By this time I was unable to keep my eyes open from all the stress of the event and I slept fitfully until morning.

I was then cuffed and dragged out with a number of drunks, drug users, and a few felons of various types to wait in line to plea to the judge.

“How do you plead to the offense of ‘Interfering with official acts’ Mr. Steven?” said the judge. “Not guilty, your honor”

So that must be what they charge people with that didn’t break the law I thought. How convenient.

Needless to say, I had my day in court and thanks to a good friend who was a witness to the whole affair out on the Memorial Union terrace it was a quick not-guilty result and the officers were scolded for their misbehavior and I was told that I should be more respectful to law enforcement.

I didn’t really understand the concept of respecting the armed thugs that had so mishandled me, but I did understand the fear that I learned from the experience.

So back to the present.

I related this experience to President Geofferey of ISU when he was taking public comments on the arming of campus security officers. He was sympathetic but my story didn’t dissuade him from going through with adding guns to the arse nal.

And when I watched the young man at the University of Florida getting electrocuted after he was already under the boots of 5-6 officers it did remind me of this experience in my life. I can only imagine the fun those two who assaulted me would have had with a Taser.

So last week I emailed two officers, one the head of the campus DPS and one the Chief of Police for Ames. I requested their “Use of Force” policy documents and asked that they be published on their respective websites. What I got surprised me.

The DPS head, Jerry Stewart, responded with a very professional use of force document that was very good in terms of thoroughness and clarity.

Chief Cychosz of Ames on the other hand was a bit defensive about answering this request, I think he may have been a little unsure of my motivations for asking so I summed up my history as recounted here and he then sent me a document on the APD’s policy for the use of the Taser. On follow-up when I requested a more general use of force document he provided it.

It is still my hope that these men of public responsibility will step up and commit to making their rules public on their web sites. I think that it is important for them to make a strong effort to show that they are serious about protecting the people from officers who misuse their power.

Especially young people who all too often are singled out as easy targets for aggressive police because of their naivety and usually their lack of financial resources to defend against legal action.