When I was 18, me and a few friends were drinking beers in a park like idiots. It was the summer before going to college. And the cops showed up

They did not like our black buddy or the two of us with long hair. And they decided we should learn a lesson. Did we ever

We ended up in the detox cell of Harris county jail.

They would call you out to get finger printed. And while I was placing my fingers on some reader, the cops carried this young black man in

He was cuffed behind his back and unconscious. They plopped him down face first pretty close to me. Then, they started yelling at him to wake up, saying they didn't want to have to take him back to the hospital

I couldn't believe what was happening. Was very naive, and it was scary to see their rage. When he didn't wake up, they started hitting him. Meanwhile, my cop was yelling at me because my hands had gotten so sweaty that they couldn't take prints

They started keeping score of who got in the best licks. Then someone shoved smelling salts into his nose and his head flew back and the cops cheered

Someone from the detox tank yelled out to leave the dude alone and a couple cops went in to deal with that

When I eventually got back in the tank, there was an old white guy laying on the ground with blood coming out of his mouth

Hung out in there for awhile, realizing the world was quite different than what I'd been led to believe by my dumb luck upbringing

At one point, a cop came to drop off some dude named Meriwether's belt and shoelaces. He said, "Put em at the door, bitch!" And I straight up thought they would kill him in front of me, but they ignored it for some reason

Most of the next 14 hours were spent with them making fun of me for going to college, and being born in South Africa and obviously being scared shitless

Got to court a few weeks later, and the cops had made up conversations that never happened. Just about everything in their statement was faked

The judge threw out the case. There were 12 beers for eight people and it was hard to justify public intoxication or we had a good lawyer or he had friends. Realize this is lucky and because I was some white kid who could afford a lawyer

That night flipped everything I'd thought about cops forever. Not sure if that was the intended lesson or not

Should add. I know there are lots of great cops out there and they have very tough jobs. But, man, something turns in some of them and when that happens, it's all kinds of bad