Well I've had an interesting although not entirely pleasant experience.

In January I pulled into my droveway, got out of my car to go inside(I'd forgotten the power supply for my laptop) and was brought to a rather abrupt halt by the fact that 2 cop cars had pulled into my driveway behind me. The main cop tells me its because my bumper is wrinkled and he can't see my registration stickers. Since all he needed to do was actually sit up in his seat to see them clearly, I don't buy this, in part because he didn't actually write me a ticket for that. I'm dead sure he stopped me becasue my little go-buggy looks pretty ghetto... Long story short, traffic ticket for brake light out, missed court date(My stupidity, wrote the date down wrong in my calendar), paid $237 fine... didn't realize I needed to go down to the DMV and pay them an extra $100 to regain my privelege of driving(Had no idea I was suspended, after all, I paid in time...).

So I'm on the way to an errand and I get pulled over(as it turns out, by the same cop, for the exact same thing(Said my bumper was wrinkled and he couldn't read my registration stickers) Once again, I call bullshit because for the second time, no ticket for the thing he allegedly pulled me over for.

Well this time, unbeknownst to me, my license is suspended. Around here that is an automatic trip to jail. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous about what might happen to me, having heard and read so many horror stories about how transwomen are treated in jails and prisons. Its not like hiding is any sort of option as I was in casual airy clothes for a beautiful day... Denim mini, cute sandals, cute scoopneck T with designs on it... not to mention makeup, electric blue toe and finger nails... As it turns out, even in a baggy prison jumpsuit, no makeup and a bit of beardshadow(I really need to spend some money on electro) there was still no doubt in people's minds...

Now on one emotional level, talk about validation! On another, since I knew they had to still class me with the male prisoners due to me being pre-op, I was a bit apprehensive. As it turns out, It wasn't actually too bad. They have new federal guidelines for how to treat trans prisoners and they were scrupulous about following them. A female CO searched me and then they brought me the female jail uniform. Then I basically sat in a waiting room with maybe 50 other people, mixed male and female for about 11 hours while they figured out what to do with me.

Now by this time I'm literally falling asleep, I'd been up early that day and had only gotten 3 hours sleep and maybe 4 the day before. Per the guidelines, they offered me "Protective Custody" which basically means solitary confinement. I of course accepted!

So they make me change clothes again, this time for the male uniform, the aforementioned baggy jumpsuit. Well lets just say I was glad to be in a cell by myself where noone could see me... peeing in a jumpsuit is a serious PITA and basically requires at least mostly stripping... Long story short, I slept until they woke me up for bond court, watched some more TV, then outprocessing(PR bond).

So 26 hours after the saga begins, I get out and start the walk home. Its only a couple of miles but it basically meant that by the time I got home and was ready to be seen in public again, it was too late to do anything... I couldn't even pay my way out of suspension because they had no record of my paying the ticket at the DMV. This was important because it cost me an extra $85 to get my car out of the tow yard.

All told, counting the original ticket, taxi fare, reinstatement fees etc... $750 + 1.5 days of work... so call it an even $1k loss. I feel like a cash cow.

Milk me! Do I not Moo?!?

Overall, not a horror story so thats a good thing but it is emblematic of what the police here do... as a matter of fact there is a big national story going on about one of the local cops shooting an unarmed man... Once again, white cop, African American victim. This time there is video and it has kinda blown up in their faces... It was so clearly not a good shooting. In a town with a 65% white population, 80% or better of the people in jail were black or brown. Of the 12 people in my bond court hearing, 5 were there for driving under suspension, like me. 5 were there for possession of Marijuana. 2 were basically minor theft. 10 of those 12 should not have ever been arrested.

Out of this whole unpleasantness has come a renewed determination to get into a position to change some of these injustices. The simple fact that my own treatment, in a bit of my state that is basically a little enclave of liberalism(By comparison to the rest of the state only) wasn't so bad is good and kind of encouraging... but it does nothing for the overall injustice of not only how I was treated but the way others, particularly minorities, are treated.

I very much doubt I would have had the same experience in the upstate, home of Bob Jones University. I personally think of it as the "Howling wilds of Radical Fundamentalism". Federal guidelines or no, I suspect I would have been put into a big cage with like 50 guys...