To whom it may concern:
On the morning of June 27th I got stopped at a stop sign by a Pleasanton Police officer for not making a full stop around 6:25 am on my way to work, at the Parkview assisted living residence as a server. Admittedly , I rushed and was rude to the officer regarding my action of not fully stopping and the understandable reaction by getting pulled over. I was being out of hand with my words and he (Officer J.Christensen) flagged down five other police. I was shown the ticket on the pad. And took the pen while the cop was showing me what I was being cited for. He took it back and said he wasn’t finished telling me what they were for, and already running late to work, I took the pen stating I would need to sign it either way but not in as kind of words. He then tightly grabbed my wrist with which I grabbed the pen, I have bruises on my wrist still from where he grabbed, I’m on blood thinners due to serious heart complications and knew the grip in my wrist would bruise by the strength of his hand. Instinctively, I pulled his hand off mine, to which he responded by lifting me up and putting me in an arm bar, throwing me on the ground with the help of another cop and arrested me, but not before leaving massive bruises on my arms, whereas I’m sure he had none. I know now it is never acceptable to put your hands on a cop or anyone in general, However I know, Throwing me on the ground with the help of another officer was unnecessary considering I was 90 pounds (left jail at 82 pounds) and 5’4 and did not resist arrest or fight back after the minute I grabbed his hand off my wrist. I have pictures of the bruises that the officers left on my arms but they are much more visible in person even after 5 days. I had to go the ER because not only did getting thrown on the ground by two bigger male officers cause a massive change in my already unsteady heart rate but the impact of my face hitting the ground before my feet did required a look at my head to make sure as a patient of Coumadin I didn’t get any internal bleeding an (at the time I was wearing a medic alert bracelet, I might add) Regardless I don’t regret what happened to me as far as being locked up. I regret my ignorance and disrespect of the law. But I don’t at the same time because I learned my lesson. I was in the wrong with my attitude towards cops, and laws in general. But I don’t regret my stay at Santa Rita, It taught me a lot. I found myself more concerned about losing my two jobs, and not being able to see my family, Than I was about the incident of my arrest. I found myself wishing I was at work (something I often complained about having at 6:30 am) rather than lying in a jail bed. Missing things I normally took for granted, like the fact I have two wonderful, sober, caring parents, while I was bunking with women who wished their drug addiction could be gone because they would rather be in their children’s lives. Being born drug exposed and having 3 heart surgeries makes you think twice about being adopted, and not taking things like that for granted. Not having access to my blood thinners, or beta blockers for my current heart condition and calling for nurses for hours, because my heart was racing made me regret ever neglecting my health when I had control of things like taking my medication. I realize now how lucky I am to have the freedom to wake up at 5 AM and work at 6:30 AM, to have a job serving some of my own friends grandparents, and my own grandma, getting off at 2 PM and getting small talk with my father about cars and work, then visiting my boyfriend before I have to go to work again at Chilis every night and seeing my mom after. Having the freedom to do all those things is huge, but I never realized it until I lost those precious moments in a second. The whole time I spent in East 24th lower b I was crying for my mother and father, not to bail me out but for their presence. My Dad always told me “you get yourself in jail, you get yourself out.” So I followed his guidance. I bailed myself out. All my cell mates asked me “why pay bail when you don’t even know the fate of your hearing?” I just responded with bail was worth spending those days with my family and friends that I was struggling without. I was completely right. I am so grateful for what I have, you truly don’t know what you have until its lost. I learned to respect your elders, authority, and really people in general including family and friends because you never know what kind of situation you can get in or what could happen. Unfortunately I put myself in that situation and received a harsh punishment. With my attitude before, it needed to happen, because I needed a wakeup call to distinguish right from wrong. What a wakeup call it was. I needed to learn a lesson, and East 24th of Santa Rita taught me that and then some, I will never do what it takes to go back to jail. I regret my stupidity and ignorance of the law and law enforcement. I do feel the punishment of being thrown down and ending up with severe bruises on my arms and legs was unnecessary. But being locked up I feel was nessicary because it showed me how good I have it, and how that’s not worth losing at all for a fake “bad attitude” front. That isn’t who I am, I have never had a criminal past and after this I will never again. IT was something I will never forget and will stick with me; my lapse of judgment and negative feelings towards law enforcement is non-existent after what happened. I would much rather go to school for phlebotomy and do that for the next 20 years while using some of the money from that career to put into a trade school so I can retire doing what I enjoy, working on cars. Rather than be locked up for the rest of my life with people who don’t really have any want or need to make or have goals and are stuck in Santa Rita probably a little bit because of the lack of those things. I learned a lot and I appreciate and respect others just as much. Its crazy to think about the severity of the situation I put myself in. but the only way to move along is to take it for what its worth and use it to better my attitude, self, and habits. All of which I will strive even harder to do from the minute I was released and from now on. I came out of Santa Rita wiser and with a different mindset about everything in the best way possible. As long as I’m in control of my life(which is always) I can confidently say I will never return, but rather aim to accomplish my goals and aspirations.