Coming of Age : 1976 and the Road to Anti-Racism

so I cupped mine and took the truncheon blows to my head and shoulders until I succumbed
to the beating.
I woke up in a police cell with about 7 other brothers. I had been dumped on the cell
floor and woke up to find myself laying in a pool of blood that turned out not to be mine.
There was blood everywhere on the walls the door and somehow some there were even
blood splatters on the ceiling.
I looked at the others in the cell and decided that I had probably been one of the luckier
ones even though my forehead was cut and my face was caked with dry blood. I had a broken
tooth and later discovered that I had 2 dislocated fingers.
I also had a number of bumps on my head but my Tom (hat) and small afro probably
saved me from worse injuries. My shirt had been all but torn off of my back and I had bruising
on my shoulders and wrists where it appears they may have handcuffed me.
But I guess that I was lucky as I had been knocked out from the first blows and really
was none the wiser in terms of what they had done to me.
All of the other brothers had their own stories to tell, two of them swore that they had
been arrested and beaten up before they had even gotten to the carnival. One said he was
trying to help a woman pack up her stall when the cops just rushed the two of them. He said
that they had beaten her worse than they had beaten him.
Everyone had their story but there was one surprising common thread amongst all of
our stories was about the police officers going for our balls. One had had his balls squeezed
the entire time that he was being transported to the station in a police van. One who was
vomiting and spitting blood said they’d purposefully positioned him so that they could slam
the panda car door into his nether regions. Then they kicked him several times before nicking
him.
In the next hour at least four more brothers were thrown into the cell. After another couple
of hours a cop came in an asked if any of us were juveniles. We all were! So they took a
decision to let us out without charge. Before they let me go they took me into a room where
I was beaten by 2 cops and warned not to go back at the carnival as there would be worse
to come if I were to be caught a second time.
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