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The following accounts of was submitted to us by two sisters who asked to stay anonymous. They told us "We want to speak out and tell this story, but we admit we are very scared still." Their full recounting of their ordeal is as follows:

My twin sister and I were arrested and detained for 26 hours. During the arrest my sister was sexually assaulted and we were threatened to be beaten later that night in the holding facility. The police officer holding my sister bragged to the other cops about getting 'the pretty one'. A bystander took a picture of this happening, it depicts this story well.

[one of the sister's] arresting officer asked me if I was a male because of my name. Then he checked off the box 'transexual' on my arresting form. I do not identify as trans. My paperwork was just a big joke to them the whole time, my name ended up being changed to 'Carol Riddell' by the end.

 

Our charges changed 4 different times, including a totally different charge told to our lawyer. The lawyer was the woman who came to the detention centre to help her clients and ended up being held for 2 hours in a cell. We were not processed for 15 hours-- this whole time left in handcuffs. We were not given a phone call until hour 22.

Now we are presently very sick from sleeping on a damp cold cement floor.

 

During [one of the sister's] strip search, her underwear with pad inside was tossed on the dirty floor, face down. Then she was asked to put that back onto her body.

 

The 25 women in our holding cell were so strong and so amazing... their strong voices confronted the cops, repeatedly saying things like 'this is not okay' and 'how do you feel right now'-- over time this clearly wore down on some of the officers. Some even cried.

 

We want to speak out and tell this story, but we admit we are very scared still.