@falserelic: Though my outcome was not as bad. I got into a drunk fight one night outside a bar, punched a guy right in the face giving him a mad nose bleed and was immediately jumped by his friends until I suddenly got lifted up by a really strong man who upon closer inspection was a cop. So, I settled down and was polite as a fucking buddhist to the cops all the way to the cell. I was found guilty due to lack of provocation. I was facing a month jail or two month house arrest (but able to go to work) but ended up with 50 hours community service instead mowing the lawn of a soccer club in town. But yeah, I can understand that reaction. When the cops took me to the drunk cell where I spent 8 hours, I felt completely powerless and at the mercy of someone else. At first you're ok, because you're drunk, but after a while you sober up and you feel trapped. Eventually you start pacing the room, doing pushups and trying to think your way away from the situation. By the time they let me out, that walk home was surreal. Not only because I realized how it must, even at a very light scale, feel to be at the mercy of someone else and not be able to leave. But also because I knew the court date was looming.
Eventually I met my lawyer and he basically said I was going down for it, since I punched first and there was not enough evidence of provocation. After that meeting I knew what I could potentially face. I almost cried on the way home, my future felt completely shattered. But, had a meeting with some people who determine what type of individual you are and since I had no prior record and was an overall good citizen they would urge on a lenient punishment such as community service instead of jail. Court was interesting, the entire time the only thing I only really wanted to do was apologize to the guy even though part of me hated him for pressing charges over what was essentially just a dispute that never truly harmed either of us (he got nose bleed but nothing broken).
But yeah, mowing the lawn for 50 hours. I was so polite and dependable that they eventually let me do the job unsupervised and just check off how much I had worked. Which, in retrospect, seems crazy. If I could change it I probably wouldn't, it taught me a lot about myself and probably humbled myself a little bit. In the grand scheme of things, my future wasn't shattered, I was just taught a really big life lesson.
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