Why did they beat you up?
It is a long story, and a strange one. I left a bar at about 10:00 pm on a week night in a dangerous neighborhood. I heard a man yelling obscene insults at two Hispanic women who had just left a Mexican restaurant.
My parents taught me not to be that way. Because I though he should not be that way either, I walked over to him and asked, "Why are you yelling at them?"
"They're Mexican!" he answered.
"What's wrong with that?" I asked.
"This is our country," he demanded. "They don't belong here."
"Where are you from?" I asked.
"I'm Portuguese," he replied. Recognizing the difficulty of his position, he put his hand on my shoulder, and said, "You're all right, kid."
By now I realized that he was a harmless old man who was drunk. Also, the two Hispanic women had gotten safely into their car, and left. I left him alone, and began to walk down a street. Two men threw me into an ally and began to beat me up. I thought I was being mugged, until I saw their police uniforms. "That's right," one of them said. "We're cops."
"Why are you doing this?" I asked.
"You were making abusive remarks to women and harassing winos."
"I was not!" I protested.
He kicked my legs out from under me and kicked me in the side, breaking one of my ribs. "Are you calling me a liar?" he demanded.
"No," I replied. "I am not resisting, officers."
"Show me your ID" he demanded.
I gave him my wallet. He looked at my ID. They left.
So you see, I was beaten up by mistake. The reason they did it was because they thought I was yelling insults at the Hispanic women. Then they thought I was trying to pick a fight with a harmless old man.
I may have resembled someone they had had problems with in the neighborhood previously.