Eviction

There was a knock at the door. "Just a second," I yelled from the bathroom. I was about to head out anyway, and stepped towards the door, about to reach out and turn the knob. If I had taken one more step, I probably would have had a concussion, as the door was violently kicked in and six uniformed sheriff's agents came rushing in. One had a gun trained at my forehead standing only three feet from me.

"Arms up! Now!"

'What the fuck," I thought. I knew the eviction was coming, but this was unreal. A gun aimed at my head and six officers surrounding me and patting me down.

"Is this really necessary?" I asked the guy feeling in and out of every pocket and crevice on me.

"We just want to make sure we get home tonight."

"I can understand that. But I pose no threat."

The others mostly just stood around and watched, with smirks on their faces, inhuman and completely unfeeling to the fact that one of them, a fellow being on this earth, was about to forced into homelessness at gunpoint.

When he was done patting me down, the officer instructed me to sit on the bed. Another finished checking all over the apartment and told the others it was clear. It was only at this point anyone bothered to ask, "Are you Jack Epner?"

"Yeah."

"OK. Bye, Jack."

"Let me just grab a few of my things."

"No!"

"They're my personal belongings."

"You can get the hell out of here and look in the trash later, if you'd like."

Had these guys forgotten that these were my personal belongings, things I had a legal right to? Apparently this is how sheriff's officers get new shit. I went by the trash later and NOTHING was there. I was left with nothing but the clothes on my back. Upon doing some research later, it also appeared they may have used unnecessary force, but this is the Cook County Sheriff. For those that don't know, Cook County is one of the most corrupt counties in the country (Chicago may not have the same reputation for organized crime and corruption it once did, but I assure you both are alive and well in that city . . . more to come on that later).