Taken

After getting off the plane in Taiwan, I was directed to an isolation room. I was told there were some issues with customs, and that I would need to wait in this room to be processed. It was a little annoyed, but the personnel seemed polite, and they assured me everything would be fine. I texted my contact number. She reassured that everything would be fine. They were sending someone to assist me through customs.
After some time, I was taken down a short hall and into another room where I was searched. My clothes were taken, and I was given a jumpsuit. I asked if this was all necessary. They told me it was standard procedure, and please do not talk unless asked a question. They had taken my bags, phone, and passport. At this point, I had no way to contact anyone. It may have been an hour since my plan landed.
After another wait, I was taken to a funny little room with an window ac unit embedded within the wall, which I thought was strange. There were benches on either side of the room and dividers attached to the walls marking individual seats. There was a railing that ran down the middle of the room. This is where the situation started to feel wrong. Something about the room felt like a shipping container.
There was nothing I could do. Trying to keep calm, I knew that my new employer would not leave me here. Someone was coming for me any minute now. There was not anything I could do, but wait. I felt powerless.
Over the course of the next hour, others wearing similar jumpsuits were placed in the seats next to me. After some time, We were all restrained and locked to the bench. There were 8 of us sitting in this room. Another person came in and placed bags over our heads. We were informed that if we talked it would make our situation worse.
A woman began whimpering.
The sounds of fear sparked panic within me. I did not know what to do. It was too late to fight back. And to what end? where would I flee to if i could escape this situation. Someone from the company would come for me. This had to be a mistake.
How did I end up in this situation? Locked to a bench in a small room with 7 other people, a black bag over my head. I thought, it certainly cannot be normal procedure for people to be treated like this. My mind raced through possibilities. I did not know what to expect.
My assumption was that we were in the hands of the Taiwanese government. I thought that my employer would arrive soon and get me out of here. As time passed, I less sure about either assumption.
A short time after the door was closed, we started moving. It felt we were inside a shipping container on the back of a truck. I felt a growing anxiety, and thought I might be sick. Some of the others started crying. One woman started moaning with fear. There was not anything I could do to help the situation, so I sat quietly and waited. I tried to keep my emotions under control.
I was thinking about how I stepped right into this situation without a fight. I realized that I would not have been able to change any of it unless I did not enter the airport to get on the plane in the first place. From that moment I stepped into the Chicago airport security line, I have been a prisoner of whatever this is. From the moment I entered security screening, I experienced increasing threats, if I stepped out of line, or asked any questions. I saw another person in the security line try to leave, and they threatened her with arrest, if she did not proceed through the security checkpoint.
I started to realize that we have all been living like this for some time. Trapped in a sort of system that takes us through processes and protocols which we take for granted. All of which are potentially harmful to us. We are searched, photographed, watched, and coerced. Everything we do in public spaces is monitored by someone. We can be diverted at any point in our lives into isolated confinement. A black bag put over our head, and led away in chains.
Looking back, it seems almost designed intentionally to allow for authorities to divert us into situations where we are isolated, alone, confused, and scared. Like putting a cat in a bag or pinching the ear of a bull, the process is designed to make us complacent, and afraid to struggle.
Suddenly I understood that this is what people meant by a police state. I have always thought of a police state as somewhere else. Something that dictatorships do, but it’s just a point where police have total control over people’s lives, and there’s nothing we can do about it. I had not been afraid of police until this moment. Now I understood the relationship police have in shaping people’s lives. There’s no excuse for what they do.
I started to get angry, but again there’s nothing I could do. I was restrained, tied to the bench I was sitting on. I tried to keep calm. I wondered how people let it get like this. I only had to look at my own life to see how people are complacent in allowing oppression to continue and grow. We are raised to believe that authorities have our best interests in mind, but they don’t. We perpetuate this belief because it’s easier than living with the knowledge of our own oppression.