Two incidents, described here (straight dope link), incidents 1 and 5.
The specifics of Incident #1 arrest are covered in that thread. Incident #5 doesn’t describe the actual arrest and detention very much, so…
After handcuffing me and putting me in the back of the cop cruiser, they searched my car for 10 minutes then drove me to a local holding cell somewhere in or near Shirley Long Island. Officious and peremptory but not abusive. Then along with a handful of others, I was put on a bus and taken to a large jail facility in Riverhead and that’s where it got kind of nasty.
• They took my eyeglasses from me claiming they were a risk. I can’t see a damn thing without them, badly nearsighted.
• Very little control over the inmate behaviors. I was asked a question by another jailed person, gave a “don’t have any idea what you’re talking about” kind of reply, and had my head on the ground in a headlock, with police officers all over the place not intervening.
• Long interview with nosy questions. Including whether I had a psychiatric history. As y’all know, I’m out and open about it. Normally. Not this time. This did not seem like an environment where I wanted to see firsthand what different experiences I’d be subjected to if they jotted down that I was a lunatic.
• Met a lucid intellectual, relaxed and amused and conversational, who said he’d been kept here for two years with no access to attorney, bail, outside conversation of any sort. He said he had some vague suspicions about why but still didn’t know; the important thing was no, discard anything you think you know about rights. You have only the rights they choose to recognize. I saw him being beaten with those police billy clubs by two corrections officers a little while later; he wasn’t fighting back or trying to get away from them, caught my eye, shrugged and smiled and called out “Just everyday life, you get used to it”.
• Finally got to make a phone call 24 hours after arrest and got someone to bring bail. Very glad to be out of that place.