The Dutch, Belgian, French, and German cops have their own special level of "forceful de-escalation". You don't follow my commands, I beat you with my baton, or let the dog bite you, your choice. Absolutely disgusting. But at least you're less likely to be shot by them, but they're still the same kind of "people" compared to American cops.

I've been lucky though to avoid any physical violence with Swedish police, but physical violence isn't their preference... It's psychological violence that they crave.

When I was younger, I started bad-mouthing a group of cops walking by the bar I was drinking at. Hanging with a group of friends, just some mean-hearted banter at the cop bastards, like the punk kids we were.

Of course they got mad, and first decided I need to be put into the drunk tank for disturbing the peace... The drunk tank here is a brightly lit cell with a steel bed and no blanket or anything. "For your safety". Enjoy sitting there in the light with nothing to do for 6-8 hours. Toilet right in the middle of the room, with a huge door-window to the cell, where the guard looks inside at least once every 5-15 minutes. Again, for your safety.

I told them I'm barely drunk, I had only had one beer. They could see that easily as well.

"Oh, then you're certainly drug intoxicated", so they forced me into their car, where they drove me to the hospital like 40 minutes out of town, where I was forced to leave a blood test. They also seized my phone "to gather evidence on who I might have bought drugs off of".

After the blood was taken, they escorted me out and then said "bye, you'll be hearing from us once we're done with your phone". I ask how the fuck am I supposed to get home now? "We're not a taxi service, but you'll figure it out yourself!" and drove off laughing.

So I got to wander around a closed hospital in the middle of nowhere at 1am in the morning until some lab tech went out for a cigarette, and they were nice enough to call me a taxi. The real final hero was the taximan, who let me pay the insane fare (was like over 1,5k SEK, high tariff for both nighttime and long distance) within a couple days, as he understood the cops fucked me hard. I wouldn't be surprised if he's heard similar stories, and he's just happy to get some form of compensation for those fares...

I was of course confirmed drug-free after the blood test came back, but I never got any apologies, nor compensation for anything, not even for the taxi fare.

ACAB, regardless of nationality.