The Police Tried to Make Me Medically Examine a Man Against His Will

It’s illegal to treat someone without consent. That doesn’t stop some of my colleagues.

Michele Harper
ZORA
Published in
19 min readJul 7, 2020

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A photo of a Black female doctor sitting in an examination room, arms crossed.
Photo: Thomas Barwick/Getty Images

“Just make him do it! ” A voice rang out, followed by the sound of metal grating on metal.

I leaned past my computer screen toward the triage area to see a young man in handcuffs…

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Michele Harper
ZORA
Writer for

An emergency room physician for more than a decade and author of the upcoming memoir, The Beauty in Breaking. For more information visit: micheleharper.com