But Paul said to the police officers, “The authorities commanded men to beat us in front of a crowd before those authorities had learned if we (exc) had done anything wrong! Then they ordered men to shove us into jail! But that was not legal, because we (exc) are Roman citizens! And now they want [RHQ] to send us away secretly! We will not accept that! Those Roman officials must come themselves and tell us that they are sorry, and take us out of jail.”