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My friend Bear was arrested by the police for Aggravated Assault because he attacked someone with a knife. I called the police department and asked about him. He had to serve 45 to 60 days before he would see a judge, two months with nothing but an accusation. Only two weeks would pass and I would see him on the street again, they had released him early, because the prison was too packed with people who had committed crimes like, "Obstruction of a Public Passage," and the "The First Amendment Doesn't Really Exist/Disrespecting a Police Officer." When I was arrested I was not read my rights, all I heard was, "If you try to run, I will shoot and kill you." All I saw was a gun pointed in my face. Nobody saw a lawyer. In fact, the idea that you get to see a lawyer is absolute bull. If you plead not guilty to any crime you must automatically serve 21 days in prison so that a trial can be set up. The crime of "Criminal Trespassing," carries with it only 10 days, if you plead guilty, you serve 10 days. If you plead not guilty, you serve 21 days. If you can make bail you don't have to serve 21 days but what does this reconfirm? The law exists for the rich and not for the poor. If you think that a homeless person can make a $5000, think again. Even after those 21 days if you fail to prove you're innocent and if you ask for "Time Served" -- which means those 21 days of waiting for trial will be deducted from your sentence -- there's a good chance you'll be denied it. So, those days you spent in prison, not convicted of anything, outweigh however long you'll spend in prison for the actual sentence. It is the job of the police to snatch up as many people as they can on the streets. When I was waiting to see the judge so I could give a plea, a seven day waiting period, I had seen people leave and reenter the prison system. "You were here when I was released, and you still haven't talked to the judge?" one home bum would ask me as I saw him again on the inside. I saw one person say to the judge "but I was never read my rights" and the judge responded "when you had cuffs put on you should have been able to tell you were being arrested." And finally, when before the judge, he asks you two questions, "Do you have a job or are you in school? Do you have a home?" That is all he needs to know before he gives you a sentence.
I remember after my trial we had all been lined up and one of the guards decided it was her duty to lecture us. "You're all garbage" she said. "You all need to get a job and learn to respect yourselves. I can't even stand to look at you. You all need to start paying taxes and stop stealing. You're just making it harder on everyone else." I didn't say anything. I ‘knew my place’ as they might say but this only translates to: if you voice your opinion you won't be breathing after five minutes of their reaction. An Anarchy-Communist doesn't last long in jail when he makes his opinions prevalent. If I said "maybe we wouldn't be stealing if we were paid a living wage" I could guarantee you that I would have more scars to show you than I do now. Aside from all that the most disappointing fact about prison was that when I asked if there was a prison library I was given some Christian propaganda. I was hoping for some Thomas Paine at least. I remember my friend Humble getting arrested. He saw his two friends arrested, so he gave each of them a cigarette while they were in cuffs. As he was walking away, he was grabbed by a cop and arrested. What crime did he commit? Simple: Obstruction of a Public Passage, Begging, and Vagrancy. After all, giving cigarettes to your friend ought to be a felony offense. If you can't see the obvious nature of that try telling that to the next cop you see and then spend the next 6,000 hours in jail wishing that the First Amendment actually meant something. I had seen friends driving the most beat up pickup truck with the words "F*** THE POLICE" spray-painted on the side. They had been stopped three times in as many miles, until they were arrested.
Shoplifting became my trade. I acquired the name "Robin Hood." It seemed to be rather romantic, if everything else was wretched. Every day, I would go to a Walgreens or a grocery store and steal, rip-off, five finger discount, shoplift, whatever you want to call it. Then I would go throughout the city distributing food to the poor families. My attitude was, "I did it yesterday, I did it today and I can know when I wake up tomorrow I'll be doing it again." Sometimes it was too hard. I remember walking out of the door of a store, hearing the alarm and then just bolting down the street, running as fast as I possibly could. I remember running from the cops with my street brother Pockets. It was me, him and his dog. We ran zigzagging blocks, the only way that you can possibly escape from the police, and we got away. I remember having to run from mounted police. The only thing I could do was run into a crowd; disappear as best as I possibly could. I remember my friend Johnny, he ran from cops when some squatters in their tents were busted. As the cops moved in, all of the squatters ran. Never in your life had you seen so many people running from cops, struggling to be free and often times being beaten in the face with a baton as I had seen. That is what it's like no the streets of America. Screaming "stop hitting me!" to the police officer who is smashing your face and then getting a Disturbing the Peace charge because of it. Maybe it was because in Maine, thousands of dairy farmers dumped milk into the ground, just to raise the price of all dairy products, of which we still couldn't afford at the moment. Not to mention that my friend Pockets or Humble or Twitch may have been working at $5 a day (the going rate for a homeless person) delivering or producing that milk only so that they can starve to the point where they have to steal food to feed themselves and their family. Then they can go to jail and serve two months in prison, the way my friend George served for stealing two cans of soda, and you can't show the judge any records of employment because you won't be hired unless you will be paid under the table. The police really don’t care about any of this because they're making a bonus on EVERY ARREST -- legal and illegal -- that they get. To them it's a matter of spotting someone who has no financial means of defending themselves in court so the homeless are the primary target. Meanwhile, my other friends are paid minimum wage so they can build a statue of the mayor on the waterfront so that they can go home at night to an overcrowded apartment with maybe rice or peanut butter as their only food.
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Andy Carloff
Punkerslut (or Andy Carloff) has traveled all across the United States and has experienced American life in the urban centers, as a homeless squatter and as a blue-collar, working-class laborer. Since high school and early development, he has composed a variety of ideas on education, politics, and economy. His positions are ultra-leftist: politically an Anarchist, economically a Socialist, and culturally a Syndicalist. His writings are available through his website: http://www.punkerslut.com
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