The Messed Up System

June 4, 2003, my sixteenth birthday. My best friend and I were sitting down at the beach smoking a blunt when four cop cars (with two police men in each) rushed us. I was arrested and charged with possession of narcotics and sentenced to 21 days in juvenile correctional facility and 3 months of probation. That wasn’t the worst part. I spent my sweet sixteen in the JAC (Juvenile Assessment Center) while my whole family was at my house with dinner on the table, the birthday cake already baked and no idea of where I was. It broke my heart to know that my mother was at home with my family worried sick all day and all night until 11:45 pm that they decided to call her to see if she would post bond.

Instead of solving real problems in our community like rape, gangs, and murder, which there is plenty of in a city like Miami beach, those stupid pigs have to be bothering me and ruining my birthday.

That was June. My court date was September 4, 2003. I was told that if I finished my probation without any dirty drug tests I would be released in a period of 90 days (three months).It has been three months now and I have done everything they have asked me to do. I stopped doing drugs, I started going to school again, I even got a job and did more community hours than they assigned. I believe I set a remarkable example of how one should behave on probation, But despite my efforts and achievements in this program they extended my probation to six months.

Despite feeling tricked and deceived I felt like I was just wasting time. So I spoke to my probation officer and told her how I felt. I was shocked when she told me that if I would have lied to the officers and C.O’s (commanding officers from the JAC) and told them I didn’t smoke they would have never put me on probation. To which I responded “what so I was supposed to lie?” and she said “yeah,”.

Normally lying to me is not such a big deal, a little white lie here another one there, no biggie. But this was different, this was my government, our system. A system which is based on truth, justice and equality. And the only way to be on its good side is to lie? That doesn’t make sense.

Prior to my arrest Police had picked me up a couple of times for no specific reason just to call my mother and tell her that I was a lost cause, and that there was no hope for me. Is that really help? NO! that’s harassment.

Another point I have to make is about Public defenders, or should I say public pretenders. There are many cases of malpractice in this category but ill choose one that hits close to home. My boyfriend of one year and eight months was arrested in April. He did not resist arrest (I know I was there) but just for fun the police beat him bloody anyways. Not only did they o this but they also planted drugs that were not in his possession on him so that he would go to prison for a long time. “Say goodbye to your lady you’re going away for a long time.” Those words will repeat in my mind over and over again until I see my baby again.

He went to jail. If he would have had the money to pay for a good lawyer he would have been able to fight and probably sue the police and they’re false report and would have served no time. But since he had a public pretender that was working with the Miami beach police department he had no choice but to plead guilty and serve his time.

More often than not it seems like the system is working against us rather than with us.The law has withered many innocent people, especially from inner city regions, shouldn’t the government be something we can depend on and trust rather than fear and despise of? Countless families and loved ones have been pointlessly torn apart by these same reasons. And I for one am sick of it.