The criminalization of everyday life-zero tolerance.

[Antaletriangle]

http://www.citylimits.org/content/ar...rticle_id=3718

Are anyone's days entirely free of "offenses" that can get you arrested? > By Robert Neuwirth

City Limits WEEKLY #679
March 23, 2009


I spent 24 hours in the slammer the other day. My crime? Well, the police couldn’t tell me when they locked me up. The prosecutor and judge couldn’t either, when I was arraigned the following day. I found out for myself when I researched the matter a few days after being released: I had been cited for walking my dog off the leash – once, six years ago.
Welcome to the ugly underside of the zero-tolerance era, where insignificant rule violations get inflated into criminal infractions. Here’s how it worked with me: a gaggle of transit cops stopped me after they saw me walk between two subway cars on my way to work. This, they told me, was against the rules. They asked for ID and typed my name into a hand-held computer. Up came that old citation that I didn’t know about and they couldn’t tell me about. I was immediately handcuffed and brought to the precinct. There, I waited in a holding cell, then was fingerprinted (post-CSI memo: they now take the fingers, the thumbs, the palms, and the sides of both hands) and had the contents of my shoulder bag inventoried. I could hardly believe it: I was being arrested without ever having committed a crime.

I was held overnight in the Midtown North Precinct lock-up (shoelaces and belt confiscated, meals courtesy of the McDonald’s dollar menu). In the morning, my fellow convicts and I were led, chain-gang style, to the Manhattan Community Court next door. The judge there dismissed the charge against me – because no one ever does time for that kind of crime. A few days later, at Brooklyn’s central court, my warrant was lifted for "time served" – again because no one is ever locked up for breaking the leash law.

If the cops had simply written me a ticket, I would have paid it, and I would have also had to pay to vacate my outstanding warrant. But by cuffing me and holding me overnight, the city spent quite a bit of money (it took two police officers approximately six hours each just to arrest and process me), while the fines assessed against me were rescinded.

While I was inside, I was astounded by the kinds of things that take up police and court time. A couple of people nabbed for being in various parks after dark. One of them was walking his dog. Two young men accused of riding their bicycles on the sidewalk. Three people arrested for sleeping in a subway station. My roommate in the lock-up was an articulate and self-aware 60-year-old whose sin was that he bought a bottle of booze and had taken a swig on the street. In the cell next to us: two costumed Mariachis busted for busking on the subway. They were repeat offenders. Their weapons: a guitar and an accordion.

With zero tolerance, we have finally done it: We have criminalized everyday life. After all, in the course of their life people sometimes ride their bikes on the sidewalks. And once upon a time not too long ago, it was normal to go into the parks after dark. My friends and I did all the time, particularly if we had time to kill before or after the opera, the symphony, or a jazz or rock concert. We walked brazenly between subway cars. Some of us even – horror of horrors! – played music on the street or in the subway without a license. And, though my parents would not be happy to know it even now, we sometimes drank beer in public – making sure, in an important but legally meaningless gesture, that the bottle was in a paper bag. If I did any of this on a regular basis today, I’d probably be considered a behavioral recidivist and sent to Riker’s Island.

I can laugh away my time in a cell—my life suddenly turned into an update of “Alice’s Restaurant.” But I get angry when I think of kids in their teens or 20s being treated the way I was. I’m not against hard time for criminal, violent or anti-social behavior. But slapping young people behind bars and giving them an arrest record simply because the normal things they do are trivial rule violations is not only wasteful, it’s downright criminal.

- Robert Neuwirth

Robert Neuwirth, a longtime contributor to City Limits, is the author of "Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World," and is at work on a new book about the global reach of the informal economy.

Editor's note: The Giuliani administration highlighted its increase of “quality of life” summonses, but statistics from the annual Mayor’s Management Report indicate that the Bloomberg administration has been just as zealous. The number of such summonses under Giuliani reached its height in fiscal 2001, hitting 523,000. After a dip in 2002, the number of "quality of life" summonses rose under Mayor Bloomberg to more than 700,000 in fiscal 2004. They’ve declined since then to 527,000 in fiscal 2008—still higher than under the previous mayor. The city’s courts, meanwhile, have registered an uptick in the number of people getting arraigned on minor charges: In 2007, the last year for which the court system published statistics, the number of arraignments for infractions and violations was the highest in 10 years – 20 percent greater than the previous year.

[scanner]

Its only going to get worse, my son nearly got arrested and me along with him for riding a bike ON THE ROAD work that one out.

[Antaletriangle]

I agree scanner, everything is in place-what they're working on now is destabilisation of society through the fear factory.

[Myra]

Whoa I had no idea people were getting jailed for stuff like this omg.

[Swanny]

Originally Posted by scanner

Its only going to get worse, my son nearly got arrested and me along with him for riding a bike ON THE ROAD work that one out.

How the hell does that work????

[scanner]

check out you tube re- criminal cops ,happening all over the world

[scanner]

I nealy got arrested defending my son ,he was on his way to school, on the road on his bike turning right into the school grounds. He was stopped by one of these hobby bobbies or PCSO their official title, she said to him he was obstructing the road and wanted his details, he gave his details then rang me.

I called too the shool, and as I approached I could see this PCSO and my son stud behind her. I asked the PCSO if I could please have a mo with my son ? she didn't answer just looked at me , my son walked over to me and he thought he had done nothing wrong as he had indicated right and turned in ,then he was stopped. I went over to this PCSO and asked why she had taken his details ? She replied with" do you take the word of a child over a uniformed officer" ? She had not a clue what my son had told me, she was obviously in defence mode .

I said I've known my son for fourteen years and known her fourteen seconds ( at which point a school teacher who was catching late pupils arriving ) said to the PCSO have you got some one coming to this man ? my only thought was he's trying to get this PCSO to call for a police officer to arrest me. It didn't happen because I walk away from this ugly situation and got back into my car, as I did the PCSO followed me and changed her tune and was trying to be nice after I told her I was going to see a solicitor.

I was so annoyed at what had just happened, I went to my office and from there phoned the school and spoke with the Headmaster, told him the story . He apologised then told me every High school in the country had a PSCO attatched to it and he had written to the police objecting to a PCSO stud at his main gate every morning and he would be talking to the teacher about his involvement. I found out later that these two ( the teacher and the PCSO are in leauge together like a good cop bad cop thing ) and that it was the brief of these PCSOs to collect as many details from school pupils as possible and input them on to a computer ??? No charges were leveled at my son and when the PCSO was prest by a phone call from my solicitor she told him "it was to give adivce about road safety"

I thought I would never see the day when law abiding people going about daily business would have this forced upon them and TPTB are now useing the power of the puplic paid police to criminalise our children . WE TRULY LIVE IN A POLICE STATE