Another Quality of Life Bust Last Saturday night Dora, a single mother of two, was getting off of work, heading home on the subway to pick up her kids from the sitter. She only had $1.50 on her metrocard, but the machine would not accept cash to refill it, only credit/debit cards, which Dora did not have.
The token booth was closed, so she had no way to get on the subway and had to get home. Another woman came down the steps and offered to take her through the turnstile with her. Relieved, accepted and was promptly arrested on the train platform.
The cop didn't want to hear Dora's excuses. The law's the law. She was taken to central booking and spent the next 36 hours in jail. It was Monday night when I met her. When she was finally separated from general population for our interview she began shaking and sobbing about her children.
She had begged the babysitter to stay with her kids, but she had not been able to speak with her in over 24 hours and had no news of where her kids or the sitter were. She was a recent immigrant from the Dominican Republic, shocked at the brutality of our system, but I had nothing to offer her but sympathy.
This is Giuliani's legacy. This is "quality of life" policing. Whose quality of life is the question not often asked.
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Posted on Oct 4, 2008 at 9:25 AM | Comments
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PD Holiday... ...to Europe, where the laws are sane, Barak's The Man and even the Green Party has a spot at the trough.
This is a interview I did with Mob Logic (I learned subsequently....)
Happy Labor Day, for those of you who remained employed.
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Posted on Aug 19, 2008 at 6:42 PM | Comments
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Tough Days in Part A Gun possession in NYC is taken very seriously, no mercy is shown under any circumstances. Get caught with a loaded gun in public and you will be offered one year in jail prior to indictment, 3.5 years if you try challenging the case against you, i.e., the search, often based on the 'ol "bulge" routine.
Whatever your views on gun control, NYC's gun policy has led to more gut-wrenching scenes than I can count since I've been in the Bronx. Another recently played out during the course of a long day in Part A.
DD was 19 when he was caught in a taxi with a gun. Like virtually every client I've had on gun possession cases, the kid had never been arrested before and had stunned, anguished parents waiting for him in court.
It was only months from DD's high school graduation when he was arrested. After his parents posted bail, the case was adjourned for two months for DD to graduate and then go straight to jail and leave a year later with life-long violent felony record, forever unemployable.
A week before sentencing, DD's mother called, begging me to get him probation or at least more time before he had to "step in." The district attorney would not hear about it.
Yesterday, the day came. DD and family arrived at 9:30 - surprising, I thought, because clients are not usually in a rush to get to court to go to jail. But DD was not ready to go to jail. We can fight, I told him. It's at least 3.5 years if we lose, I reminded.
I left to handle other cases and give the family time to think, time to work up nerve. Nerve is needed no matter what is decided.
I came back hours later, but nothing had changed. More time, please, Mr. Fabricant! Probation! DD just graduated high school! I called the district attorney.
He was not hearing it some more.
The lunch hour came and went; it was 3:00 p.m., time to decide. Mom comes to me weeping, DD sat on the bench behind her staring at the ground. They've decided DD would "step in." We count days on my calendar, circling the day when DD will be home and I leave to go sign up the case.
For a defense attorney, there is no worse feeling than corrections officers suddenly standing behind your client while you are in open court.
The sound of cuffs rattling off belts.
Hands behind your back.
Wait! My cell phone!
Give them to your lawyer.
My keys!
You won't be needing them anymore!
Judge: Defendant is remanded.
Officer: Step in.
DD's little brother is crying. Mom is crying. I give her the house keys...the cell phone starts vibrating when I hand it to her.
I tell her I wish there had been more that I could do.
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Posted on Aug 9, 2008 at 11:12 AM | Comments
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