Johnathan Serrano

My name is Johnathan Serrano. Well what brings me here is the petty theft accusations which is all a misunderstanding, because my true intentions was not to steal. I was thinking a lot. I basically had the item in my hand and I had to go to an event at Marquee and I just rushed out the store not thinking and basically I didn't realize I had the item in my hand till I was a block away. As soon as I was about to turn the security guard just basically told me, what "I'm going to do with it" and basically wanted me to like um, accusing me of thieving and I'm just saying, "no I didn't take it. It was an accident, I was not thinking, I just walked out the store." And um basically as soon as I gave him back the item and told him, "oh I'm so sorry about that, I'm not a thief or anything." he started choking me and I started saying, "ok what are you doing? Why are you choking me?" So I started like wrestling him and then he was like, "well we're going to take you to jail." I said, "well you can't take me to jail because I didn't mean to steal, I'm not like a thief or anything." So as soon as he started choking me I took my elbow and started hitting him. Then all of a sudden we started wrestling. I don't know what happened, I started like basically hitting him back and I had my boots and I started kicking him and um we was wrestling into the middle of the street and in the street he banged my head on the floor and I was scared for my life. So I flipped him and started running away and he caught me and started nailing me and then he started punching me in the face with my glasses on and then my eyes were really damaged and I started like grabbed his balls and twisting, he started screaming and I like punched him in his face and then I started screaming for help, "this guys attacking me." Some British guy came out of nowhere started calling the cops. Next thing you know like he nails me again and then two people grab me and they pulled me on the floor. It had to take another person to hold me down and then he starting handcuffing me with these plastic stupid handcuffs and next thing you know I'm taken in and then I have to go to jail for some stupid stuff. They charged me with a felony, robbery which I think was ridiculous for a tank top. So they charged me with a misdemeanor, they gave me a deal the judge and now I have to do community service. I feel that um, my true intentions was wasn't to steal I'm not a thief, but I feel like I wasn't thinking. It was a stupid mistake. Let me just deal with it. It's the law and you know that's it.

Scott Sturgeon

I was arrested in September I believe basically for throwing donuts at cops. We were protesting the decibel, it was a federal case of decibel levels of amplified sound during political musical events. I could scream and play acoustic guitar louder than the amplified sound that they had. They wanted seventy decibels at one hundred feet, which is like into a vacuum cleaner at ten feet. The ambient noise of a crowd of several hundred people which there were at that particular event is louder than the actual amplified sound that they wanted to allow us, so we're in court over this. The event was called the donut social, in which case I was wasted drunk playing Leftover Crack, Star Fucking Hipsters and Choking Victims songs for a crowd of several hundred kids. They couldn't hear me and at some point a box of donuts was passed over to me from the crowd. I wasn't going to eat it, I wasn't going to throw it at the kids so I threw it at the twelve cops that I saw, it was a dozen donuts, a dozen cops. The last donut slid within a foot of the last officers foot. My aim got good by the end of the throwing. They charged me with harassment, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. I didn't have any weapon, I had a guitar. Donut? I considering it littering. They considered it harassment. They kept berating me saying, "how dare you throw garbage at us." I was like you just throw bullets at innocent people every day. I don't think there was any harm done. Probably if the donut slid another foot and touched the officers shoe I probably would be accused of assault with a donut.

One of the lyrics that was brought up was a chorus to a song called Crack Rock Steady. Crack Rock Steady is a choking victims song that I sang at the event and they quoted that at my trial. They quoted me saying, "kill the police, kill the police."

But the line is, Crack Rock Steady are you ready to stop the rotten blue menace, lets go kill us some cops, crack rock steady are you ready? Living above the law! We also played a song one dead cop, Power abuse; authority misuse. They kill and rape and it won’t be on the news. But you’re the good one With the badge and a gun. Braggin’ how you blasted gunshot forty-one. In relation to the Amadou Diallo shooting and killing, murdering by the police.

Kenny Sperry

My name is Kenny Sperry. I'm here today you know giving an interview and everything about what happened to me. You know the day when I got arrested and had to go to court and everything. You know I was there outside of Union Square talking to a friend of mine and next thing I know we're sitting there talking and everything and he pulls out a bag, bag of bud, bag of herb on him. You know he's telling me, "you wanna smoke?" and like I tell him, "I'm good right now" because I had to go. Next thing I know some D's, they come over there, some detectives they run up on him. You know what I'm saying? Then I'm walking away at this point you know because I got my herb on me. Next thing I know they turn around and run up on me and then they search me and violate my fourth amendment you know which is which is my right not to have my persons searched and seized without a warrant so they went ahead and did that and violated that so then they found the herb on me and so they took that and tried to get me for sales.

The main thing too, which was one of the big points I'm trying to push is that the fact that my religious right was violated you know what I'm saying because I practice Rastafarian belief and there's supposed to be freedom of religion in this country and I smoked the herbs, you know it's not smoking the herb to be a cool thing or anything like this because it's what kids do or anything to do with that. I smoke the herb because the herb comes from the earth and I smoke this because this is part of the intelligent nature, the one state of mind, the one love, everything that is about that, has to do with peace, has to do with harmony, has to be at one with nature, you know what I'm saying? Thats the plain consciousness that just happens into when you inhale the earth into your body. You know what I'm saying? Nobody ever died off it. You know. It's one of the most unbelievable medicines we have on the planet. You know what I'm saying? And just the fact that so many people use it. You know what I'm saying? You have cigarettes out there. You have alcohol out there, which kills people, kills the soul, kills the mind, kills the body. Herb enhances the soul, enhances the mind, enhances the body, has so many benefits to human kind that it's unbelievable so you know that's what I'm trying to say.

Tim Monaghan

My name is Tim Monaghan. I had a little altercation last March in a bar in Midtown where I live. Big guy, bully, drunk, obnoxious. Some tourists, three girls from Hawaii were there and I was taking pictures of them and all this and I guess he had an eye out for one of the girls who I was talking to, I mean she could have been my wife for all he knew, but he didn't care. He was like a bully. He came over and grabbed her ass and she said, "would you please remove your hand from my ass." I didn't say nothing. I didn't know what was really happening and he looked at me and said, "you're fucking dead." Because I, you know, he was jealous or whatever the hell even though they all left alone. I ended up in jail because of this. So he walked by back and forth saying, "hurry up and finish your drink, uh you're dead, this guy is dead" and all this and he's a big guy and I'm not, I'm five eight, I weigh one hundred and forty two pounds and uh I was drinking vodka and cranberry that night and I had a half a drink left and he said, "I hope you enjoy the rest of that drink because when that drink's done you're dead" and he went outside and smoked a cigarette and I, I don't know if I was just irate by what he said or I was scared and I was scared and I wasn't taking shit because if you live in New York you learn you don't take shit and I walked right at him and I, there some were trash bags out there and I pushed him over the trash bags onto eighth avenue and I had a knife. I'm from Maine and you're just accustomed to carrying pocket knives so whatever and I pulled it on him and I said, "ok now we're the same size, what are you going to do now?" and his eyes bulged out of his head. Well of course I'm not going to kill the guy, I mean I'm just trying to scare him you know. I put the knife away and he flipped out. Anyway cops came and they put me in jail, you know and I was just minding my own business, just having a drink after work and in a matter of fifteen minutes this whole sort of thing happened. They put me in jail, they put me in a cell with thirty nine other guys. I'm originally from New England. I, unfortunately had a world champion Boston Red Sox shirt on that day. I was a minority in that cell and there were a lot of Yankee fans from the Bronx. It was just a rough twenty four hours in jail and so I get community no I got anger management classes, I have to go to anger management class, I've completed. I'm not angry, I just got angry that night and then I just had to pay this fine. It's costing me like around you know, you have to pay for anger management class, it's costing like you know, four hundred and fifty dollars around there all together with everything and it's just been a pain in the ass and I've never even had a speeding ticket in my life. I've never done anything wrong and this happens. I'm down, I'm in jail. It's just been a character builder, we'll put it that way. I guess I did learn a lesson though I will walk away because you don't want to get thrown down in the tombs in New York City. It's not a pleasant place to be and uh that's it, fine paid, now I'll carry on, this is over but that guy had everything coming to him that I did to him; period. "You're an asshole if he's watching this, end of story, goodbye."

Glenn Davis

My name is Glenn Davis. I'm fulfilling a court obligation to uh, I was convicted today of misdemeanor, assault yeah that's what it was on a cab driver. Circumstances are I was out with friends we were drinking and the cab driver gave us a ride. He was trying to rip us off. Well he uh, we only paid about, I only paid eighty percent of the bill because that's what I felt, what the price was because we had taken the cab a couple of times at that time of the night and he had taken us about three blocks south of where we needed to be and we never ended up getting there so I asked him to pull over. The bill was about thirteen dollars and I gave him nine I think and I said, "this is what I'm going to pay you because this is what it usually is." and he flipped out. There were two girls in the back seat. I got out of the car, opened the door for the girls to get out and he sped away with the girls in the car and I sprinted after him. He crashed, he actually crashed the cab too, this is the best part he crashed the cab into another car and it slammed shut and that's when I flipped out. I ran over to him got the girls out told him to walk away and then him and I were involved in an altercation. He called the cops. The cops came and got me and uh I spent forty hours in jail. It was a good time. It was horrible. It was absolutely horrible. The cheese sandwiches were horrible. They need to feed us better here. Other then that it was really embarrassing.

It was just an altercation with the cab driver and supposedly theft of services. The meter doesn't lie I guess. I took an ACD and got three days of community service. Which I'm gonna do even though I really really don't want to do it. No and you know if I see him again I'll punch him.

Darin Tate

My name is Darin, Darin Tate. What brought me here today, well actually on Veterans Day, on the 11th. of this month which is November 11th. I was walking down the street on my lunch break and I went to actually I was working I was on my lunch break I went into the park, I smoked a joint one joint. The police five police officers came up to me and I put it out and I was good with them by saying this is a joint and everything and they threw me to the ground actually and they handcuffed, arrested me and put me into a car. I spent three, today is the thirteenth, I spent three days in the bullpen, I didn't even see the judge and then now they see me, I went to see the judge and they want to give me sixty days for actually smoking one joint. So actually the DA asked for sixty days and my lawyer said, "Are you kidding me? It was only a joint." So he actually, the judge looked at the DA and the DA said, "Yes I want him to do sixty days."and the judge said, "no time served, let him go, go to a program or something." So they gave me a paperwork to go upstairs and fill in paperwork so I can start a program for a joint. You know I've been smoking a joint since I was fifteen. Ok. But I'm not a heavy user. I don't deserve to be put in jail at all for smoking a joint. You know. I'm a hard working man with a wife that has cancer. You know my wife has cancer at Mount Sinai hospital and it's incredible to me how the system is today. They walk around and jump out of cars, jump out of vans and then for no apparent reason just to trap people off especially in the minority communities and it's not right, it's not right. Something needs to be done. We need to follow this act that Bush set, the Patriot Act. We don't even have rights no more. America needs to know this. We don't have rights at all. All we have is ourselves and to survive, you know. We're not read our rights, we're just animals. So we need to come together one time and vote for the right people and try to end this madness because a lot of people are going to jail and spending time in jail for very very very little reason. We're getting locked up for little little little things and it's incredible. There's people outside robbing people, there's people outside robbing banks, robbing old woman and stuff and getting less time then people that's smoking a joint. That's incredible. We need to end this madness now. Thank you.

Daniel Davis

Yes. Excuse me. Charges of grand larceny. Well I'm currently caught up in a case where there was allegedly some cash was stolen from a bank. They're accusing me of pulling out money from my account um that was stolen that I have no knowledge of the money being stolen and basically they're saying that I'm part of some organization that um steals money. Supposedly, I'm not sure. Actually it's um wiring money and funds. So some money was wired to me from a business partner and they're saying that I'm linked to funds that was being stolen from accounts. Basically I have no knowledge of any money being stolen. I just received money and it was in my account. So if I'm wrong for having possession of money in my account then so be it but I feel that legally I'm able to deposit any money that's given to me especially if it's a certified check and I'm not aware that any money is stolen or the bank is not informing me that the money was stolen and they're cashing my checks and allowing me to do my business transactions um without any uh stipulations of the checks or the money that is deposited in my into account as being stolen. I feel that if I do have money in my account and they are allowing me to make business transactions and um and so forth uh my accounting that I'm not guilty of any wrong doing especially if I'm not aware that any money is being transferred from a legal account that, that account that is being transferred from has no red flags or any that the accounts I'm acquiring money from is um being investigated on, so I feel that these charges that are, that I have acquired um is not actually my charges because as I've said this is my business, this is my account and for the District Attorney to accuse me of illegally acquiring these funds I feel is wrong because basically like I said I'm just doing my business as I do every day with my account as any American has done and and is continually doing um with day to day accounting with banks.

Matthew Walsh

My name is Matthew Walsh. I gotta wait on probation. For a robbery. Hanging out with wrong people. Bad people. I got caught with something that I did. I got caught robbing a store and now I'm on probation. I got arrested. I got caught. I had a lot on my mind and I couldn't take it anymore. A lot of family issues. I had no money. I hadn't gotten my welfare check. I'm kind of hungry so I robbed a store. Bodega. 9mm. One of my friends. One of my people that I was hanging out with. Bad. I regretted it, after I did it. Now I couldn't do nothing I was locked up. Didn't have no freedom. It ain't fun being in jail. You can't do nothing. All you do is sleep all day. Nothing. Nah I did it with other people. Yeah I had the gun but I threw it after. I didn't want to get caught with it. $20. You hang out with the wrong crowd and you get caught with the wrong crowd. I gotta walk a straight line now. I'm on probation. Don't get in trouble. It ain't fun. When you get locked up it ain't fun. You can't do nothing. You have no freedom. You can't use your money when you want to. Definitely you can't call nobody. Only one time a day and that's it. You know it's not a place to be. I ain't ever gonna do it again.

Joseph Gibb

My name is Joseph Gibb. I was walking to the train and the cops saw a clip in my pocket so they stopped me and they thought it was a knife and it was a knife. It took them a while, they took it and they were trying to figure out if it was a switchblade or a gravity knife so they were trying to figure it out for about twenty minutes, half an hour, after they finally got it open they saw that it lock clicked, they decided to arrest me and then they didn't even end up charging me for the knife because there was no reason for them to stop me to get the knife but then they saw weed in my bag and charged me for the marijuana and I had to pay seventy five dollars. Waste of Monday. I didn't not get my knife back. I asked but they said no. But I have a piece of paper that is a receipt that says switchblade on it so maybe some day when it's legal I can get it back. I didn't even know it was a switchblade. Just casue it locks. I just thought it was a knife. But who knew? Now I know. I bought it in a legal store so they shouldn't have been selling it. Well it was only a little bit of weed, so not a lot. But I paid to pay two hundred bucks cause its a hundred and thirty dollar court fee or something so that was like two fifty, probably about three hundred dollars. Then I live in Boston so I had to take a bus here. It's outrageous. Expensive knife, it was an expensive day and it was 911, so obviously they would stop me on 911. They probably thought I was gonna hijack a train or something. What are you going to do? New York.

Sheila Jimenez

My name is Sheila Jimenez. I'm a street artist. I sell my art on 14th Street and Broadway, right in front of Whole Foods. And I was arrested about two months ago for selling my art on the streets. So, I make one-of-a-kind bags that I make all of myself, I'm an advocate for sweatshop-free labor. Along with all of my bags I give a pamphlet on sweatshop labor, donating some of the proceeds to an organization. And they arrested me because they said I didn't fall under first amendment, which hundreds of New York City street artists are unjustly arrested every year because of the same situation. So, I was in court today, the case...they re-issued another court date for November 25th, and apparently it's a long process, it keeps going and going and going until finally they grant you first amendment, or they don't, depending on how they feel you fall into place.

Here's some examples of some of my bags. I do poetry on all of my bags.

"There is a stillness that lays deep inside the she in me.
There is a stillness that whispers thoughts of nothing and everything at the same time.
There is a stillness that knows.
Once in a while when my mind stops spinning and my body stops moving, I can hear that clear...clear voice.
And then...this...all of this, seems to make sense.
And...then...I remember that this, all of this, is just one moment in time.
There is a stillness that lays deep inside the she in me."

This is, yeah, I do this full-time. This is my primary source of income. I've been doing it full-time for about a year. I get a lot of...people really, in New York City, really respect the street artists, I think it's definitely a part of the whole atmosphere that attracts people, so I have a lot of repeat customers.

Courtney Kuhbach

Courtney Kuhbach. Um I found a wallet and I called 411 and got the address, I mean I got the phone number of the person who I thought the wallet belonged to. I called them, left a message. There was also two checks with phone numbers on them, I called those. One was in California. One didn't go through and the other one didn't know who I was talking about. The girl that called back it wasn't her wallet. So I tried unsuccessfully to locate the person whose wallet it belonged to. That's pretty much all that happened. We got into a fight. These Mexicans were hitting on me and we got into a verbal fight and we walked outside and cops walked up on us. Four undercover cops walked up on us and searched all of us and found the wallet in my purse and arrested me for possessing credit cards and checks in over two thousand dollars, amount of two thousand dollars. I ended up getting booked for two felonies and I didn't do anything. On the the lower east side in a phone booth. I couldn't get the right phone number for the person who lived in Brooklyn. Probably toss it out. I couldn't find the person.

Octavio Perez and Brad Dunker

My name is Octavio Perez and Brad Dunker. This is a good story. I was in my apartment, it was like 7:15 PM and uh I was in the bedroom and all of a sudden we heard the door. They were knocking really really really hard. Ringing the door, banging the door, obnoxious. So Brad went to the door. I looked at the peep hole and I saw two people standing at the door. I thought well sometimes they misdirect them, them send them to the wrong floors here. So a lot of times they go to the wrong floor. So I figured they're probably lost. I opened the door for them. At that point they take police ID out of their pockets, tell me that their police, to step back, they push me out of the way, one of them is holding a battering ram and right behind those two this man and woman, come about eight or nine other police officers, men and woman both. And uh go ahead Octavio.

So um I came out of the bedroom, "come here sir, come here sir", they're like screaming at me. First of all I'm blind, I'm totally blind. You know what I mean. I said, "who are you?" and they wouldn't tell me. They wouldn't tell me at all. I didn't even know they were police. I said "who are you?" And they wouldn't tell me. They said "you're under arrest." They sat me in a chair and then they moved me into the bed. Then they moved me into the bedroom. They switched places with us. Handcuffed. They never read us our Miranda rights either. One of the policemen said to me "did you guys just do something recently to piss somebody off?" At that time I had really really bad vertigo. I couldn't even walk. I had to hold on to the wall and everything. He had just come out the hospital for seven weeks from cryptococcus. He couldn't even walk across the floor by himself. It's a fungal infection of the brain. It's deadly. I can't walk because of the vertigo. I kept telling them that I was blind. They didn't believe me. Honestly, because I said, "I need to take my cane downtown." We realized three of the police stayed behind in the premises when we left. So god knows what they did here what they searched what they left here they could have bugged the place they could have anything they wanted to.

We get to the police station. We had to wait and wait and wait. They fingerprinted my hand. We waited 3 1/2 hours just to take our fingerprints. They took Octavio first. They took an hour for him. 8 hours later they finally take me to do my prints. An hour later they come back. "Here are your charges" and on a piece of paper, 23000 Octavio Perez, Prostitution Solicitation. The penal code, 23000 solicitation for sex. Prostitution with a woman. It was a police woman. Right here in the apartment. They were all here. The police were all here. An undercover female police officer. She's the one that entered the door, with the first person that came in with the whole squad. So how could he have ever solicited for sex with her not knowing she was a policeman when she was here with ten other people, cops! [They said] "That if she would have sex with me I was going to pay her 200 and something dollars. Oh if she masturbated me."

So then our first date in court comes around two weeks later and when we actually get to court there's no corroborating evidence from the police officer on the scene who's filing the solicitation charges against Mr. Perez, filed with the District Attorney. Nothing there at all. So they tell us we have to come back in a month and the same thing happens. So we can back in a month and the same thing happens. There's still no corroborating evidence put forth by the Police Officer Rodriuguez  who's making the claim that Octavio solicited her for sex. So then say come back in two months. And then when we came back then they dismissed the whole thing. They threw it out. The District Attorney had no documentation proving that the police officer who made this report is the one that made the report and it's actually factual. I had to get a lawyer. I spent more then four thousand dollars on this. For what? For what? Who benefited from this? I don't understand at all. Nobody. Nobody.

Adam Grandmaison

Adam Grandmaison. You want the story? Okay, here's what happened. We were on a BMX road trip and we happened to be staying in Manhattan. I live in Queens, everybody else lives all over. And, we were staying in this girl's apartment...it's just a road trip where we bring a photographer and a video camera guy, and we all ride our bikes and do tricks in skate parks and on street spots and then we eventually make a video out of it and sell the DVD, you know? And basically we were at a party at this girl's house and we're all just hanging out, drinking and smoking and everything...we were smoking some kind of medicinal herb. I'm not sure exactly what it was. Purchased it from an African-American. And so then one of the girls is wasted and starts throwing beer bottles out the window, and all of a sudden we see flashlights flashing up into the window, and we're on the 15th floor, and the cops run up in there, and they search the place and they find marijuana and they ended up...they arrested all of us, we all went to jail, and this is our little thing. Basically, nothing's gonna happen 'cause none of us did anything. Is what it is. She's in there, looking like shit, so, it is what it is.

(L to R: Jeff Kennedy, Keith Romanowski [front center], Adam Grandmaison [rear center], Jake Seeley, Rory Ellis)

Tatyana Martin

My name is Tatyana Martin. I am a transsexual. I got arrested in Harlem uptown on East 132nd. Street and Madison Avenue yesterday because I was getting high with a couple of girlfriends and I wasn't on my p's and q's and the undercover ended up on me and locked me up. I'm free, they can't hold me or nothing. Because I'm that bitch. They can't hold me or nothing. I'm a fab bitch and all that. I can come see me. Anybody who interested in some good booty holler at me, you understand what I'm saying. I'm a madam, I'm a princess, everything I get is given to me. I don't gottta steal anything or nothing. I get it from the kindness of my heart. Me being me. You understand what I'm saying. You wanna have anymore information you give me a call at (212) 947 - ....

Reverend Billy

I'm Reverend Billy sometimes known as Billy Talon to my parents. I was accused of a violation, disorderly conduct. We were trying to interrupt rich people from having a dinner in Union Square. Yes the same rich people that are trying to turn Union Square into their own restaurant. Amen. The local business improvement district. They're called the Union Square Partnership, they're dominated by Mike Bloomberg appointees and buddies. Much as Bloomberg now is trying to steal his third term with his money. He's shopping for his third term as we say in the Church Of Stop Shopping. These wealthy folks Danny Meyer, the celebrity chef and others are trying to purchase, a great old park where the eight hour work day came from. Much of our progressive, our progressive history, labor history, peace history, civil liberties history comes from rallies and marches that took place on the north side of Union Square at the pavilion. The pavilion that old building on the north side of Union Square. Can you picture that, up near seventeenth street. The pavilion that they want to change into an upscale restaurant with fifteen dollar chardonnays, in a place that has the highest concentration of restaurants in New York City. But the pavilion was the reviewing stand for the first labor day parade in 1882 and it's a national historic landmark, because of its protest and so we protest and when we protest sometimes we are accused of disorderly conduct. Amen. You know I didn't get into the tent. It was this ritzy tent and you had to pay a couple of hundred bucks to get in. Right now they should be eating crow. They should back off from a public space that needs to remain public, keep the public parks public children. Keep our public parks public. Amen. Praise be. Save Union Square.

Devohn Walker

My name is Devohn Walker, and I work as a stylist, and I got arrested, like, maybe a month or two ago...because I went out to eat at a very expensive restaurant in the Village, and I didn't pay, and so my friends ran away, and basically the Chinese people, like, grabbed me and, like, they tackled me down and they called the police, and the police came in and arrested me. Then they took my Louis Vuitton bag, and I was so upset. And, basically I am at court today, and I hope that I don't go to jail, because I'm too fabulous to go to jail.

I bought a brand new one, actually. I bought it just to come to court. Louis Vuitton bag, just in case anything happens. I can go down fabulously. The moral of this story is always bring cash when you're going out to eat, no matter who you're going out with. It was delicious, I just wish I had enough money to pay so I wouldn't have been here. Oh, we don't talk anymore. Friends don't do that to each other, they pay for you, and they pay for a new Louis Vuitton bag, too.

Terry Winter

My name is Mister Terry. Hold it, let me stop smoking. You got a match? All right. You want me to hold your coffee, and drink it for you, too? My name Terry. Terry Winter.

Due to the judicious system, I believe that...you gotta forgive my speech, my vocabulary. As I was saying, my vocabulary is very limited. And, I'm somewhat illiterate. But, I'm a very intelligent illiterate young man. Older man, I should say. Anyway, I do believe the judicial system abuse a lot of they privilege, what they issue out the people, and I'm one of them. They wanted to offer me 30 days for hopping a subway, which I didn't have a fare, and the location I hopped it at, I do live there on the sidewalk. It's a very unfortunate situation for me.

For the petit larceny crimes and whatnot I do commit, just to survive, and I choose them very well where I won't get much time, and it's like a choice. You need this, and this the only way you can get it at the time, and it really don't hurts nobody. But it's laws that need to be enforced, but sometime you can bend the laws, which they do in certain occasions, on high levels, they do bend the laws for certain people. And sometime a person like me get a little bent.

1500...maybe over a period of 30 years, yes. Maybe. I'm not positive. It could be a little less. That's more like summonses, not arrests. How many arrests? Numerous. Maybe a hundred times in 30 years. This is my third home. What's it like? Well, sometime...they beat me up last night. Some of the officers, the officers are very...it's a lot of...how should I say? A lot of...what's the word I'm searching for? Like I said earlier in the interview, my vocabulary is very limited due to my education. Lacking of education. Fifth grade. I didn't graduate, I dropped out in the fifth. I should say...I didn't get beat up, I say they were trying to. The Correction Officers.

My finger? This happened in prison, on Clinton Farm. See? This one. It still go to good use at certain times. I'm not gonna tell you what the uses are. Hello, lady.

Gizelle Vozzo

My name is Gizelle Vozzo. I shoplifted. I needed some clothes so I went into a very nice store and took some things. An American Apparel. A shirt, well two shirts barely worth the sentencing. Barely worth anything. It was the fact that I basically needed the clothes so I felt that you know receiving any kind of sentencing was kind of unfair because it was a first time offense so I felt like it should have been dismissed. Well when you're in a situation where you know life kind of like beats down on you, you really have nothing else to do, you need clothes for the winter, summer, spring so that's basically why I did it. I need to support myself in some way that's why I did it.

Well I don't like to change my image for conformists. In order to appreciate all halves you have to appreciate both halves. You have to recognize you live in society so part of living in society is being conformist without completely realizing it, but then again, what is a conformist but someone who follows, but then what is there really to follow, you know it's very in depth profound simple vague things.

I kinda just walked in and did it. It was very impulsive. I just said this is going to be very easy I know exactly how to do this, it's the most intelligent thing to do. I just went into a changing room you know put it in my bag and walked out. But they basically knew so they caught me. They basically had seen me take the clothes and put them in my bag, except I hadn't gone into a changing room I don't think.

Florence McDaniel and Stanley Combs

My name is Florence McDaniel. This is Stanley Combs. We're a couple. On August 13th, 2008 at approximately 5 o'clock in the morning, we heard something at the door, like, maybe somebody tampering, and my honey went to the door. It just burst open and knocked him down, and come through the door were some men in brass and metal chestses and helmets and machine guns and they just screamed at us and said "get down, get down, get down!" And handcuffed us, and said that they had a no-knock warrant. To this day, I'm not aware of what that means other than no knocking, and they just knock your door down.

They accused us of having drug trafficking in our house, which wasn't true. So, they hauled me off to the precinct, they took him to the hospital because he fell out of the chair, the...you know, excitement, and they actually knocked him down. Yeah, he has a trache in his throat, he's a cancer survivor. So, while he was at the hospital I was at the precinct, waiting. They took me to the precinct, like, 6 o'clock in the morning, and they let me sit there until 6 o'clock in the evening without feeding me, or anything, waiting for him to come back from the hospital before we could come downtown and be booked. The charge was possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, but they searched our house for the four hours without us being there. So, they told us that they found an ounce of coke, which wound up being baking soda. So, in order for me to get out...I was put in jail, I stayed in jail for almost a month and a half, a month and a week, they just released me Thursday that just passed. He had to come back, in order for them to dismiss the charges because it was nothing. There was nothing. And I'm not understanding what the circumstances is of a no-knock warrant. He thinks that they were being spiteful because of the fact that we live in the midst of a lot of trafficking, and things, and maybe they couldn't catch who they wanted, and maybe a jealous girlfriend, I don't know. But the no-knock warrant is something that I think should truly be investigated.

Ransacked it. We put it back together, but a lot of things were taken. Like, they took my...I had a picture of me posing in my bra and panties, and they took that. Stanley doesn't want to make no fuss about it, but I told him we're truly considering...they took our keys, you know, saying there was evidence of us, evidence that we lived in the apartment. The picture was supposed to be evidence, and...for what?

Merritt Olsen

My name is Merritt Olsen. Well it's a criminal mischief charge. Well this drunk alcoholic bum attacked me while I was begging and in the process of defending myself because he was drunk he went through a big plate glass window and even though I was defending myself and I was in the right, the police even told me they didn't want to arrest me but because something was damaged that I had to go to jail. So I actually did go to court and then when I went to court they hand me a paper saying that the prosecutor hadn't investigated it or something and I don't know exactly what happened but then I talked to the owner and made a private deal to pay for half the window out of my begging proceeds. So I figured that was the end of it because he said he wasn't going to press charges, so I went up to Canada and then when I came across the border I was arrested and they told me I had a warrant out for me. But then New York said they weren't going to how do they say extradite so they let me go. But then the next day I got arrested by the state police and the same thing happened. So they suggested to me I take a Greyhound bus instead of hitching the rest of the way. So now I'm here and I have to go up to room five forty six and take care of this warrant.

Well I'm hoping that like, they'll see that I'm trying to take care of it and nothing will happen. What am I going to do tomorrow? Go back and try to make money... by begging yes. God lately I've been making about maybe fourteen or fifteen dollars a day. As opposed to what maybe twenty, twenty five last year and even during the economic like you know when everything was like really great and fantastic I was never making more than thirty dollars a day.

You know what people were never really that generous in this city to begin with. I'm not making much less. That's the reason why you know I've been like you can ask some of the people I've been predicting this economic meltdown for the last three to four years. I've been saying because of the greed or selfishness it's going to cause everything to collapse. I don't know if they were blind or had their head in the sand but it should have been obvious that it was coming anyway. Basically stop being so dam greedy. What's the purpose of having like twenty, thirty, forty, fifty million dollar a year salaries and like hundred million dollars a year bonuses. You know you don't need that much money to survive while you got people out there struggling to make it and they've got two minimum wage jobs you know they're living pretty much almost in the ghetto and they can still almost barely make it. I don't see how I can do much worse considering the situation.

Like you know like you know I remember like um when I met the one that I showed you the picture of she came up to me when I was sitting on the street one day and she uh, she goes are you hungry and she gave me half of her oatmeal. I was just so stunned by how beautiful she was I was like thinking, I was thinking what could I say to her. I was like you know, I did like the same stupid thing that all the college boys do, "like what are you majoring in?" and when she told me she was majoring in experimental psychology I said, "ok now you gotta sit and we gotta talk". So she sat and we talk for about three hours and I said, "hey would you like to go on a date and go dancing or something?" You know she said yes and we went out dancing and from that time on whenever she had time we hung out and spent so time together. We talked about like psychology and stuff like that and then I have other friends you know they're majoring in other things like you know like astronomy or physics. So I just sit around with them and read their books and we discuss things. Probably the brain. Yep. Though I did have that one girl the other night say that she thought I was cute. Oh yeah they're definitely beautiful and attractive. It's pretty much all platonic. Well the one's here at NYU are all platonic. Not really. I mean if the opportunity arises and I'm for it then we'll see what happens. But for the most part like I don't really care, I'm pretty much like more into the books. The books are fun. Right now I'm reading a book on physics astronomy. This one's about astronomy about how like galaxy formation, uh it evens goes in talks about dark matter and things like that, dark energy and the fact that actual matter only makes up four percent of the observable universe. Well I find it interesting. Yeah if it wasn't for matter you wouldn't be filming me right now. Matter matters.

Tricia Klinkhammer

Tricia Klinkhamer. I don't know, it's a confusing matter 'cause I got arrested like six or seven times for, basically I was running around the streets of New York writing "You=Love" on everything, and putting "You=Love" stickers everywhere, and harassing people and I was...went crazy and got caught a bunch of times and I kept having to go to court for, like, two years I went to court, like, every month, and finally it's over. Because I'm crazy! Because I have a compulsion. The compulsion is to...I like to write on things, and I like to write...I like to say...I like to remind people that they equal love. Every human equals love equally. Yeah. That's my point. Equal love, equal love. Equality. Yeah. Equal, it means that...that any...the sum total, if you add all the actions and generations of humans together, that the total equals love. I'll call you "equal love!" All humans are equal, and equal love equally. And the proof of that is in the fact that there is a growing population of humans. So, obviously, love works because that's how come there's so many of us.

When the towers went down, I was working on a project called "Boiled Down Sentences to Say More," I was trying to think of a way to communicate to a large group of people, like the human race, in the smallest amount of spaces. And in my quest to say the least amount of things, to say the most important message with the least amount words, I came up with the equation "You=Love." And ever since I came up with that, I've been transmitting it and propagating it and carrying it and writing it and spreading it around everywhere I possibly could. Whether...if someone's nice to me or mean to me, I still give them "You=Love" t-shirts, or stickers, or, it doesn't...like...'cause it's equal.

Mostly in the East Village. I was really...I did, one time, I spray painted "You=Love" with a stencil on hundreds of blocks of sidewalk corners. In the year 2003. In 2003 and 2004 and 2005, the East Village was covered in "You=Love." I mean, you might be slow...I'm slow, too. I'm slow, obviously. I don't even know what happened in there, I'm just so happy to be free. I'm free.

Clark Clark

My name is Clark Clark. I go by Clark Clark. Sometimes I go by Clark Clarken but that's just because my girlfriends last name is Larken. You can call me Clark Clark or Clark Clarken or just Clark for short. Clark Clark is fine. I was trying to pick up some stuff that was confiscated by the police as evidence. Fourteen t-shirts that said vote and a backpack. They said they had to use it for an investigation. I was arrested for criminal vandalism. They said that I was spray painting the word vote on a trash can. That was on the lower eastside, 9th. precinct. I have no idea why they would think that. Well I have some suspicions. Probably because I had some spray paint and stencils. I was carrying some spray paint and stencils. Well I make signs with them. Signs that say "Vote". Well because I would like to see people vote. I'm tired of the general apathy of this country and the lack of voter turnout. Not just in presidential elections but in all elections. 

Anthony Sculley

My name's Anthony Sculley. So, me and my friends, Barrett and Joe—he's a Marine, so we call him by his last name—yeah, he's a Marine with 20 counts of, like, assaulting a police officer. Every time they put cuffs on him, he has to hit them. Anyway, we're sitting around, we're smoking pot, it was a bowl. Nice big glass bowl, and six undercovers come up and they slap the cuffs on Barrett. But they know Barrett personally by face because they've seen him so many damn times. So, they get a girl to come and handcuff him because by the time he turns around, he had his fist already cocked. He was about to punch the cop out. And, like, he realized it was a girl and he's like, he just drew back. Like, and, they come up to us, and they were like, they're searching me, they're telling me, like, "where is it? Where is it? Where is it?" And Joe is sitting with the pipe, right next to him and smoking, like, big thick cloud of smoke just came out of this pipe, and they can't find...six cops on three people can't find one bowl. So, we got arrested for less than a gram when they actually finally did. The way that we got busted, though, was there was this other black gentleman sitting on the bench over there, and we just thought he was a normal citizen, and everything, 'cause he didn't have his shield showing. And, so, he's over there on his BlackBerry just...you know, like, here's Barrett, and here's the other two guys with him, and that's basically how we got arrested right there, the guy's sitting there reporting everything that we're doing on his BlackBerry. Yeah, and he's a cop, and we didn't know it. He didn't look anything like a cop, he looked just like a, he just basically looked like a bum, honestly. Yeah, it didn't kinda register until he pulled out the BlackBerry that he was not a bum. Like, 'cause he sat there for, like, 20 or 30 minutes and, like, just sat there and watched us smoke and drink and have fun. By that time, we'd already threw away all the cans, so he couldn't get us for open containers, or anything, so, that's pretty much my lovely story. I spent 22 hours in this jail right above you.

I travel everywhere. I went to Amsterdam last year. I'm always on the road, I hitchhike most of the time. I'm probably going to end up going back to L.A., right after this, to go and see my mother for a little while, probably stay with her for a couple months, and then start back out. Possibly go to, I was planning on going to Oregon very soon, because I like to sit out in the country in the fields, and everything, it's nice...and smoke.

Michael Gladden

My name is Michael Gladden. Me and three friends of mine were driving from Long Island, Smithtown and um going to Washington Heights picking up some weed, marijuana, two and a half pounds. On the way back across the Triborough Bridge I was pulled over for not having my headlights on. They looked at us, one black dude, two white kids, started messing around with us asking us questions and stuff like that. One of my friends kinda like folded in, they asked us, "if we had anything illegal in the car". We were like, we were like sure. He said sure, ahh we have a bowel. Bowel is what you use to smoke marijuana out of and shit. So he handed him the bowel. The officer just wanted you know to just see if we did have something in fact. So he ended up taking us all out of the car, searching the vehicle, found two and a half pounds of marijuana. Arrested us. In the long run I copped out to a one to three.
Then last night I was coming back form Buffalo State, me and my girlfriend. She was driving because I was tired and all that. We got pulled over at the Triborough Bridge. What happened was we didn't have cash, I had my credit card, she had her credit card, stuff like that and that was the first time I was crossing over the Triborough and stuff like that. We went through, we told we told the police officer you know we didn't have the cash, we had debit cards and credit cards and stuff. He was like "all right we'll bill you". They asked her for her license and registration. She gave them the license and stuff like that. The license, her license is apparently suspended. Me and her both didn't know that. So they arrested her. They wouldn't let me drive the car back. I have a valid New York state license. They wouldn't let me drive it back. They made me walk across the bridge in the pouring rain last night, the Triborough Bridge. THe Manhattan section takes you to one twenty fifth street. I had to walk all the way across the goddam bridge to one twenty fifth street and Lexington avenue. This was like eleven thirty at night. I live in Smithtown on Long Island. I had to take the train to Penn Station, wait till five forty seven in the morning to catch the next train going out to Smithtown and did that and the now I came back cause they still have my girlfriend in custody. I'm very tired.

Tyshien Douglas

Government name? I'm Tyshien Douglas. My tag is Slim. Friday night I was in Harlem, at 103rd street station, um on the 6 line. I swiped somebody on, they gave me the two dollars. The cops ran up on me, they were gonna let me go, but it ended up I had seven warrants out for my arrest going back two years so they had to bring me in. Brought me in to Union Square, transit police, I sat there for about an hour and a half. They brought me to central bookings, I got to central bookings maybe about twelve thirty Friday night. Um, there was about fourteen people already in there when I got there. Later on that night two people from Ukraine that came through, one of the guys was already busted up cause he was in there for fighting the cops, so the cops beat him up beat him down already. Ended up, he had ended up calling me the N word, I don't want to say it out loud. So the CO give me the green light cause he disrespected me, CO was like, "I don't care what you do", so I was went in there, beat him down. I went to upper cut him and I ain't come all the way up so I hit him in the mouth, messed up my nose and I cracked out his teeth. He ended up going to the hospital. Next day saw the judge, the judge wasn't sure, the judge wasn't sure he wanted to let me go because he wasn't sure I would come back to court because of the seven warrants I had. Lucky I had a good lawyer. He talked to the DA, DA guy dig. DA decided to drop it down to a violation. That's pretty much it. Um the judge, the judge done told me, he says do the community service and I better have my boy in court in December, so I did it.

Matteo Jannicelli

My name is Matteo Jannicelli. Basically what happened was I was hanging out with my friend. He decided to drink a beer on the street. So two uncover cops pulled up in a taxi cab. They searched all of us. I had an empty little baggie that had some Xanax powder on it. I got arrested for that. I was in jail for thirty six hours. I was charged with possession of crack cocaine and possession of an open container. Both of which were totally false. I had no open container and I wasn't in possession of crack. I never got read my rights or anything like that you know.
Xanax is like Valium. It's an anti-aniexty medication. It can be used as a recreational drug and all that. You can mellow out on it. If you take the amount you're supposed to take then you can be a functioning you know normal person but if you uh, you know you can take enough to kill yourself, you can take enough to just nod out. I mean personally I don't do it, I'm not a pill addict or anything. I had an empty bag that was in my pants for months, I mean it went through the laundry and all that. I have no reason to lie to you. That's what happened to me. I got a false drug charge more or less. In my opinion I got screwed, I got railroaded by the NYPD.

Joseph Brevard

My name is Joseph Brevard. Well I was coming out of my building on One Forty Third and Seventh to go to the store. I had a little stomach pain. So I was going to go to get a Schwepps Ginger Ale and the police office stopped me and asked me for ID, I didn't have ID so he told me to turn around and put my hands behind my back. So when he told me that I ran from him and then they caught me in my building and they took me through to the precinct. Today my court date and they giving me community service. No ID. On the police report they said, "unreasonable noise" but when my lawyer told me my charge they said, "assault" because he had smashed his finger in the door. In the project door while he was chasing me he tried to catch the door and his finger got caught.
I was asking what they stopped me for and he told me to "shut up", so we start arguing a little bit and after a couple of words I just ran off and took off. Honestly I think they stopped me because I'm in a black neighborhood and its nothing else for them to do, it's their job. So I feel like that's why they stopped me for. They said I fit the description. I ain't really do nothing I was just coming to the store. I think this is happening because there's a lot of violence going on around my neighborhood, so they run up on people, they search people randomly like the detectives stop and they give people random searches that's walking on the street, randomly. I say it's more like trying to get some of the bad guys off the street. I don't really know what they be doing, I don't know. They pick on the lower class, that's how I really see it like the people that's lower class, they try to squeeze them, get information out of them. If they can't do it they try to penalize them because they know most people don't know their rights so they don't have enough money to get out of these situations.

Robert Neri

My name is Robert Neri. I was standing with a buddy of mine on Second. Avenue and Fifty First Street and uh two undercover cops in a car came up behind us, said they seen a bag hanging out of my pocket, ok and in that bag was maybe a joint and a half of marijuana. That was what I was arrested for, me and my friend. For a joint and a half of marijuana. Now this has been going on, this case has been going on since May because I wouldn't cop out, I haven't copped out for nothing.
I can't see being locked up for such a BS of a charge. Now I'm fucking here for this. For this five already. In my life I've been locked up about thirty eight times. For bullshit, petty larceny was my thing. Because I was a junkie. Dope. I needed to support my dope habit.

Anthony Cruz

Anthony Cruz. Cruz control baby. Verbally assaulted, harassment, retaliation all that stuff. They just body snatched me. They're body snatchers. Know what I mean. The cops. They just pulled me out of the cab and fucked me up and put me in jail. Freedom of speech. That's it. They were just there cuffed. I don't know. Just some perps, regular perps. I just got in the mix of a whole drug bust and now I'm out here. They pulled me out and fucked me up. Look at my knee.
Why me? Why they pulled me out of the fucking cab? No idea. Obstruction of justice, that's what it is. 168th. Street and Saint Nicholas. Fuck em all, fuck em all. All the cops, all the cops. A misdemeanor. I gotta come back. They gave me another court date. It's nothing. I'll be all right. The same old shit, different totally different, smell. You know. This is a day in the life man, of me and all the drama and all the bullshit. Me being harassed. Everyone copying me. Wanting to take my style. Taking it all and not give me the benefits of nothing. You know. That's not cool, not cool. If you respect somebody, you're supposed to give them respect. Why you respect people and they don't respect you. Know what I mean. It's just crazy man. This society is crazy man. They lock up all the wrong people and while all the other people are already... crooked cops are doing the worst, the worst worst worst things out here. Know what I mean. Its gotta stop. Its gotta stop.

Stefan Bryant

My name is Stefan Bryant. I had a court case today and it was fraud. I was lied, I was lied upon. I was, what is it called when they categorize you. I was falsely categorized into being some type of robber whatever and that's not my type of thing, I'm very well taken care of, my family takes care of me, I'm working.
I came home one night and I seen a poster of myself, posted on the wall and on the floor I live. A wanted poster. It said wanted for robbery. Yes with my picture on it. Shocked. I was more then shocked. I was angry, I was confused. I just didn't understand why that was happening. I snatched the poster off the wall and went to my closest precinct in my neighborhood. They locked me up. They didn't say anything. No I definitely didn't do it. I had no parts in it. I don't even, robbery is not something I would think of. I have no idea. From what I understand, they didn't even give me the full case. From what I understand, a lady got robbed for her phone. Now I have a phone. My phone is high grade.

Jeremy Letto

My name is Jeremy Letto. I was arrested for a robbery in the second degree. I was broke, I was hungry and me and my friend robbed somebody. Walked up on somebody in the back of a street, robbed him. He was an average dude. Probably 30 years old, had a backpack on, polo shirt. Nobody else around. Just me and my man and he was walking down the street, just him. Late night like one o'clock at night. Hells Kitchen. Um, cell phone, like a buck fifty on him. He wasn't hurt, he wasn't injured in the situation, but I did feel kinda bad I had to take his stuff yeah. Pretty much. I mean I had no money on me, I was living on the streets so, you know what I mean, I had to eat. The jobs were off and on. It was hard for me to keep a job because I didn't have nowhere to stay. I was sleeping on the street. It's just hard. You gotta figure out when you're gonna eat next, not too many people just going to help you out. I not the kind of person just gonna walk up to someone and asked them for change. There wasn't too many options open to me at that immediate point.

Erica Vega

My name is Erica Vega. They caught me with weed, some marijuana. They told me to go to the precinct, they won't take me to the bookings if I just gave it to them. Gave it to them, sat for three hours. Took my mugshot. I was just unhappy my hair wasn't done and I didn't look pretty for it. It was pretty fun. Then we left and I actually walked away, easy.

There was a hot chick there and I got her number. For a photo shoot. I was like, "hey you want to be a model?" She was like, "yeah." 

I'm a photographer.

Gregory Williams

My name is Gregory Williams. I'm twenty three years old. I was arrested for coming out of a building where there were allegedly cops that actually sell drugs to suspecting buyers in hopes of as soon as they get downstairs or come out the building they're arrested. Coming out of the building I was asked to, "get on the floor" with I believe five or six other African American and Spanish decent males. When we didn't comply right away the officer actually pulled his gun out on me. We were all handcuffed and brought to Central Booking.

The things these cops in New York do is ridiculous, they're running amok like the Joker in the Dark Knight. I felt assaulted and disrespected. I knew none of these guys. Like I said I was coming visiting a friend. Unfortunately you know we can't live, all my friends don't live on the upper eastside or in the Trump Towers. I can't control where my friends live. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I couldn't even get in touch with her to go knock on her door to let her know what was happening so that she could explain to them, "you know he just left my apartment." Everybody there had something on them but me and I was still arrested. They all had weed on them and they got it from the officers that were selling it upstairs. It was a sting operation that they do in that area. They get people all day long, all day long. I had nothing on me. Thats why the case was dismissed. I was terrified, I was terrified.

Tyrone Carter

My name is Tyrone Carter. I'm from South Jamaica, Queens. I was walking downtown, midtown with a friend of mine. I wasn't walking with him but I seen him and I had shook his hand and he had made a sale to an undercover cop of some fake marijuana and the police ran up on me and him and took both of us and uhh they said, "I was the lookout and he was the dealer." We gets down there and it comes to find out the marijuana was fake. I didn't sell nothing, I didn't have nothing on me but they still arrest me. I just got out on five hundred dollars bail and I'm stressed out and I'm mad but um this is life, so this is what it is. Come to find out the marijuana that was supposed to be sold was Lipton tea.

Jerome Binard

This is a court case where um I went to jail for um a domestic violence case. Me and my girl we was was living you know together and um we was getting into a lot of you know bad things you know. The first two, it was a three year relationship, the first two years you know were going good and then the last year which was 2007 was you know was going down. We was into you know, I not ashamed to say it you know, "we was into cocaine, you know sniffing." That right there didn't end out good you know, um I regret it because you know, she would do a lot of things for money and that would take away her you know, I know it would take away her, I know it would take away her pride and you know we wouldn't keep up with our hygiene and whatever and so at the end of everything you know I had a fight with her brother which resulted me getting locked up for thirty days, that was in 2007. About um August then um when I came home, cause we used to rent a room, when I came home everything in the room you know was gone, so I found out she took everything you know she just you know left and my stuff was at my godmother house so you know I was a little depressed I didn't have nothing cause she did my clothes wrong, she did my clothes dirty and it really like you know messed me up so um.

She used to play with my feelings, she used to come back and forth saying, "everything would be all right" and I would believe that, so I thought um awhile of her playing with me saying, "everything would be all right" and then her you know like growing more farther away. I decided to like get myself together work, you know, try to go to school and get myself together. Dated new people and she didn't like that, cause when she back and we chilled, you know I broke the whole story down to her and we was like in a remote area you know my friend house but she left me for the day and you know... I had told her the situation so immediately you know she slapped me and I told her, "like you know I'm out, like I don't gotta put up with this, I'm good, I'm good, I don't ever want to see you again." So then, it was four o'clock in the morning at that time and I had to be at work at five. So um there was ten dollars of hers on the dresser, you know her keys, everything she took out of her pockets she put on the dresser and I say,"yo, I gotta go, so um I'm leaving." So I took the ten dollars off the dresser and said, "yo I'm gonna use this for the cab, because if I take the train I'm not gonna have time, I only have two dollars to my name." She didn't say no, she didn't say yes. So she said," you leave right now, I'm gonna cut my hair whatever" and she literally like cuts her hair, little by little and I'm just looking at her and I'm like you know that doesn't do me, that doesn't keep me, you know that doesn't keep me here, that doesn't you know make me, that doesn't make me see anything. You know what I'm saying, so you're not say nothing. I left and when I came back I found out that she said that, "oh I had taken her money, she's stuck down here, no place to go and that I put my hands on her."

I have no problem with doing this. My life will be, you know way better. I remember cause it was a long time ago, but like right after that, I started like getting myself together, she was still calling me after you know like she still wanted to see me or whatever and the legal aids, they didn't... they... I had an order of protection, I had an order of protection and um, um right after that, right after she did that, um in February, in February right, she had came back to New York again and then meanwhile I'm in the order of protection and I still let her know that I'm dating somebody, you know she still comes back, you know, shes like, "listen, I've changed you know, like... I don't do what I used to do." She used to prostitute, you know like cause when was doing that stuff you know on drugs. She said, "like I don't do that no more, I'm good, you know things could work out." So I tried it for two weeks. At the end of the two weeks, got into an argument again. Little small argument, say "I'm out again." She does something again. She goes to the precinct and says, that I put up a fight with her, that this guy's no good whatever." So they call me in again. Meanwhile I got proof again, she came around my area, she's right in front of my building when the incident happened, you know telling me to come downstairs, whatever. This time when I went to jail, I went to jail for a week, she was supposed to come the next week to like the um grand jury whatever, she didn't come because she knew that we know what she was doing and then, then they dismissed that one. I stopped picking up her calls. I even stopped picking up like incoming calls, calls that came in private. I stopped picking up those. My trial was Monday and the judge looked at me and it was like, "how old is he? He's twenty one." We don't want to see this guy lose trial cause my lawyer was, "like she can come cry in front of the stand and say you did anything" and I can be doing three to fifteen. So the judge is like, "the best thing I can give you is because I know you don't want a felony on your record is that we'll put a temporary felony on your record, you stay out of trouble for a year and eight months, then we'll take that felony off and that will be that and you don't have to worry about nothing no more" That's it. Girls are strange. Crazy.

Jamali Brockett

My name is Jamali Brockett, I live in Brooklyn, New York. I came to court this afternoon because I had to come here to sign up for community service, a non-violent crime for trespassing that I had done, so, I'm just trying to get it over with. That's about it. Yeah. I was in Midtown on 32nd St. in between 5th and Broadway, and it was like around 7 o'clock in the morning, I was waiting for the internet café to open up, they open up at 8 o'clock. So, I went inside a hotel to sit on a couch 'cause I didn't want to stan