More Than Thirty-One Tragedies

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
-- Leonard Cohen

Justice in America, specifically the Sixth Amendment, theoretically requires that a person accused of a crime has the right to a speedy and public trial. In theory there is no difference between theory and reality -- in reality there often is.

I had a backpack years ago that held books and a calculator with a replacement value of several hundred dollars. My backpack was stolen -- it and its contents were never recovered. I was angry at once again becoming a victim. Part of my anger was directed at myself for leaving it where it could be stolen. Several days later I was still in a foul mood which had a negative impact on job interviews I had lined up just ahead of my college graduation.

This paragraph is all allegedly: Roberto Bautista had a backpack that held items with a replacement value over a thousand dollars. His backpack was stolen -- it and its contents were never recovered. The difference between what happened to me and what happened to Bautista is he was robbed by two people including being punched in the face while my backpack was just stolen when I was not looking. So on one level I can sympathize with Bautista and, like me, he was likely angry and wanted justice.

Bautista changed his story at least once according to a piece in The New Yorker whose author had access to statements Bautista made to police and the related police report. I can still have sympathy for Bautista at this point because memory is not perfect (America's founding fathers did not have the knowledge available to us today when our justice system was in its infancy). But precisely because memory is not perfect and the only witness made statements that were inconsistent, it is absurd that one of the two accused robbers remained in custody a moment longer. This is where the tragedies, and travesties, began.

Kalief Browder was 16 when he was put on probation for taking a delivery truck for a joyride -- note this did not mean he had a criminal record. Because he was the only one of the two teenagers on probation that Bautista accused of robbing him of his backpack, a Bronx County Criminal Court judge ordered Browder, still 16, to be held and set bail which his family was not able to pay. Browder was sent to a city jail, in this case on Rikers Island. This was in May 2010.

Seventy-four days after his arrest, Browder had his next day in court where he learned a grand jury had voted to indict him and bail was no longer an option because of the probation violation caused by being indicted of a new violent felony. I bet the folks on that grand jury did not learn that Bautista's story changed.

How messed up is it that it took 74 days to get to this point? What if the grand jury had voted not to indict? Who would give this 16 year old, actually 17 years old at this point since he was on Rikers for his birthday, that time back? Who would help him mentally make up his schoolwork? Who would help him physically heal from the beatings, the malnutrition, and 74 straight days of stress? Who would help him mentally recover from being separated from loved ones, from being institutionalized, and from being in solitary confinement for some of that time?

I can tell you who should. Every politician that capriciously contributed to a tough-on-crime initiative. Every politician who cut funding to chronically overwhelmed court systems. Every politician who pushed through laws that say 1 day spent in jail by an accused or indicted person somehow equals less than 1 day as counted toward their constitutional right to a speedy trial. Every prosecutor who is perpetually unprepared. Every judge that that permits endless adjournments. Every person who still offers plea deals when an accused/indicted person actually wants their day in court. I say a case like this ought to be fast-tracked instead of making the wait longer so various plea offers become increasingly attractive the longer a not-guilty person is denied fundamental rights, not just rights as an American but as a human being.

All this was in 2010. And in 2011 Browder did not get to go to trial -- all this time indicted but not convicted. He became increasingly institutionalized as a 17 year old, then as an 18 year old. Although there is no indication that he suffered any mental health issues before being sent to Rikers, on day 634 -- still only indicted, not convicted because of myriad excuses that never even got to the point of jury selection -- he attempted suicide. Ask yourself if you were stuck in a system based on *one* witness' story and could not get your day in court, stuck in solitary confinement for much of the time, as a teenager, could you make it to day 634?

Browder did not get his day in court in 2012, either.

During the thirty-first court date on Browder's case, the judge of the moment told him the D.A. intended to dismiss his case. The witness had moved to another country and the D.A. lost contact with him and the witness' brother so they had no case. Browder was released after being in jail for over 3 years. He walked out as a 20 year old.

No longer a boy but a man inexplicably "free" from incarceration, he had his ups and downs including some suicide attempts. One of the attempts ended Kalief Browder's life, if you can call living with various mental health issues inflicted by this cruel, but sadly not unusual, barbaric idea of justice "life".

I firmly believe the many politicians, judges, lawyers, and others who perpetuated and continue to perpetuate the completely dehumanizing, absolutely child-abusing, and unconstitutional system are guilty of crimes against humanity and should very publicly be incarcerated in jail on Rikers for 3 years, 2 of which should be in solitary, to experience their minds and wills being broken. If ignorance of the law is no excuse for a boy with few resources, exactly why should we excuse the actions of those involved -- and profiting -- in this absurd system?

This mockery of justice, easily recognized as torture by all rational people, of an American teen by Americans on American soil, is indefensible. This torture directly created severe mental problems and even if you had been in solitary for 2 years as a teenager, you still cannot say you have been Browder's shoes because maybe your DNA or upbringing had made your more resilient to torture and suicidality. This is all to say don't you dare blame Browder for ending his life -- his life was ended by long-debunked quackery about what rehabilitation looks like in our incarceration nation.