At the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time
By Angel Colon

In New York it is known that the crime rate has decreased in the past two years. However the New York Police Department (N.Y.P.D.) has terrorized and still is black and Latino citizens in the inner city neighborhoods. Cops stop and search kids for no real reason and some times beat them. People don't always report things such as the above situations because of fear, that's the only reason why the crime rate has decreased so much over the past years. In the story below, three young men from Harlem were arrested for a crime they did not commit.

On July 21st, Frank, Justin and Michael were walking down a street when they witnessed a woman getting robbed. They ran toward the woman in hopes to help her recover the stolen items. As they retrieved her chain from the guy that stole it, the woman refused to take it and turned around in fear. Soon after, the three guys noticed a group of men running down the street chasing them with bats, knives and chains with rage in their eyes. Apparently they had mistaken these good samaritans for the thieves. As the three boys ran down the street in fear, they spotted a police car. They jumped in front of the squad car, hoping to get some assistance from the police but it turned out to be a big mistake. The cops were cruel and ordered the three boys to get down on the ground and demanded that they put their hands on their heads.

Soon after, the boys found themselves at Central Booking where they were fingerprinted and questioned for a crime they did not commit. Spending three days in several cells was not the way my friends were looking forward to their weekend.

Justin and Frank were able to find help and bail money, a sum of 2,000 dollars each. Michael the third "suspect", found himself being bussed off to Rikers Island simply because he could not raise bail money. He has been staying with his older brother in East Harlem, since his mom moved to Florida.

The D.A. (District Attorney) says that if Michael can't get his bail money by July 28th, he will have to spend six months in jail until his next appearance in court.

I've known Michael for three years and on that same night of the robbery Michael was sitting in my home celebrating one of our friend's birthday. Michael has to pay the price for a crime that he did not commit. The worse part of what happened is that it looks like Michael would be spending a minimum of six months in jail surrounded by criminals and killers.

His brother has only collected 500 dollars to meet a sum of
3,500 due to Michael's age. The other two guys are also trying to gather up some money to help Mike.

Update:
Michael was lucky enough to "escape" the cells of Rikers Island. Since he was unable to see the judge within the six days that he was arrested, the D.A. decided to drop his case and let him free without the charge of bail.

Michael is happy to be home, of course, but he feels very angry that he was placed in a cage for a number of days. He now has to rebuild his life mentally and Mike states that he will be a little more cautious when he sees a person getting robbed.