"Okay, now here's what's happening. I'm going to place you under arrest now."
Soft, disbelieving: "I'm gettin' arrested?"
"Yes. I'm placing you under arrest for..."
"But it wasn't mine. It was hers."
"Well. You were the one who had it."
"She asked me to just keep it for her. I was gonna give it back this afternoon."
"That may be, but you had it on you."
"Am I a criminal now?" still soft, in wondering supplication.
"I don't know how you want to define it, but . . . you are being arrested. The charges are [whatever they were]. We'll go in back and get you processed..."
"Am I goin' to jail?"
"......probably not. The judge is on his way. Right now we have to go in back and get you processed and then we'll go upstairs."
"Okay."
"Come on back through here and we'll get started."
Noise of the solid heavy door to the inner offices being opened . . . a space of time while the officer and the kid passed through . . . then the latch closing, locking. Clunk. Click.
I waited to hear the judge come in; I opened my office door so I could see the kid whose voice I'd heard.
But I heard and saw nothing more.
"Am I a criminal now?"
It haunts me.
Ponder this:
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9 comments:
The innocense of 'some' kids gets them in such trouble 'some'times.
Hopefully they learn from mistakes or bad choices they make.
♥...Wanda
It sounds lame and contrived when you hear it on an episode of "Cops", but hearing it in this context, is sounds so very very sad. Another life may be ruined by not thinking something through. I hope not. I pray this is a turning point for that voice heard outside your door.
As easy as that.
If only kids would realise that ignorance and stupidity doesn't save them from punishment.
I feel almost sorry for the kid, but perhaps he is already a hardened criminal and it is only your interpretation which makes me want to rush out and protect him.
Hopefully this will be a lesson learned for this kid and you won't hear of him or her back there again. Let's hope. Sounds like he or she was scared, which is good.
Really sad and thought provoking. Tough on the outside, I'm sure, let's hope that this is a wake up call to the lad.
Tough call and clearly for this kid it wasn't what he'd hoped to achieve.
Now it will haunt me, too, June. I pray my Grandkids never end up outside your office door!
Susan, that's exactly the thought I had. It sounded like something on COPS except with the element of pathos. If you could have heard the kid....he sounded so wondering. I told the woman who works in the PD how bad I had felt and she said, "Don't feel sorry for them." Then I told her about what I'd overheard, and she said, "Oh. Yeah. Him, you can feel sorry for. For some of these kids, it's just a rotten home life."
I can't stop thinking about how that kid was living his young life trying to figure out what labels fit him, especially now that I get the picture of his "rotten home life."
And now he has a new one to apply to himself.
I've overheard things while in the bathroom at school. Feel so sad for the kids - I want to help, but don't see them either.
Can't get them out of my mind either.
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