If you have never been
arrested before, then you are probably feeling a combination of worry,
anger, and confusion. You are probably discovering, the hard way,
that the new york city criminal justice system does not operate the way
you thought it did.
The first thing you need to realize, however, is that, despite how
you almost certainly feel, the simple fact that you have been arrested does
not mean that you have been convicted of anything. An arrest is not a
conviction. An arrest does not give you a criminal record. The
only way you can ever get a criminal record is if you are convicted of a
crime after a trial or if you plead guilty to a crime.
You may be horrified at how you have been
treated during the initial stages of the arrest and prosecution process.
You probably feel as if every person you have come into contact with (from
police officer, court officer, to judge) has treated you as if you were a
criminal.
Having been mistakenly led to believe by the press and other media that
our criminal justice process is somehow "soft" on crime, you are likely
finding it frustrating that your experience seems so different. The
problem is that your assumptions about how others are treated by the
system are incorrect.
What you are experiencing are all natural and quite common feelings for
people who have never been arrested before.
You need to try to keep in mind that no matter how you are treated, the
simple fact of the matter is an arrest is not a conviction. Try to
let the slights of "the system" roll of your back. You have more
important issues to contend with.
In the eyes of the law and those who know better, your arrest is
evidence of nothing. It is simply the means by which you are
formally accused by the Government and the beginning of the civilized
resolution of a dispute between you and your Government.
Being
brought to Court to resolve the dispute (however unpleasant and
uncivilized it may seem) is actually quite an amazing thing. In
other parts of the world and in times past Governments have not always
been so willing to engage in civilized disputes with their citizens.
Instead, these foreign Governments worked out differences with their
citizens on the spot with great efficiency but little justice.
Criminal Court is NOT supposed to be
just for the guilty.
Criminal Court is simply where disputes about guilt are resolved in a
formal orderly fashion. Whether or not the Government's initial
assumptions about you are justified is what will be resolved in Court.
There is no way for anyone to "know" up front, until the dispute is
formally worked through in Court, what the outcome will be.
Therefore, you are required to go to Criminal Court -- not because you
are guilty, but precisely because you might not be
guilty.
Many people perceive the requirement to keep returning to criminal
court to fight a case to be a punishment or indication that the assumption
is that they are guilty. It is less frustrating to look at this from
a different perspective.
Imagine the alternative. The alternative is to have a police
force that simply executes sentence on the spot at the point of arrest.
Not an attractive alternative to say the least.
