NYC Arrest to Arraignment: A Complete Mess
The fact that citizens of New York are being put through the system for minor offenses that the NYPD knows will be dismissed is a complete disgrace. If you are arrested possessing marijuana on a Friday and you are not given a Desk Apprearance Ticket, you may not get out of jail until Monday. You are going to be held for over 48 hours for an offense that will be dismissed by law. The fact of the matter is that non-violent Misdemeanor Offenders are treated like violent felony offenders and that is not only unfair to those people but it clogs up the whole system. We have a law that defendants must be arraigned within 24 hours which for some reason is not adhered to in Manhattan. For some reason, most cases are processed in that time period in brooklyn, Manhattan, Bronx and Queens, but not Manhattan. Why are so many defendants processed rather than given tickets to go to court. The answer is sytematic, the NYPD officers are underpaid and therefore need to work overtime in order to make up for this inequity. The citizens then suffer for nonsense crimes by being put through the system and so the officer can get overtime wages. The answer is to pay the police what they deserve and to cutback on this nonsense overtime and issue Desk appearance tickets for all first time Misdemeanor offenders and even on first offense, where community ties are verified for some non-violent felonies. Get these people out of the system as soon as possible in the most civilized manner possible. But no, somehow everyone accepts the current inhumane system to make people suffer as much as possible. Many of these arrests are people who are innocent.
A quick illustration of how civilized this process is. A former client goes to the park after his father passed away. while mourning his father he smoked a joint. The police officer puts the young man under arrest and the young man tells the officer that his father just died and he was just washing away his tears. The police instead of issuing a ticket, for a crime they know would be dismissed, put the young man through the system and he missed his dad's funeral. The case was dismissed. Can anyone tell me the common sense of this system? I call for the defense bar, prosecutors, judges, legislators, the Mayor to push for reform and treat people like human beings. the only way to do it is by putting less people through the sytem.
If you agree or disagree, contact David Schwartz at
