What if Your Child is Arrested?

The following message is from the Gray Panthers organization. The Gray Panthers is a group of incarcerated man who are concerned about the future of our children. Even though this was written to help protect the rights of young people and keep them out of trouble, this information can also be helpful to adults.

We lock up what we can’t control. Every day we hear we are going to try them as an adult. If your child is arrested, we advise you not to say anything. Every citizen, every person has the right to remain silent when questioned by the police about a crime. When you are possibly a suspect, you should shut up and asked for a lawyer. This is the law of the United States.

Miranda V. Arizona, 384 US 436 (1966). Once you say, no you do not want to talk the police must stop questioning you.

All too often, citizens talk too much and they try to help the police, and they say things that the police suggest. Little do you know, the police will now target you as a suspect, because you know too much, or you seem eager to help. This is why you need to shut up and seek to make a phone call to a lawyer, or someone to help you out. The thing that might not seem to be of any harm or important could get you or your child into trouble. You could end up being called as a witness against your own son or daughter.

If it’s on a weekend and you cannot contact a lawyer, hopefully the child will not be arrested until you can if the police come to the house and ask you where your child is, advise them to talk to your lawyer, you don’t have anything to say and close your door. Of course, you want to be helpful to the police, and if you have seen a crime, you want to help. But if picked up by the police or taken to the police station for crime, you do not talk, asked for a lawyer as soon as you are put in a police car. Only give your name, address, your age, and asked for the phone call to your family for help.

If the police come to your house and want to come in, tell them no and ask if they have a warrant. If you have a video camera or tape recorder and you know something has happened and that the police may come to your house, turn the video and tape recorder on the soon as the police come and have them in a hidden place on record mode. The police of today are like any business person, they do not have any personal thoughts or cares to do with your child. They are not you or your lawyer. It’s their job to get evidence.

Police go to school, training and studying for what they can get away with legally. You’re just a regular person shook up and you trust the police was a place target you, you will most likely be charged. Remember the police are experts in getting you to talk. They will give you a cup of coffee to put you in the mood to spark you up. They will buy you a hamburger and cookies even milk. Why you are eating they will start a conversation with you and they will put words in your mouth.

Many men and women are on death row tricked into making statements. These men and women were innocent and the detectives frightened these people into admitting crimes they did not do so watch out for the good cop and bad cop.

Witness statements change if the police talk to them first. Here is an example: the police call you into a room one at a time. They take your statement, they tell you to read it, in some cases, they have left out some important words, and you are so shook up you don’t realize it at the time until the suppression hearing or trial. In some bad police stations, they have let you read your statement and walked out the door, switch statements with one already made up come back without even closing the door and say oh I forgot to get you to sign. You think it is the same statement you just made and when you tell the judge he will say did you read it and sign it once it’s into evidence it’s hard to get suppressed. The police are trusted by the judges to.

If the police tell you it’s best for your child to tell them what happened, please don’t go for that. Say you don’t want your child to say anything. There are children serving life in prison in Pennsylvania. Many of these children were beat by police some kept in interrogation rooms for long periods of times, handcuffs to a chair. Many had no lawyer, some were innocent. This also happens to adults. This is why you should not volunteer any information about a crime because you may be charged and put in prison.

Don’t sign anything, don’t, don’t, DON’T! Only a parent can give up on minor’s rights. If you do, you may cry your heart out later.

Tell your child not to talk to anyone, especially another prisoner some other prisoners will end up testifying as a witness against your child tell your family and friends not to talk to the police or anybody about past things. Some past events will be used to say that your child’s done things that show similarities.

If your child was just there at the scene of the crime, got makes no difference in the eyes of the law. By using the conspiracy law, if your child just let another child any tools that were used in the crime, and didn’t know anything about the crime, they could get the same sentence as an accomplice.

The police sometimes try to make you believe that your child didn’t do anything, they just need his or her statement to get the guilty party. Will guess what they are telling the other child parents? The same thing; don’t go for it.

Ask your mayor to have police work in the district they live in. They know the people and the area. It is a positive action in the community. They care and are respected. Safer for all.

Voices From The Inside Reaching Out

Black Lives Matter

“When I was a child I spoke as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things…”

    1 Corinthians 13:11

When I was a young man, most households were headed by women. Strong African American and Latino women were filling the role of mother, father, disciplinarian, humanitarian and Santa Claus all at the same time.

Mothers would look out for each other’s children. Your mother was my mother and my mother was your mother. Everybody was one extended family and if you were acting the fool and someone’s mother came by, you would check yourself.

Since that time, something has happened to the African American man and woman. We no longer honor and respect those who carry the genes of our ancestors.

As I look out into communities of color today, I observe the condition of our people, especially the self-destructive behavior of women and children sleeping out on the streets and eating out of trash dumpsters. I wonder if there is any hope, then I think of our ancestors, and I am sure that many of them were confronted with situations that they thought were hopeless, but they endured and their endurance paved a pathway to the freedoms that we enjoy today.

So, I know that there is hope and I ask myself over and over, “What can I do?”

No matter where you are, or what position you are in, there is always something that we can do.

I will use my writing to help lift my people from this devastating way of life that many of them have found themselves trapped in.

If my words can prick the conscious of just one, then I am hopeful that “each one/teach one” strategy will be the beginning of a moral revolution that will spread throughout our communities like a wildfire.

African man and woman…Latino sisters and brothers… sometimes the truth can be a very bitter pill to swallow but we have to start somewhere. So why not begin by taking a long hard look at the man in the mirror.

We have become our own worst enemies. Before we can liberate ourselves from anything, we have to first take responsibility for our own actions.

How can we expect others to respect us when it is we/us who are running around calling our women “bitch” and “whore”? And it is us who are selling the drugs that cause them to sell their precious bodies on street corners that eventually result in their contracting Aids and denies our next generation the right to come into this world with a clean bill of heath.

It is us who are killing our mothers, sisters and brothers over drugs.

Something has to be done about this out of control problem.

I have noticed the things that many of our police commissioners have been doing to try and bring this problem under control and I appreciate their efforts.

But, the police cannot do it alone. We need all of our politicians and religious leaders to come together and attack this problem from all sides.

Respect for authority begins in the home. So, instead of running from the police, we should be running to them with ideas and solutions to help them take back our communities from the thugs who prevent our mothers and grandmothers from sitting out on their porch and watching children and grandchildren play without being shot or killed.

It is time for all men, whether you call yourself Christian or Muslim it is time to unite and take back our neighborhoods from the drug-pushing thugs who have  taken control and who prevent our children from going outside to play in a safe environment.

Daniel Cummings #AF-4891

Education and Accountability

In my opinion, to stop the violence, two things need to be addressed: education and accountability.

I do not believe the violence can be eradicated overnight. It’s taken years to get to this point. It may take several years to rise up out of this destructive behavior.

The reason why I stress the importance of education is simple. Knowledge is power. We, as individuals, and also as a community, need to educate ourselves, then we can educate our children.

The shaping of the mind starts at home with the parents. The nurturing ones character begins with what is learned and demonstrated at home.

Education is the key…

We need to take it upon ourselves to teach our children the necessity of our history and the importance of understanding the system of government. We must introduce our children to proper money management. Explain the significance of banking and finance. The art of budgeting has to be emphasized.

Our children must also be taught the basic of law; they must know their rights as American citizens. It must be addressed and stressed the importance of home and property ownership.

We must teach our children who the real heroes are and not to imitate the negative images that appear on television or the old fools they see at the neighborhood deli’s, etc.

The accountability issue I have is with all of us old heads, who have learned from experience the results of righteous thinking and action can deliver a life full of success. I realize now exactly how old head is defined. It is a time-tested term of endearment.

(People who are organizers, leaders and defenders of the community who provide a younger person with hope, encouragement, advice and direction that will help them reach their full potential!!) As explained by the United Community Action Network U-Can.

If the real old heads take the time to nurture not just their children, but accept the role of sponsor to an at-risk youth, our community will gradually over time replace the destructive behavior with neighborhood empowerment.

Developing business in our communities that are owned by someone who looks like us.

More faith-based programs that offer significant assistance to those in need.

Each and everyone needs to step up and stand out. Teach our youth…

Do not cave in to ignorance. Show them a better way.

Ronald Akes #LV-0264

Community Supported Programs

Donation drives should be held to support the following programs... seek donations from elected officials, faith-based groups, and local business owners.

Our young people need programs to substitute idle activities... establish community service programs and projects that include: an official career link site, computer literacy class and a community food cupboard program.

Hold monthly meetings with community leaders speaking on various topics such as social and economic issues.

Establish math clubs for our young people to participate in solving fun, yet difficult mathematical problems.

Establish book clubs. Have them read books for intellectual growth and expansion of perception. Discuss themes within the selected book and write short essays. Award them with a plaque or stipends.

Hold block parties, dance competitions and athletic activities to keep the community neighborly and friendly.