The 21^st Century Magazine,
at South Florida's www.miami-dade-online.com.

Before The Road Ended - 6, Randy Burns
An Interesting Turn of Events (Busted in the Sixties).

"It's the Police," came the answer from the other side of the door.

"Good ones or bad ones?" Scotty inquired.

"May we enter?" asked the door.

"Why of course you can, our place is your place." Then he added, "The police are always welcome here."

Scotty opened the door sure that the voice had been joking. It wasn't. In those anti-commie bastards bounded, searching the entire apartment. Looking in drawers and suitcases, and they even searched under the rugs. One person living there had a suitcase full of drugs. The suitcase was locked and pushed back under his bed. They arrested all nine of us for it, though none had gone near his room. No one knew he had drugs in a suitcase.

We were all handcuffed to a long chain and led down the stairs to a Paddy Wagon waiting outside. Once we were
in the wagon, they locked both ends of the chain securely to hooks on both sides. We remained in good spirits. We were getting our ball's busted, that's all. What in the world would they hold us on? Knowing a guy that had
drugs? The person who owned the suitcase had a problem though, we all knew that.

The Police had come in on a tip, always a tip. The father of a runaway girl had called them, said he thought she was there. He also told them he was pretty sure they'd find drugs as well. Bingo! He'd given them incentive. With no warrant, they searched through drawers and suitcases for her, never asked us once if she was there.

No bondsman would go our bail, they were told not to. The next morning in county jail I thought they were coming to let us out. Instead, they hooked us up to that damn chain again and hauled our asses off to State Jail! Now this was serious ball busting. Some people didn't have anyone to go their bail, when it was set a week later. They remained behind bars for months! They were just visiting someone else's apartment. No drugs were found anywhere but the suitcase. You gotta love the sixties. We had to have eight arraignments. They couldn't get us all in court at the same time. So many of the people busted had to stay in State Jail for a longer period of time.

The Judge, about the third arraignment, told me I didn't qualify for a public defender because my parents made too much money. Then he told me to have them show up at the next arraignment or he'd postpone that one too. The following week, I stood in front of the same judge, my mother at my side. He asked me, "Why won't you accept your parent's attorney when they've offered you one?"

I told him exactly how I felt. "The State arrested me unlawfully, I did nothing wrong. Since the State made this mistake they should pay to correct it, not my parents." The Judge handed me another application for a public
defender. "Go over to the side and fill this out, then approach the bench again." I filled it out and returned to the bench. After handing the application to him, he tore it up for the entertainment of all. "Denied," he shouted out, "go sit down." I could have killed the bastard.

On the day the actual hearing was held, although I'd asked them not to, my parents had an attorney present anyway. He was waiting in the wings, probably checking his watch. My Mother asked me if I would at least talk to
him. That was all she wanted, just to hear what he had to say. I reluctantly agreed to speak with him. The distinguished lawyer thought I'd given in. He thought I was scared!

"First, I want you to cut your hair. You'll wear a suit when we get to trial, and then.......

"No," I interrupted. He stopped talking.

Then he asked me "Why?"

"Because I did nothing wrong, and I'm not changing the way I look. You defend me as I am or I don't want you." The moment he first caught sight of me, I believe, he began to worry about his own courtroom success. Even if I was guilty, I wouldn't cut my hair. Your hair was your statement then and my statement ran down over my waist.

The Attorney left because I would not accept his educated advice. The cat wasn't with it, man. He had no idea what was going on in the world around him. Principle, justice, and what was right. That's what was going on here! He was either asleep in that class, or never fully awake during any. The odds were not leaning in his direction, so he bolted. That was fine with me. After that scene my mother thought I was going up the river for life. So did most people.

There had been so many weeks of intentionally botched arraignments, that had honestly lost count. We at least had a different judge for the hearing. He was much older and looked intelligent. Every defendant was represented by the public defender but me. I had no representation. When the judge asked me why I didn't have representation, I told him how I was treated and denied a public attorney. "This can't happen," the judge snarled, "it's illegal!" I was immediately assigned to the public defender present. Hold everything, this judge had class! I liked this guy.

Meanwhile, my mother was still sitting in the courtroom worried beyond words. I will make the rest brief. The police testimony was conflicting. They blew it by looking through drawers and suitcases for a runaway girl. The one cop that really wanted us in prison, obviously couldn't talk the second cop into lying. The bad one testified how he saw dirty needles on the floor when they first entered the apartment. When the second cop testified, he said there was nothing on the floor at all. The judge asked him, "Could you have overlooked, or simply not seen the needles on the floor?"

"No," he said. "There were none."

Well that certainly didn't hurt our case at all. Immediately, the judge slammed the gavel in disgust. "Gonzales," he yelled out, Nollie." Peterson-Nollie. Burns (that was me he was talking about) Nollie," and so on down the line. Grabbing my over the waist hair in both hands, I turned around to see my mother in the courtroom. I began flapping it like wings for her. There was a big smile on both our faces. A cop that just wouldn't lie about a bunch of commie freaks, where in the hell did he come from? Now that was principle! That was justice, ethics, and everything America once demanded. That attorney had missed it all. It took a brave man to do what that cop did, and that did not go unnoticed.

My mother said to me, just before dropping me off, "You sure as hell had a lot more faith in our system than me."
I had been right and very lucky. I knew that. But she had the same faith in justice and truth. She just didn't run around demanding it, like her long-haired, half-crazy son.

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