[00:00.00]A young  man finds that strolling along the streets
[00:16.14]without an obvious purpose can lead to trouble with the law
[00:20.61]One misunderstanding leads to another
[00:23.69]until eventually he must appear in court for trial …
[00:27.98]A BRUSH WITH THE LAW
[00:31.16]I have only once been in trouble with the law
[00:35.16]The whole process of being arrested and taken to court
[00:39.21]was a rather unpleasant experience at the time
[00:42.55]but it makes a good story now
[00:44.62]What makes it rather disturbing
[00:44.69]was the arbitrary circumstances both of my arrest
[00:48.22]and my subsequent fate in court.
[00:51.17]It happened in February about twelve years ago
[00:55.29]I had left school a couple of months before that
[00:58.95]and was not due to go to university until the following October.
[01:03.78]I was still living at home at the time
[01:06.55]One morning I was in Richmond
[01:09.19]a suburb of London near where I live.
[01:12.46]I was looking for a temporary job
[01:15.02]so that I could save up some money to go travelling
[01:18.05]As it was a fine day and I was in no hurry
[01:21.31]I was taking my time, looking in shop windows
[01:25.07]strolling in the park
[01:26.64]and sometimes just stopping and looking around me
[01:29.99]It must have been this obvious aimlessness that led to my downfall
[01:35.21]It was about half past eleven when it happened.
[01:38.74]I was just walking out of the local library
[01:41.69]having unsuccessfully sought employment there
[01:44.74]when I saw a man walking across the road
[01:47.77]with the obvious intention of talking to me
[01:50.91]I thought he was going to ask me the time
[01:53.37]Instead, he said he was a police officer and he was arresting me
[01:58.51]At first I thought it was some kind of joke.
[02:02.01]But then another policeman appeared, this time in uniform
[02:05.93]and I was left in no doubt
[02:08.10]'But what for?' I asked
[02:08.20]'Wandering with intent to commit an arrestable offence,' he said.
[02:07.20]'What offence?' I asked
[02:09.21]'Theft,' he said
[02:11.15]'Theft of what?' I asked
[02:13.50]'Milk bottles,' he said, and with a perfectly straight face too!
[02:18.17]'Oh,'  I said
[02:20.66]It turned out there had been a lot of petty thefts in the area
[02:24.94]particularly that of stealing milk bottles from doorsteps
[02:28.70]Then I made my big mistake.
[02:31.34]At the time I was nineteen.
[02:33.72]Had long untidy hair
[02:35.75]and regarded myself as part of the sixties 'youth counterculture'
[02:40.27]As a result I wanted to appear cool and unconcerned with the incident
[02:45.71]so I said
[02:46.88]How long have you been following me?
[02:49.36]In the most casual and conversational tone I could manage
[02:53.49]I thus appeared to them
[02:56.05]to be quite familiar with this sort of situation
[02:58.93]and it confirmed them in their belief
[03:01.28]that I was a thoroughly disreputable character
[03:04.33]A few minutes later a police car arrived.
[03:07.68]'Get in the back,' they said.
[03:09.22]'Put your hands on the back of the front seat and don't move them.'
[03:13.08]They got in on either side of me.
[03:15.85]It wasn't funny any more
[03:14.85]At the police station they questioned me for several hours.
[03:19.21]I continued to try to look worldly and au fait with the situation
[03:24.18]When they asked me what I had been doing
[03:26.92]I told them I'd been looking for a job. 'Aha,'
[03:30.19]I could see them thinking, 'unemployed'
[03:32.85]Eventually, I was officially charged
[03:31.85]and told to report to Richmond Magistrates Court the following Monday
[03:36.11]Then they let me go.
[03:37.75]I wanted to conduct my own defence in court,
[03:41.91]but as soon as my father found out what had happened,
[03:44.57]he hired a very good solicitor.
[03:47.05]We went along that Monday armed with all kinds of witnesses,
[03:51.49]including my English teacher from school as a character witness
[03:55.33]But he was never called on to give evidence.
[03:58.55]My 'trial' didn't get that far
[04:06.95]The magistrate dismissed the case after fifteen minutes
[04:10.81]I was free.
[04:12.20]The poor police had never stood a chance
[04:14.94]The solicitor even succeeded in getting costs awarded against the police
[04:20.61]And so I do not have a criminal record
[04:23.35]But what was most shocking at the time
[04:25.68]was the things my release from the charge so clearly depended on
[04:29.73]I had the 'right' accent, respectable middle-class parents in court
[04:34.74]reliable witnesses,
[04:36.70]and I could obviously afford a very good solicitor.
[04:40.28]Given the obscure nature of the charge
[04:43.15]I feel sure that if I had come from a different background
[04:46.60]and had really been unemployed,
[04:48.74]there is every chance that I would have been found guilty.
[04:52.19]While asking for costs to be awarded,
[04:55.67]my solicitor' case quite obviously revolved around the fact
[04:59.32]that I had a 'brilliant academic record'
[05:02.56]Meanwhile, just outside the courtroom,
[05:05.70]one of the policemen who had arrested me.
[05:08.05]was gloomily complaining to my mother
[05:10.48]that another youngster had been turned against the police
[05:14.34]'You could have been  a bit more helpful when we arrested you,'
[05:17.37]he said to me reproachfully.
[05:19.33]What did he mean?
[05:21.37]Presumably that I should have looked outraged and said something like
[05:26.05]'Look here, do you know who you're talking to?
[05:26.12]I am a highly successful student with a brilliant academic record.
[05:30.14]How dare you arrest me!
[05:31.97]hen they, presumably, would have apologized,
[05:36.18]perhaps even taken off their caps,
[05:38.55]and let me on my way.
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