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was. He dropped his hands as he saw the badge
on her chest and the patch on her sleeve reading Chronix Bay Police
Department.
    “ Going somewhere, punk?”
she said cockily to him, her arms crossed.
    “ I am uh just going home”
he lied shifting his eyes and speaking in a breaking
tone.
    “ Come on you are coming
with me.”
    She grabbed him by the scruff of his
neck and pulled out a pair of handcuffs and slapped them on his
wrists behind his back.
    “ What? I didn’t do
anything wrong” he shouted struggling in her grasp.
    “ Relax,” she pointed her
finger in his face, “come peacefully or I will be allowed to use
authorized physical force.”
    “ Am I guilty of
something?” he shouted back at her.
    “ Must be something” she
snorted as she shoved him in the direction of her waiting police
cruiser. “You have the right to remain silent, you have the right
to an attorney and have him or her with you during questioning, you
can stop answering questions at any time if you so desire.” She
read him his Miranda warnings as she patted him down and slamming
his body up against the cruiser. “Do you understand your rights as
I read them to you?” She asked.
    “ Uh huh” he sighed looking
at her name plate, “Officer Hennessey.”
    She shoved him into the cruiser after
opening the door, “Watch your head” and slammed the car door shut
beside him as she yelled, “Punk!”

CHAPTER 13
    The morning after being in jail, going
through the booking process of being fingerprinted, photographed,
and strip searched prior to being detained, was especially
difficult for James. Not because he was a first time arrestee but
because for the first time ever he began to feel worried about his
immediate future, not just his distant future. He was being
escorted to the court to be held in detention. He was worried about
his immediate future, his wellbeing, and how he would fare in
court, since he was completely clueless as to what charges he was
facing. He stood in line at the side entrance to the court in
chains awaiting his turn to enter and face the swift hammer of
justice. As he stood there feeling sorry for himself he saw the
last person he expected to see in court. A few meters away, the
police were escorting another prisoner to the court. It took three
officers to parade her up the stairs, wearing full restraints but
putting up a strong spirited and incredible fight of great
resistance. She struggled against their will endlessly even as she
was overcome, the perspiration dripping down her face and dark
brown hair, made James feel sympathy but also a reluctant
attraction. A dozen loose emotions surged within him with a sudden
shock as he saw her full face from the front. “Tina?” He questioned
with a frown, feeling sorry for her. The three officers shoving
Tina up the stairs were soon joined by two other officers and
pushed her up the steps into the Chronix Bay hall of justice
without a problem and the line continued, men and women having been
caught in deceit and crime by one way or another now heading into
the proverbial lion’s den of the criminal justice
system.
    CHAPTER 14
    The process in the
courthouse was long and arduous most of the time consumed by
relentless waiting. James was processed in jail and appeared before
the court where he was forced into taking a quick plea deal to
lesser charges without dispute at the advice of his very nervous
court-appointed legal advisor. He still didn’t understand
completely what he was actually being charged with and the entire
time in court felt like a blur. He was advised that it was a
complicated matter and best swept under the rug. He felt cheated
and abused as he was on the street: in one instance a homeless yet
free young man in his mid-thirties and now a prisoner and property
of the criminal justice system being criminalized, shackled, and
sent into a lead cage of those termed outcasts and outlaws, as
Officer Hennessy told him when he was brought to the court
“