I was only 16 years old when I was first arrested for trespassing for leaving a building a friend of mine lived in. I already felt like it wasn’t fair that I was being arrested for leaving a place I go to everyday. Once I got to the precinct they put me in this small room and started asking me questions and showing me pictures of people.
They threatened me with jail time and told me I would stay here for longer if I didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear. Feeling the need to leave that room, I told the officer all I did was go to my friend’s house to smoke weed, but all he did was use that information against me. Later that night, while speaking to my lawyer, I learned that the officer had written down on his statement that he found me smoking weed in the building staircase, which was false information. This did not compare to what happened later on that year when I was arrested again. This time I learned that law enforcement could take advantage of you in every way possible.
They treated me with no respect as if I was an animal. I was told to strip and squat while being detained in the precinct not once, but twice. They interrogated me for hours. They asked me if I knew anybody that has a gun or or anyone who has drugs — they said they wanted to help me. I did not know why I was being arrested until I finally saw my lawyer the next day.
Nothing made sense to me. They made up their own statement in their head so I would look bad in court.
I just know that if I had a lawyer present every time I was being interrogated they wouldn’t have taken advantage of me. I also wouldn’t look at law enforcement the way I look at them today. Right now as we speak, there is a child in a small room out there being interrogated and manipulated by law enforcement and there’s nothing being done to help them. For every time justice is served, there are more times that children are being traumatized.
We need to pass the youth interrogation bill now.
Luis German is a youth mentor for BronxConnect, a support services organization.
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