"Herb enhances the soul, enhances the mind, enhances the body."

I'm here today you know giving an interview and everything about what happened to me. You know the day when I got arrested and had to go to court and everything. You know I was there outside of Union Square talking to a friend of mine and next thing I know we're sitting there talking and everything and he pulls out a bag, bag of bud, bag of herb on him. You know he's telling me, "you wanna smoke?" and like I tell him, "I'm good right now" because I had to go. Next thing I know some D's, they come over there, some detectives they run up on him. You know what I'm saying? Then I'm walking away at this point you know because I got my herb on me. Next thing I know they turn around and run up on me and then they search me and violate my fourth amendment you know which is which is my right not to have my persons searched and seized without a warrant so they went ahead and did that and violated that so then they found the herb on me and so they took that and tried to get me for sales.

The main thing too, which was one of the big points I'm trying to push is that the fact that my religious right was violated you know what I'm saying because I practice Rastafarian belief and there's supposed to be freedom of religion in this country and I smoked the herbs, you know it's not smoking the herb to be a cool thing or anything like this because it's what kids do or anything to do with that. I smoke the herb because the herb comes from the earth and I smoke this because this is part of the intelligent nature, the one state of mind, the one love, everything that is about that, has to do with peace, has to do with harmony, has to be at one with nature, you know what I'm saying? Thats the plain consciousness that just happens into when you inhale the earth into your body. You know what I'm saying? Nobody ever died off it. You know. It's one of the most unbelievable medicines we have on the planet. You know what I'm saying? And just the fact that so many people use it. You know what I'm saying? You have cigarettes out there. You have alcohol out there, which kills people, kills the soul, kills the mind, kills the body. Herb enhances the soul, enhances the mind, enhances the body, has so many benefits to human kind that it's unbelievable so you know that's what I'm trying to say.

Kenny

" He was like a bully. He came over and grabbed her ass…"

I had a little altercation last March in a bar in Midtown where I live. Big guy, bully, drunk, obnoxious. Some tourists, three girls from Hawaii were there and I was taking pictures of them and all this and I guess he had an eye out for one of the girls who I was talking to, I mean she could have been my wife for all he knew, but he didn't care. He was like a bully. He came over and grabbed her ass and she said, "would you please remove your hand from my ass." I didn't say nothing. I didn't know what was really happening and he looked at me and said, "you're fucking dead." Because I, you know, he was jealous or whatever the hell even though they all left alone. I ended up in jail because of this. So he walked by back and forth saying, "hurry up and finish your drink, uh you're dead, this guy is dead" and all this and he's a big guy and I'm not, I'm five eight, I weigh one hundred and forty two pounds and uh I was drinking vodka and cranberry that night and I had a half a drink left and he said, "I hope you enjoy the rest of that drink because when that drink's done you're dead" and he went outside and smoked a cigarette and I, I don't know if I was just irate by what he said or I was scared and I was scared and I wasn't taking shit because if you live in New York you learn you don't take shit and I walked right at him and I, there some were trash bags out there and I pushed him over the trash bags onto eighth avenue and I had a knife. I'm from Maine and you're just accustomed to carrying pocket knives so whatever and I pulled it on him and I said, "ok now we're the same size, what are you going to do now?" and his eyes bulged out of his head. Well of course I'm not going to kill the guy, I mean I'm just trying to scare him you know. I put the knife away and he flipped out. Anyway cops came and they put me in jail, you know and I was just minding my own business, just having a drink after work and in a matter of fifteen minutes this whole sort of thing happened. They put me in jail, they put me in a cell with thirty nine other guys. I'm originally from New England. I, unfortunately had a world champion Boston Red Sox shirt on that day. I was a minority in that cell and there were a lot of Yankee fans from the Bronx. It was just a rough twenty four hours in jail and so I get community no I got anger management classes, I have to go to anger management class, I've completed. I'm not angry, I just got angry that night and then I just had to pay this fine. It's costing me like around you know, you have to pay for anger management class, it's costing like you know, four hundred and fifty dollars around there all together with everything and it's just been a pain in the ass and I've never even had a speeding ticket in my life. I've never done anything wrong and this happens. I'm down, I'm in jail. It's just been a character builder, we'll put it that way. I guess I did learn a lesson though I will walk away because you don't want to get thrown down in the tombs in New York City. It's not a pleasant place to be and uh that's it, fine paid, now I'll carry on, this is over but that guy had everything coming to him that I did to him; period. "You're an asshole if he's watching this, end of story, goodbye."

Tim

"Him and I were involved in an altercation. He called the cops."

I'm fulfilling a court obligation to uh, I was convicted today of misdemeanor, assault yeah that's what it was on a cab driver. Circumstances are I was out with friends we were drinking and the cab driver gave us a ride. He was trying to rip us off. Well he uh, we only paid about, I only paid eighty percent of the bill because that's what I felt, what the price was because we had taken the cab a couple of times at that time of the night and he had taken us about three blocks south of where we needed to be and we never ended up getting there so I asked him to pull over. The bill was about thirteen dollars and I gave him nine I think and I said, "this is what I'm going to pay you because this is what it usually is." and he flipped out. There were two girls in the back seat. I got out of the car, opened the door for the girls to get out and he sped away with the girls in the car and I sprinted after him. He crashed, he actually crashed the cab too, this is the best part he crashed the cab into another car and it slammed shut and that's when I flipped out. I ran over to him got the girls out told him to walk away and then him and I were involved in an altercation. He called the cops. The cops came and got me and uh I spent forty hours in jail. It was a good time. It was horrible. It was absolutely horrible. The cheese sandwiches were horrible. They need to feed us better here. Other then that it was really embarrassing.

It was just an altercation with the cab driver and supposedly theft of services. The meter doesn't lie I guess. I took an ACD and got three days of community service. Which I'm gonna do even though I really really don't want to do it. No and you know if I see him again I'll punch him.

Glenn

"We're not read our rights, we're just animals."

What brought me here today, well actually on Veterans Day, on the 11th. of this month which is November 11th. I was walking down the street on my lunch break and I went to actually I was working I was on my lunch break I went into the park, I smoked a joint one joint. The police five police officers came up to me and I put it out and I was good with them by saying this is a joint and everything and they threw me to the ground actually and they handcuffed, arrested me and put me into a car. I spent three, today is the thirteenth, I spent three days in the bullpen, I didn't even see the judge and then now they see me, I went to see the judge and they want to give me sixty days for actually smoking one joint. So actually the DA asked for sixty days and my lawyer said, "are you kidding me? It was only a joint." So he actually, the judge looked at the DA and the DA said, "Yes I want him to do sixty days."and the judge said, "no time served, let him go, go to a program or something." So they gave me a paperwork to go upstairs and fill in paperwork so I can start a program for a joint. You know I've been smoking a joint since I was fifteen. Ok. But I'm not a heavy user. I don't deserve to be put in jail at all for smoking a joint. You know. I'm a hard working man with a wife that has cancer. You know my wife has cancer at Mount Sinai hospital and it's incredible to me how the system is today. They walk around and jump out of cars, jump out of vans and then for no apparent reason just to trap people off especially in the minority communities and it's not right, it's not right. Something needs to be done. We need to follow this act that Bush set, the Patriot Act. We don't even have rights no more. America needs to know this. We don't have rights at all. All we have is ourselves and to survive, you know. We're not read our rights, we're just animals. So we need to come together one time and vote for the right people and try to end this madness because a lot of people are going to jail and spending time in jail for very very very little reason. We're getting locked up for little little little things and it's incredible. There's people outside robbing people, there's people outside robbing banks, robbing old woman and stuff and getting less time then people that's smoking a joint. That's incredible. We need to end this madness now. Thank you.

Darin

"I'm kind of hungry so I robbed a store."

I gotta wait on probation. For a robbery. Hanging out with wrong people. Bad people. I got caught with something that I did. I got caught robbing a store and now I'm on probation. I got arrested. I got caught. I had a lot on my mind and I couldn't take it anymore. A lot of family issues. I had no money. I hadn't gotten my welfare check. I'm kind of hungry so I robbed a store. Bodega. 9mm. One of my friends. One of my people that I was hanging out with. Bad. I regretted it, after I did it. Now I couldn't do nothing I was locked up. Didn't have no freedom. It ain't fun being in jail. You can't do nothing. All you do is sleep all day. Nothing. Nah I did it with other people. Yeah I had the gun but I threw it after. I didn't want to get caught with it. $20. You hang out with the wrong crowd and you get caught with the wrong crowd. I gotta walk a straight line now. I'm on probation. Don't get in trouble. It ain't fun. When you get locked up it ain't fun. You can't do nothing. You have no freedom. You can't use your money when you want to. Definitely you can't call nobody. Only one time a day and that's it. You know it's not a place to be. I ain't ever gonna do it again.

Matthew

"Basically I have no knowledge of any money being stolen.'

Yes. Excuse me. Charges of grand larceny. Well I'm currently caught up in a case where there was allegedly some cash was stolen from a bank. They're accusing me of pulling out money from my account um that was stolen that I have no knowledge of the money being stolen and basically they're saying that I'm part of some organization that um steals money. Supposedly, I'm not sure. Actually it's um wiring money and funds. So some money was wired to me from a business partner and they're saying that I'm linked to funds that was being stolen from accounts. Basically I have no knowledge of any money being stolen. I just received money and it was in my account. So if I'm wrong for having possession of money in my account then so be it but I feel that legally I'm able to deposit any money that's given to me especially if it's a certified check and I'm not aware that any money is stolen or the bank is not informing me that the money was stolen and they're cashing my checks and allowing me to do my business transactions um without any uh stipulations of the checks or the money that is deposited in my into account as being stolen. I feel that if I do have money in my account and they are allowing me to make business transactions and um and so forth uh my accounting that I'm not guilty of any wrong doing especially if I'm not aware that any money is being transferred from a legal account that, that account that is being transferred from has no red flags or any that the accounts I'm acquiring money from is um being investigated on, so I feel that these charges that are, that I have acquired um is not actually my charges because as I've said this is my business, this is my account and for the District Attorney to accuse me of illegally acquiring these funds I feel is wrong because basically like I said I'm just doing my business as I do every day with my account as any American has done and and is continually doing um with day to day accounting with banks.

Daniel

"They probably thought I was gonna hijack a train or something."

I was walking to the train and the cops saw a clip in my pocket so they stopped me and they thought it was a knife and it was a knife. It took them a while, they took it and they were trying to figure out if it was a switchblade or a gravity knife so they were trying to figure it out for about twenty minutes, half an hour, after they finally got it open they saw that it lock clicked, they decided to arrest me and then they didn't even end up charging me for the knife because there was no reason for them to stop me to get the knife but then they saw weed in my bag and charged me for the marijuana and I had to pay seventy five dollars. Waste of Monday. I didn't not get my knife back. I asked but they said no. But I have a piece of paper that is a receipt that says switchblade on it so maybe some day when it's legal I can get it back. I didn't even know it was a switchblade. Just casue it locks. I just thought it was a knife. But who knew? Now I know. I bought it in a legal store so they shouldn't have been selling it. Well it was only a little bit of weed, so not a lot. But I paid to pay two hundred bucks cause its a hundred and thirty dollar court fee or something so that was like two fifty, probably about three hundred dollars. Then I live in Boston so I had to take a bus here. It's outrageous. Expensive knife, it was an expensive day and it was 911, so obviously they would stop me on 911. They probably thought I was gonna hijack a train or something. What are you going to do? New York.

Joseph

November 10, 2008

"There is a stillness that lays deep inside the she in me."

I'm a street artist. I sell my art on 14th Street and Broadway, right in front of Whole Foods. And I was arrested about two months ago for selling my art on the streets. So, I make one-of-a-kind bags that I make all of myself, I'm an advocate for sweatshop-free labor. Along with all of my bags I give a pamphlet on sweatshop labor, donating some of the proceeds to an organization. And they arrested me because they said I didn't fall under first amendment, which hundreds of New York City street artists are unjustly arrested every year because of the same situation. So, I was in court today, the case...they re-issued another court date for November 25th, and apparently it's a long process, it keeps going and going and going until finally they grant you first amendment, or they don't, depending on how they feel you fall into place.

Here's some examples of some of my bags. I do poetry on all of my bags.

"There is a stillness that lays deep inside the she in me.

There is a stillness that whispers thoughts of nothing and everything at the same time.

There is a stillness that knows.

Once in a while when my mind stops spinning and my body stops moving, I can hear that clear...clear voice.

And then...this...all of this, seems to make sense.

And...then...I remember that this, all of this, is just one moment in time.

There is a stillness that lays deep inside the she in me."

This is, yeah, I do this full-time. This is my primary source of income. I've been doing it full-time for about a year. I get a lot of...people really, in New York City, really respect the street artists, I think it's definitely a part of the whole atmosphere that attracts people, so I have a lot of repeat customers.

Sheila