Teen Arrested and Jailed for 3 Years for Crime he Didn't Commit

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Kalief Browder was just 16-year-old when police officers suddenly showed up and arrested him for a crime he didn't commit. He spent the next three years on Rikers Island.

Now 20, Browder still had no idea why a person he had never met before decided to accuse him of robbery and steal his teenage years.

Browder, a Bronx native, was on his way home from a party when he was arrested. "This guy comes out of nowhere and says I robbed him," Browder told WABC. "And the next thing I know they are putting cuffs on me. I don't know this dude. And I do over three years for something I didn't do."

Browder's attorney, Paul Prestia, says the entire case rested on the accuser's fingering of Browder.

"Someone who did not know Kalief Browder, and simply told the police officer, 'Officer I was robbed two weeks ago and that kid did it', that's where it ended. That was the identification,"

Browder's bail was set at $10,000, but his family was unable to pay it. So the teen had to sit and wait in one of America's most notorious jails.

"It's very hard when you are dealing with dudes that are big and have weapons and shanks and there are gangs," he told the local ABC affiliate. "[Y]ou know if you don't give your phone call up, or you don't give them what they want you know they are going to jump you. And it's very scary."

At one point a judge tried to scare Browder into accepting a plea deal, threatening him with a 15-year sentence if he loses his trial.

Multiple court visits with no resolution left Browder desperate and contemplating suicide.

Then, one day, 33 months later, his case was dismissed and he was free.

"They just dismissed the case and they think it's all right," he said. "No apology, no nothing."

But Browder isn't sitting around waiting for a mea culpa that may not come: He's filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Bronx DA, which has so far been silent on matter, citing Browder's lawsuit as an excuse.

Browder is also trying to move on with his interrupted life.

A 10th grader at the time of his incarceration, he's already started taking high school-level courses with the hopes of completing his GED by the end of the year.

Still, he knows nothing will ever make up for what was lost.

"I didn't get to go to prom or graduation. Nothing," Browder said. "[T]hose are the main years. They are the main years. And I am never going to get those years back. Never. Never."

So I guess you can just go up and accuse people of stuff they didn't do in NY and the police will just take your word, no evidence needed

 

[NickNitro]

Can you post links please. I'd like to read the article from the site as well.

This is a disgusting story.....I hope his voice is heard nationwide and he brings to light this unlawful act.

 

[Teelie]

New York? Sadly I can believe it even without citation.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/investigators&id=9317078

I can't even imagine how he must have felt being in one of the hardest jails in the country.

 

[Shikamaru]

This is a disgusting story. I have no words.

 

[KevanG]

The first thing that pops in my head when I saw this was "Is he Black?". He is and I'm not surprised this happened in New York.

 

[Teelie]

Even if he weren't black, the fact it's New York wouldn't have surprised me. Being black it doesn't even need to be questioned happening in New York.

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

That is the thing I quite don't understand in US, you have a black president, you had people like Martin Luther King, you fight for freedom ( well not always ), you have celebrities like Ophra that have a huge influence but it is still not good to be black in America or that kind of stuff is anecdotal and I draw the wrong picture from this type of news ?

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Well I am white so I have no idea what a black person has to go through on a day to day basis but I have learned that they are taught numerous things about how to act from a young age just so they aren't targeted with this kind of stuff. A lot of my male black friends explain about how they are told to act around police and law enforcement in general where as I was given the basic tell em yes sir no sir kind of deal

 

[NickNitro]

It's sad to say its such a horrible staple in American culture to immediately associate other races with a sort of "well that explains it". I feel really bad doing it. I am by no means a racist but its a horrible gut reaction I have, then I snap back into reality.

I hope one day soon, there will be a generation of true equality in this world, not the forced half hearted equality we have today.

 

[Teelie]

That is the thing I quite don't understand in US, you have a black president, you had people like Martin Luther King, you fight for freedom ( well not always ), you have celebrities like Ophra that have a huge influence but it is still not good to be black in America or that kind of stuff is anecdotal and I draw the wrong picture from this type of news ?

A good comparison is Muslims in France who are seen as not integrating or being divisive. Or the Jews who are also seen as problematic but some of the people.

The U.S. might have come a long ways but it still has a long ways to go, as do most other countries in the world when it comes to cultural or ethnic differences.

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

Teelie, I wasn't judging and yes, in France we also have prejudice against black and middle eastern people.
You are wrong about the Jews though, they are not seem as problematic.

Edit : I just thought that the US was a bit more evolved than France in that regard for we are far from having a black president by example.

 

[The Question]

That is the thing I quite don't understand in US, you have a black president, you had people like Martin Luther King, you fight for freedom ( well not always ), you have celebrities like Ophra that have a huge influence but it is still not good to be black in America or that kind of stuff is anecdotal and I draw the wrong picture from this type of news ?

Well, a huge part of racism is propped up by cognitive dissonance.

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

Big words, had to look up the definition.

 

[Teelie]

Teelie, I wasn't judging and yes, in France we also have prejudice against black and middle eastern people.
You are wrong about the Jews though, they are not seem as problematic.

Edit : I just thought that the US was a bit more evolved than France in that regard for we are far from having a black president by example.

I didn't see it as a judgement. I meant more to show a similar prejudice that exists there is what we have here. In the U.S. it's more profound.

I have read about the "a good jew" twitter controversy in France and mistook it to mean there was a bigger issue there than it may actually be. I guess that's from reading too much into the news reports, which I should have known better than.

 

[Thundercrack85]

Obama is a rather unique case - not being fully black, or from the same background as most black Americans.

Oprah is a rather famous exception. Martin Luther King is not nearly as respected by the majority of white people as he is by black people.

Obviously the situation has improved a lot, but race relations in America aren't great. Especially with police. See the Trayvon Martin shooting for a good recent example.

 

[The Question]

I think a big part of it is that both Obama and Oprah "act white." They speak and present themselves in a way that is very non-threatening to white Americans. Not that they're wrong to do so, but it's why people might view them differently than a black teenager in New York.

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

I used them as example of black people that are liked and appreciated, I don't know the details of the why but I understand what you mean.
Again, this is the point of view of a foreigner.

 

[Teelie]

There are many black people who are liked and respected. There are also some who are feared or disliked and I think it's more than skin color. It's a cultural divide.

To explain it would mean being able to successfully describe why there is this divide and it's not easy and it goes into a lot of sensitive issues on both side of the racial line.

The very simple sum of it is though there's a cultural divide between black and white (and hispanic, and asian, and middle eastern, etc) which a lot of people are not able to look past.

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

Well, maybe in a thousand years all that crap will be a thing of the past.

 

[Teelie]

Hopefully sooner than a thousand years.

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

It's not as much as it seems.

 

[BrollySupersj]

Guilty until proven innocent. Seriously, that poor kid...heartbreaking story. I hope he can get his life back on track and put it all behind him.

 

[Quasimod0]

First thing I thought when I saw his picture was, "did I doo thaaat??" -urkel voice-

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Did he look somewhat like the culprit, or was the idea of that jerk accusing the poor guy to just blame the first brown skin to pass by him?
I hope that guy accusing Kalief suffers a hard deal of constipation for what he did