A Life For A Backpack?
Kalief Browder 1993-2015
It all started with a backpack. . .and it cost him his life in the end.
Kalief Browder was 16 years old in the Spring of 2010 when he was arrested for the theft of a backpack. Up until the day he died, Mr. Browder maintained his innocence.
By the end of 2012, Browder had been in jail for nine hundred and sixty-one days and had stood before eight different judges. On March 13, 2013, Browder appeared before a new judge, Patricia M. DiMango.
Judge DiMango explained to Browder that if the case went to trial, he could receive up to a 15 year sentence. She also offered him a deal to plead guilty to two misdemeanors—the equivalent of sixteen months in jail—and go home based on the time he'd already served. Browder maintained his innocence and told the judge he would take it to trial because he didn’t do it.
On May 29, 2013, the thirty-first court date on Browder’s case, there was another development. DiMango told Browder that the prosecution intended to dismiss the case. She explained that this could not officially happen until the next court date, which ended up being a week later.
He could not believe what was happening. His battle to prove his innocence had ended. No trial, no jury, no verdict. No matter how hard he tried, Browder couldn’t forget what he had seen in jail; inmates stealing from each other, officers attacking teens, blood on the dayroom floor. He began to wonder why, after three years, had they let him out all of a sudden.
Browder began going to school to get his G.E.D. At the same time, he was also tormented by the abuse he'd received at the hands of the Riker guards. He could not forget how he had been starved and he was paranoid that the cops were following him. He explained all of this to his mother and she reassured him that he wasn’t alone anymore. The next day, June 6, 2015, Browder committed suicide at home.
Browder’s lawyer had just filed a lawsuit a few months before his death because of the time spent in jail with absolutely no trial date. Court dates kept being pushed back due to requests from the D.A.’s office. It has since been leaked that there were no concrete witnesses. How is it legal to hold a man in jail for over 3 years with no trial date and no witnesses? Were they waiting for a witness to miraculously show up?
What's most difficult to comprehend is; they held this young man in jail, all of this time, over a damn backpack! There are millions of unsolved murders and murderers roaming the country that could have been addressed. This young man was going through a lot and tried to commit suicide several times during his jail time and even after his release. He even had to be placed in an institution on many occasions.
Unfortunately, it got to the point where he couldn’t take it. Browder had missed the years of his prime. He felt like he was stripped of his manhood. No prom, no high school graduation, and who knows what other dreams he gave up on because of what happened to him. The fact that he committed suicide makes me wonder what else happened to this young man? The videos made me angry and even made me shed tears. There was no apology. No money given to him. And now he's dead, and it all started with a backpack.
Doesn’t this make you wonder how many other people are out there like this young man? What can we do about this? Is it hopeless? Especially since the problem obviously starts at the top. Share Mr. Browder’s story because more people need to be aware of this injustice!
