Recipes for Disaster: an anarchist cookbook

If the answer is yes, then here are a few more tips. It is extremely wise to have some sort of contingency plan in place rather than just charging blindly into a situation that may lead to your arrest. Cijltivate relationships with lawyers beforehand. Know to whom you are going to make your one phone call, and what you are going to tell them to do. Memorize a prepaid calling card number so you can use a payphone if necessary. If possible, have bail money set aside. Godspeed, and good luck.

Under Arrest

Surviving a Felony Trial 534

Anyway, all of that is in the past for you now. I have no idea at what point in the process this essay will reach you, so I'll pick back up where I left off, at the beginning. You are sitting in the back of the cruiser, and you are scared. The single most important thing you can do right now is not talk to the police. Not one word. It does not matter what you did or didn't do. It does not matter if you have been caught red-handed doing something unbelievably sketchy, or if you are being targeted in a frame-up job that extends to the loftiest chambers of international power. You must not talk. This is what you can say: "I'm going to remain silent. I would like to speak with my attorney." Nothing else. I can't possibly stress this enough. If they try to chat you up about sports, that is all that you can say. If they bang your head against the wall, that is all that you can say. If the good cop tries to tell you that he is trying to help you out here and then the bad cop gets all up in your grill, if they tell you that they are going to put you in a cell with Big Bad Bob the serial rapist and that he's going to turn you out, and that your friend snitched on you and

they know everything already anyway, if they kick you and punch you and grope you and drag you around and deny you food and water and sleep and medical treatment, if they take your clothes from you and soak you down with ice water, or close aU the windows and turn the heat up, or handcuff you to a chair and leave you there until you piss and shit yourself, that is still all that you can say. No matter what they say or do, you have to say, "I'm going to remain silent. I would like to speak with my attorney," and nothing else. If you slip up and start to talk, you absolutely will see every word you speak used against you in court. If you don't, eventually they will give up.

You vdll be in some sort of local or municipal police precinct or substation. Within about forty-eight hours of your arrest you will be given an arraignment. This is your initial appearance before a judge in a criminal case. Specific charges will be lodged against you, a lawyer will be appointed to you if you have not yet secured one, you will enter a plea of guilty or not guilty, and bail will either be set or denied to you, depending on the severity of your charges and a variety of other factors. Regardless of your eventual legal strategy, you almost certainly want to enter a plea of not guilty at this point. Contact your people as soon as you can and tell them to start working on getting you a lawyer and getting you bailed out.

After your arraignment you v^ probably be moved to the county lockup. This place In jail usually houses people who are awaiting trial, serving relatively short terms, or finishing off the ass end of a sentence from the state penitentiary. You will be given some food, a hot shower, and eventually put into general population. As much as you v/ill hate to admit it, the shower will feel really, really good.

This is where you will have to begin to acclimate yourself to the two types of people that your world will be comprised of for the time being: inmates and guards. You will surviving a Felony Trial quickly learn that the guards are absolutely the most offensive, foul-mouthed, verbal- 533

when you've been arrested, you can refuse to touch any objects the police try to give you during questioning, so as to avoid inadvertently gettingyour fingerprints on them and giving them evidence to use against you.

SurvMng a Felony Trial 53^

ly abusive people on the face of the planet. You will be expected to "LIFT YA NUTS! SPREAD YA ASS!" at the drop of a hat, you wiU be given notice that if you "PLAY THE PUSSY YA GET FUCKED!" and you will have to listen to all sorts of talk about "COCK-SUCKER" this and "FAGGOT" that. Most of this is just to get a rise out of you. If you seem thin-skinned, they will never let up. Don't act outright hostile or give them a good excuse to kick your ass?they will do it. Do not cower, grovel, or act too submissive, either?this will not set a good tone at aU. Stay polite and do not show any sign of weakness. Once their interest in you wears off, it will be easier.