Time: The Kalief Browder Story - General Discussion

[formerlyfreedom]

A place to discuss Time: The Kalief Browder Story.

[serenitynow]

Is anyone watching this?  It's heartbreaking and horrifying.

[Neurochick]

8 hours ago, serenitynow said:

Is anyone watching this?  It's heartbreaking and horrifying.

I'm watching this.  It's awful, just plain disgusting.

[Mannahatta]

I know the story but I haven't watched any episodes of the documentary yet. I plan to yet I'm dreading it. It is a horrific indictment of our entire criminal justice system.

[serenitynow]

How brave was this kid that he refused to take a plea?  

I hope some real reforms happen in the criminal justice system.  I work in the legal field and the more exposure I have to stories like this, the more I feel led to volunteer with the Innocence Project.  

[MoreCoffeePlease]

And there seem to be many other stories similar to this.  Watched just the 1st episode so far and need to catch up.  I'm glad this is an in-depth look at this case and the system, but on the other hand, it does seem to be a little drawn-out and repetitive.  I'll reserve judgment until I see the next episode in my queue.  I was sort of confused about Kalief taking the bakery truck.  Was he convicted of something for that? 

Any why, why, why set such a high bail for allegedly stealing a backpack?  We'd rather incarcerate someone for how many $$ a day just to make sure they don't go anywhere?

[Neurochick]

5 hours ago, MoreCoffeePlease said:

And there seem to be many other stories similar to this.  Watched just the 1st episode so far and need to catch up.  I'm glad this is an in-depth look at this case and the system, but on the other hand, it does seem to be a little drawn-out and repetitive.  I'll reserve judgment until I see the next episode in my queue.  I was sort of confused about Kalief taking the bakery truck.  Was he convicted of something for that? 

Any why, why, why set such a high bail for allegedly stealing a backpack?  We'd rather incarcerate someone for how many $$ a day just to make sure they don't go anywhere?

Kalief got probation for taking the bread truck.  That was a reason his bail was denied, because he'd broken probation, which makes no sense since a person is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty.  I think the issue with the backpack was because of what was inside:  a camera and a cell phone, but the sentence was very stupid IMO.  And the whole case felt like, someone lost their backpack and told someone else it got stolen so they wouldn't get in trouble.   

[Joimiaroxeu]

It was a struggle for me to get through the series because it was so upsetting. I try to be careful about tossing around the word "evil" but I don't know what else to call what the NY criminal justice system did to Kalief. And hopefully there'll be a special place in Hell reserved for Kalief's father and his "henchmen."

I know the NYC mayor recently announced that they've begun the process to close Rikers down but I doubt it'll happen in during the lifetimes of the teenagers now in there. All it'll take is new "law and order" politician to get elected mayor who'll shut that process down.

[serenitynow]

I am 2 episodes behind because I had to take a break from watching.  It makes me cry even thinking about it.

The prosecutors who lied about being in contact with the witness and constantly delaying his trial need to be disbarred.  Or arrested and sent to Rikers.  Bastards.

[Darian]

I'm only two episodes in and don't even know what to say. Taking a break (in the meantime, went to the link they directed us to and am looking at the various ways to take action). 

[Kairay]

This broke my soul. The fact that its so easy to throw these delicate souls away and not even give it a thought. I can't stop thinking about it. And no one will ever pay. 

[Bastet]

I finally watched this; it's horrible to even try to imagine what life was like in his head.  As the author of the piece that brought his plight to national attention said, every one of the things that is wrong with our criminal justice system happened to Kalief.

What's truly disturbing is how common what happened to him is, that the only reason we know his story is because he was one of the few who refused to just take a plea deal and shut up.

I'd read quite a bit about this case, but I did not know about his awful father trying to go after half the estate.  What a despicable jerk; he wouldn't cough up the bail money when he was the one person in the family who had it, had nothing to do with him in life once he left the family, and then responds to his son's death by trying to usurp Venida Browder's quest to carry on Kalief's fight for justice.  And topped it off by selling the house out from under her/the kids.

I had somehow managed to forget that Venida died, until the final episode started delving into her health problems and then it came back to me and hit me like a brick.  She did so much to help others in his memory, but she also wanted to finish the case for him, to finally get an admission that he was wronged.*  I really appreciate that the series told her story, too; black mothers are just as much victims of our criminal justice system as their sons.

*And the surviving family never did get that; the settlement only provided money.  In looking for updated information on the disposition of the settlement, I learned that the kids - who had begrudgingly aligned with the father to move things along and finally reach a settlement - had to go back to court to try to keep him from getting all/most of the $3.3 million.  The most-recent information I found was from May, at which time they were still engaged in that battle.