a small note on crime

I've been watching some mystery crime dramas lately.  Take your pick at which one.  They seem to be all over the place now.  NCIS, CSI, Dexter can even be classified as a mystery crime thriller drama, and the list goes on.  All though those all more or less pertain to severe crimes such as murder they sometimes have elements of lesser crimes or false accusations that go on permanent records.  Stuff that ruins people's careers.  When I was much younger I was arrested for the exploration of an abandoned warehouse near my cousin's house.  It was a brutal traumatizing experience to say the least.  I've always been curious and I've been known to take risks whether it be exploring an abandoned building, playing with fire, climbing, jumping off 60ft bridges into a reservoir of water, I've always liked adventure.  Well we got this idea to explore an old warehouse that was under much disrepair.  We went a few times because exploring a dark building filled with rust and decay and dust looking like it was just evacuated suddenly was fun.  We saw sets of keys, desks that have crumpled under their own weight, yellowed time cards and calendars from years long since past.  It was like being on an archaeological dig and looking for answers to who was there, what did they do in there, etc.  One time however a man was driving his truck and tried to run us over when he saw us near the building.  He cornered us (mostly because of my party was young and was far from in shape).  He got out of his truck with a steel baseball bat and threatened to beat us to death and leave us there or call the cops.  The first people he called however were his friends who showed up.  I was under the impression that we had walked in on some kind of drug deal and was terrified.  He called the police and his friends disappeared and hid his bat under his seat.  Five squad cars came.  My phone rang when six police officers were slamming my face into wet glass covered asphalt.  They never read me any rights but instead proceeded to search me by pulling my arm out of my socket and sticking a finger in my mouth almost tearing a hole through my cheek.  I tasted blood.  One of them shoved his hand into my pants and boxers to presumably search for a weapon.  But I've never heard of someone concealing a weapon inside their genitals before.  I overheard that man that had threatened us give a bogus statement.  When we were giving our statements it conflicted with his.  He denied calling his friends, threatening us with a steel bat, trying to run us over, and probably a couple other things that I forgot about over time.  Several months later we got off with nothing.  There was no one who could press charges because no one, not even the city or state, owned the property.  They tried to charge us with a misdemeanor but nothing stuck because we didn't do anything wrong.  And if it was a misdemeanor that was what we were arrested for, I don't quite see the connection with the unnecessary police brutality in taking us in.  It was at this point that I started to question 'authority' and who defines what is just.  So always in the back of my mind there's this darkness that causes me to be cynical towards other.  I've never felt so violated before.  People that we're meant to trust our lives with and 'serve and protect' us were the ones attacking us.  After something like that, how can you trust the judicial system and the choices they make.  As I was saying,  I was thinking of a hypothetical situation where I was arrested and charged with something and tried as an adult.  The charge sticking and going on my permanent record.  The impact of such a marred record regardless if the defendant was innocent or not always will stay with them making life progressively harder.  Getting a job, asking for a loan, buying a house, everything would be tainted by that thing on the record.  I was thinking that with such a way of processing things, any way of redemption through means of respectable employment etc would be highly improbable.  I have a feeling that this would perpetuate the level of crime in the country.  I could easily visualize someone committing a crime out of desperation to survive.  Wouldn't it make sense then for someone to act against the system of law that put them in such a situation that one of the only viable means to maintain dignity and their humanity is to embrace the darkness and commit acts of what perceive as villainy.