DIARY OF A MAD MAN

Justice, American Style

Chitwood  v.  Hider

              It is 1988 and Mike Chitwood, the most decorated police officer in Philadelphia's history, comes to Portland, Maine for a 17 year reign as Police Chief. His first official duty was to send out a letter informing all concealed firearm permit holders that they could no longer carry their weapons from sunrise to sun set, then the trouble really started. In 1989 I challenged the authority of the chief over the re-issue of a concealed firearms permit.  That incident has kept me in litigation for over 17 years, year in and year out. 

         This diary describes my 28 days in the Cumberland County Jail.   It also describes the horror of an unequal playing field.

                                                                                     Day 1   Thursday, May 13, 1999

          They offer me breakfast at 7:00 am, which I declined.  I did nothing all day except talk to some of the other inmates.   We are under lock down in our cells about fifty percent of the time. 

          My cell is approximately 8 X 10 with a stainless steel sink, commode, and mirror and in the corner of the room is a wastebasket.  The only thing in the wastebasket is a wrapper from the toothbrush.  There is an 18-inch shelf on the wall with four hooks.  The hooks collapse so we don't hang ourselves.  The bed is three feet wide and the mattress and pillow are very thin.  I can feel the steel bed frame through the mattress.  The window in my cell is made of steel bars on the outside.  I can see the sun reflecting off the bricks behind the bars on the wall of the building as it wraps around the hall.  

          Peter Evans, my attorney, came to see me at 4:00 p.m.  Peter is working on the issues in federal court tomorrow.  He had filed for and gotten a hearing date in state court for Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. 

         As I think about all that has happened, I find it is very frustrating and hard to understand why the police can break laws and falsify documents and get away with it; it is up to the inmate to prove different.  There is a grievance process.  The inmate fills out a slip of paper and puts it in the mailbox and waits, and waits, and waits.