Set Up

It was an ordinary relaxed sunny day, like any other for a while that morning in June, untill the door bell rang. Having just made my self a cup of capacino, I was just about to sit down after a 40 minutte walk from the Dentists, when I went to the door and there were two people standing there. The woman showed me a police identity card while asking my name. I told them I was the person in question and they asked if they could come in, telling me simulatineously that I was under arrest.

After my initial surprise and standing there with my mouth open in disbelief, I laughed a bit and asked if they were from Candid Camera but they assured me they were not. The thought then crossed my mind they may be murderers who were going to kill me, untill they pointed to two uniformd officers and a Police car outside of my house.

I was told I had to accompany them to the Police Station so as I rushed about drinking my Capachino, finding my reading glasses, getting my keys etc, all the time being closly scrutinised and followed about by the male. I fed my Yorkshire Terrier Charlie who was biting the male detectives trouser leg. He was wearing a bullit proof vest and loking very menacing. I told this detective Charlie had never bitten any one,s trouser leg before and he said Charley could sence his bad intention towards me.

So, off we went in the unmarked police car, I was in a complete daze, lost in a misty feeling of unreality. I mentioned I felt as if I were dreaming and that it was sereal but the male detective told me it was really happening and to have a good think about why I,d been arrested. Of course I didn,t have a clue as I,d done nothing wrong, that was the only thing I could reply.

On arrival at the police station I noticed they had handcufs and was relieved they hadn,t put them on me. They told me to turn out my pockets and searched me, before taking me to a romm where I had to sit and think about why I was there. I could only repeat I didn,t have a clue. At some point I was told I had been arrested for Arson.

To me it was obvious it was a mistake as I knew I,d done nothing wrong, least of all what I was being accused of. They would soon realize it and I,d be home by three oclock in time for my son coming home from school and I could take Charlie for his walk in the mean time. However time went by and I was just left on my own and no one asked me a thing.

At some point the Chief of Police who was incidentally born in the same year as me, or so he told me, did the formalities like asking me if I knew why I had been arrested and what I was being charged with. I told him I had no idea what was going on or why. Who would have believed it possible that only two days before my 51st birthday I was being framed for Arsen?

In the afternoon the detective,s who arrested me at my home and bought me to the police station came and got me from the room, taking me to the interview room for questioning. They asked me a lot but told me nothing. It was evident that this wasn,t having any succes or giving them what they were after so they started to ask more specific questions.

They began to concentrate on where I,d lived 6 years prior to my presant adress and about relations with my old nieghbors. There wasn,t much to tell as I,ve always kept myself prety much to myself. Generaly speaking there were no problems except for with a drug dealing junky who lived above me and was evicted for noise.
As I was the main person complaining my windows had bricks thrown through them twice after his eviciton and I moved house. After that I never went in the street again or saw any of my old neighbors.

There was still nothing developing as was hoped so the story began to unfold from there as I had nothing to tell. They asked me if I was aware there had been a fire a few weeks earlier in the buliding next to my old house. Coincidentally, for the first time ever since we moved my daughter had taken Charlie for a walk in the street to show her boy friend where she used to live and she told me she,s seen there had been a fire next door.

Now the detective,s asked about an incident where by the 8 or 9 year old son of my old Turkish nieghbors had threatend and robbed my son who was 5 years old at the time. I,d forgotten about it till they mentioned it then I remeberd what had happend. This boy had threatend and robbed my son of f 1-, at least 7 years before. My daughter had gone next door to the boys house, sent him upstairs to tell his mother and get the money off her, end of story.

The next thing that happend was terrifying to me as the detective gave me threatening letters to read, which I was accused of writing. The letters were written in very bad Dutch, with English words tactically placed to make it look like they were typical mistakes made by an English person. As it happens I learnt Dutch in school with all different nationalities and am familiar with the kind of mistakes the different groupes make.

How the police couldn,t see that these were typical Turkish gramatical mistakes, I and every one who read these childish, unducated, scriblings,will never know. I can only assume they had there heads up thier arses and left thier brains in bed that morning when leaving for work, that is if they ever had a brain between them to begin with. I realised then what deep shit I was in, if some one wanted to frame me so badly and the police wanted to assist them, for what ever reason.

There were several of these so called threatening letters but at the time I was only shown the one,s which fitted with the scenario the detectives were trying to fit me into. The other letters which referd to auther of them as having 4 children when I in fact have only three, the one which referd to the Turks 16 year old sons delinquent behavior both in and out of school as a motive for the Arsen and the one refering to harrasmet of pensioners at a near by home by their other son were also not shown to me at that point.

I was asked if I would consent to a hand writing analysis, which I found an exalent opportuniy to prove my innocence, the same applied to giving DNA which I willingly agreed to.

Niether of these things happend, at least not openly or through an expert. What did happen was that I was at one point given a glass bottle of water instead of a disposable plastic cup. Also I was given a pencil and informed I could correct the rough statement if I felt there were any errors in what I,d told them. Of course it was full of spelling and grammatical mistakes, so I corrected as many as I could, consierding these arealso my weak points. I suppose this was in thier feeble minds not transparent and quick, cheap way of doing things instead of paying two experts fees.

It was then suggested I could have got some one else to to write the so called threatening letters. Not only was I accused of arsen but also of incitement to racism and insulting racist remarks, due to the apparent statemet of this lying Turkish woman. I was also supposed to have damaged thier car, two years earlier.

This was unbelieveable because our chldren used to play together, or should I say the daugter played with my youngest son. Her brother was a bully and had problems socialising or interacting normally with other children all except for one boy that lived opposite us. The children were frequently locked out and couldn,t get out of the garden,up to thier flat so I used to let them walk through my house. The husband quite often beat his wife up.

I told the detectives it was obvious to me the people had set thier own fire in order to claim insurance money and get rehoused. Framing me would take the spotlight off them and provide aguilty party for the insurance company and hurry the claim payments along. Of course these fools wanted to see this Turkish family as poor victims of a crime and at this pouint in time didn,t want to be see for the stupid idiots they obviosly are, so they had to disagree.

I coudln,t remember all of the specific details of this incident of more than 7 years earlier so I suggested the dectectives ask my daughter, assuming her memory may be better than mine, being as she was the one who dealt with the matter. When she came to the police station and our accounts of what happend and when it took place tallied, the female detective came and told me they believed I was telling the truth.

Of course no one had any idea what I,d been arrested for and they couldn,t beging to immagine what trumped up charges were keeping me ther as the Police only informed my daughter I had commited a serious crime. This meant we couldn,t have spoken to one another or have agreed on what to say so any thing was said was assumed to be the truth as there were no major difference in our accounts.