大学英语（第三册）复习（原文及全文翻译）

A young man finds that strolling along the streets without an obvious purpose can lead to trouble with the law. One misunderstanding leads to another until eventually he must appear in court for trial……

A Brush with the Law

I have only once been in trouble with the law. The whole process of being arrested and taken to court was a rather unpleasant experience at the time, but it makes a good story now. What makes it rather disturbing was the arbitrary circumstances both of my arrest and my subsequent fate in court.

It happened in February about twelve years ago. I had left school a couple of months before that and was not due to go to university until the following October. I was still living at home at the time.

One morning I was in Richmond, a suburb of London near where I lived. I was looking for a temporary job so that I could save up some money to go travelling. As it was a fine day and I was in no hurry, I was taking my time, looking in shop windows, strolling in the park, and sometimes just stopping and looking around me. It must have been this obvious aimlessness that led to my downfall.

It was about half past eleven when it happened. I was just walking out of the local library, having unsuccessfully sought employment there, when I saw a man walking across the road with the obvious intention of talking to me. I thought he was going to ask me the time. Instead, he said he was a police officer and he was arresting me. At first I thought it was some kind of joke. But then another policeman appeared, this time in uniform, and I was left in no doubt.

'But what for?' I asked.

"Wandering with intent to commit an arrestable offence,' he said.

'What offence?' I asked.

'Theft,' he said.

'Theft of what?' I asked.

'Milk bottles,' he said, and with a perfectly straight face too!

'Oh,' I said.

It turned out there had been a lot of petty thefts in the area, particularly that of stealing milk bottles from doorsteps.

Then I made my big mistake. At the time I was nineteen, had long untidy hair, and regarded myself as part of the sixties' youth counterculture. As a result, I want to appear cool and unconcerned with the incident, so I said, 'How long have you been following me?' in the most casual and conversation tone I could manage. I thus appeared to them to be quite familiar with this sort of situation, and it confirmed them in their belief that I was a thoroughly disreputable character.

A few minutes later a police car arrived.

'Get in the back," they said. 'Put your hands on the back of the front seat and don't move them.'

They got in on either side of me. It wasn't funny any more.

At the police station they questioned me for several hours. I continued to try to look worldly and au fait with the situation. When they asked me what I had been doing, I told them I'd been looking for a job. 'Aha,' I could see them thinking, 'unemployed'.

Eventually, I was officially charged and told to report to Richmond Magistrates' Court the following Monday. Then they let me go.

I wanted to conduct my own defense in court, but as soon as my father found out what had happened, he hired a very good solicitor. We went along that Monday armed with all kinds of witnesses, including my English teacher from school as a character witness. But he was never called on to give evidence. My 'trial' didn't get that far. The magistrate dismissed the case after fifteen minutes. I was free. The poor police had never stood a chance. The solicitor even succeeded in getting costs awarded against the police.

And so I do not have a criminal record. But what was most shocking at the time was the things my release from the charge so clearly depended on. I had the 'right' accent, respectable middle-class parents in court, reliable witnesses, and I could obviously afford a very good solicitor. Given the obscure nature of the charge, I feel sure that if I had come from a different background, and had really been unemployed, there is every chance that I would have been found guilty. While asking for costs to be awarded, my solicitor's case quite obviously revolved around the fact that I had a 'brilliant academic record'.

Meanwhile, just outside the courtroom, one of the policemen who had arrested me was gloomily complaining to my mother that another youngster had been turned against the police. 'You could have been a bit more helpful when we arrested you,' he said to me reproachfully.

What did he mean? Presumably that I should have looked outraged and said something like, 'Look here, do you know who you're talking to? I am a highly successful student with a brilliant academic record. How dare you arrest me!' Then they, presumably, would have apologized, perhaps even taken off their caps, and let me on my way.

一个青年发现，在大街上毫无明显目的地游逛会招致警方的责罚。误会一个接一个发生，最终他只得出庭受审……

与警察的一场小冲突

我平生只有一次跟警方发生纠葛。被捕和出庭的整个过程在当时是一件非常不愉快的事，但现在倒成了一篇很好的故事。这次经历令人可恼之处在于围绕着我的被捕以及随后庭上审讯而出现的种种武断专横的情况。

事情发生在大约12年前，其时正是2月。几个月前我中学毕业了，但上大学要等到10月。当时我还在家中居住。

一天早晨，我来到里士满。这里是伦敦的一个郊区，离我住的地方不远。我在寻找一份临时工作，以便攒些钱去旅游。由于天气晴朗，当时又无急事，我便慢悠悠看看橱窗，逛逛公园。有时干脆停下脚步，四处张望。现在看来，一定是这种明显的毫无目的的游逛，使我倒了霉。

事情发生在11点半钟光景。我在当地图书馆谋职未成，刚刚走出来，便看到一个人穿越马路，显然是要来跟我说话。我以为他要问我时间，不料他说他是警官，要逮捕我。起先我还以为这是在开玩笑，但又一个警察出现在我的面前，这次是位身着警服的，这一下使我确信无疑了。

“为什么要抓我？”我问道。

“到处游荡，企图作案，”他说。

“作什么案？”我又问。

“偷窃，”他说。

“偷什么？”我追问。

“牛奶瓶，”他板着面孔说道。

“噢，”我说。

事情原来是这样的，在这一地区多次发生小的扒窃案，特别是从门前台阶上偷走牛奶瓶。

接着，我犯了一个大错误。其时我年方19，留一头蓬乱的长发，自认为是60年代“青年反主流文化”的一员。所以我想装出一副冷漠的、对这一事件满不在乎的样子。于是我尽量用一种漫不经心的极其随便的腔调说，“你们跟踪我多久啦？”这样一来，在他们眼里，我就像是非常熟悉这一套的了，也使他们更加确信我是一个地地道道的坏蛋。

几分钟后，开来了一辆警车。

“坐到后面去，”他们说。“把手放到前排座位的靠背上，不准挪动。”

他们分别坐在我的两边。这可再也不是闹着玩的了。

在警察局，他们审讯了我好几个小时。我继续装成老于世故、对这种事习以为常。当他们问我在干什么时，我告诉他们在找工作。“啊，”我可以想象他们在想，“果然是个失业的家伙。”

最后，我被正式起诉，并通知我下周一到里士满地方法庭受审。随后他们让我离开。

我想在法庭上作自我辩护，但父亲知道这事后，马上请了一位高明的律师。我们星期一出庭的时候，带了各种各样的证人，其中包括我中学的英语老师，做我人品的见证人。但结果法庭没有叫他作证。我的“审判”没有进行到那一步。开庭15分钟，法官就驳回了对我的指控。我无罪获释。可怜的警方败诉，我的律师甚至让法庭责成警方承担了诉讼费用。

这样，我的履历上没有留下犯罪的记录。但当时最令人震惊的，是那些显然导致宣布我无罪的证据。我讲话的口音“表明我教养良好”，到庭的有体面的中产阶级的双亲，有可靠的证人，还有，我显然请得起一名很好的律师。从对我指控的这种捕风捉影的做法来看，我肯定，如果我出身在另一种背景的家庭里，并且真的是失了业的话，我完全可能被判有罪。当我的律师要求赔偿诉讼费时，他公然把辩护的证据建立在我“学业优异”这一事实上。

与此同时，就在审判室外面，一位抓我的警察正在沮丧地向我母亲抱怨，说是又一个小伙子要跟警察作对了。他带着责备的口气对我说，“我们抓你的时候，你本可以稍微帮点忙的。”

他说这话什么意思？大概是说我本该显出愤愤不平的样子，并说，“喂，留神点，你知道你在跟谁说话？我是学业出众的高材生。你敢抓我！”那样一来，他们或许会向我道歉，说不定还会脱帽致意，让我走开呢。

参考资料：

1. http://www.kekenet.com/menu/200602/3905.shtml

2. http://www.kekenet.com/daxue/201608/459979.shtml