May 24 - The Punishment

I'm writing this because as part of my sentence I have to write about what I did, and about my punishment, and about if I think my punishment will have an effect on my behavior in the future. Anyway, here I go.
Basically what happened was I got caught shoplifting. It was late and I had to buy some milk for my baby, but I didn't have no money with me so I basically just took it and got caught. And at that point, the stupid 7-11 woman had a choice. She could just make me put the milk back and then kick me out of the store, or she could choose to be a total bitch about it and call the cops. Well, she must have had a stick up her butt on account of having to work late, because she called the cops, and the cops came and arrested me, and I had to go before the judge just on account of trying to take a few things I needed without paying for them, including milk for my baby. I guess that bitch must have thought 7-11 needed the milk more than my baby did because she couldn't wait to call the cops on me.
Anyway, the judge in my case was trying out something new for misdemeanors like mine. Basically, my punishment was I had to stand in front of the 7-11 all day and wear this dumb ass sign that said, "I stole from this store" and have people walk by and look at me and judge me and all that shit. That's it. No fine, no nothing else. Just stand there with this sign.
At first, I felt like a total loser. Everybody was looking at me. Most people didn't really do anything but look, but every once in a while, somebody would laugh at me, and it fucking sucked, but I wasn't allowed to say or do anything about it or they would make me stay there an extra day. And there was a supervising officer from the court who was there watching me who made sure I didn't do anything. I wanted to beat the shit out of those assholes, but all I could do was give them dirty looks, and then after a while I got sick of doing that and I basically just stood there.
Later on in the day, a few people tried talking to me, like asking me what I stole and shit. And when I told them I was there because I was trying to get some milk for my baby they were all on my side and that felt pretty good.
But after the first hour, I started getting really bored. And then I started getting pissed off. It was such a stupid waste of my time. I had to spend the whole day basically just standing there because some judge must have thought it would make me think about my crime and make me ashamed of myself and shit like that. And like I would realize that shoplifting is bad and I would change as a person or something. And I know I should be writing about how much this experience changed me so everybody will be happy and feel like they made a difference and shit, but I basically don't care. This punishment was totally stupid. One of the things I have to write about is if this experience will have an effect on my future behavior, and actually I can tell you right now that the answer to that one is yes. This experience will definitely change my behavior. Next time I go shoplifting, I won't get caught.