Monster

Monster by Walter Dean Myers is about the conviction Steve Harmon. He is a 16 year old African-American boy living in Manhattan. Steve is in the Manhattan Detention Center for aiding and abetting a robbery of a local liquor store. The problem is that he was wrongfully convicted, and nobody will believe his side of the story. He claims that he was an innocent bystander who walked in looked around the store and left. However the cops believe by the surveillance tapes that he went in and made sure there were no police officers or security inside, so the robbery would smoothly. The police also received word from another prisoner that all three were acquaintances and were working together.  The three boys, Steve Harmon, James King, and “Bobo” Evans have been taken in to custody and have a court date. I believe that the court hearing will not work against Steve, but will not have any proof to vindicate him. This book relates to the television show Psych where more often than not the obvious perpetrators are wrongfully convicted for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It also relates to society in that the black population is more associated with crimes because of the lingering prejudice from before civil rights movements. This makes it so people automatically associate them with crime and poverty.