Posted on 06/04/2008 6:12:59 PM PDT by elkfersupper
Better yet, she has a claim under the Federal Civil Rights Act, 42 USCS §1983, for deprivation of her constitutional rights without due process of law. (The "due process" in this case would have been a simple field Breathalyzer that would have demonstrated that she was 100% sober.)
The very simple solution is for all police departments to equip their patrol vehicles with audio and video recording devices. The police department in my city did that about three years ago and the result has been a significant reduction in the number of DUI arrests and a significant increase in the number of convictions of those who are arrested. Let's face it: Cops lie like Bill Clinton, except when they know they are being recorded, in which case they tend to follow the rules and only arrest people those people who, from any reasonable objective standard, are driving under the influence. As a result prosecutions are down, but convictions are up because the audio/video tapes are much more believable than a lying cop with an attitude.
My first good laugh of the day - thanks!
“Would love to see and hear the audio and video of this stop. I suspect it doesn’t match the suspects statement or the biased reporters..”
I’d be on your side too, except for the fact that the charges were quietly dropped. Based on that little tidbit, I am more apt to believe the innocent driver’s story. But then that’s just me and my natural tendency to believe that dropped charges mean that the charges were originally made in error.
Just WOW!
“These days of speed traps and excessive DUI arrests tell anyone that the primary motivation on all this stuff is revenue.”
I think it is also a systematic way to confiscate guns. The MADD witches have now made DUI a felony in Texas. Get a DUI and you cannot buy a gun. We can’t have those eeevil people that drink owning guns!
Ditto that. I have seen too many of these young cops all buffed like they spend 20 hours a day in a gym. They have that 'look' in their eyes like they are ready to kill something. It's sure not all of them but with some you are half afrade to make eye contact, say hello or just ask directions. They are just hostile from the get go.
We're all worried about testing baseball players for steroids when frankly, we ought to be testing some of these cops. Roid rage while carrying a badge is a bad thing.
That sounds like the routine that court reporters have always used with new lawyers. Treat us right, don't hassle us and just let us do the job the way it's supposed to be done, and you will at least sound coherent in the transcript.
There's verbatim and verbatim. The lawyers who pester us to do their jobs for them, expect us to be their "assistants" or "valets" during breaks, or who try to correct the transcript to reflect what they wanted to say rather than what they actually said ... [and who do they think they are to do that, Congressmen or Senators?] ... they're going to get a really .. REALLY .. verbatim record ...
every cough ...
every stutter ...
every incoherent phrase without either a noun or a verb ...
every time they pick their nose ..
.. it will all go into the record.
You'd be surprised how long it takes sometimes for these "professionals" to understand cause and effect.
Okay, so these days cops are our surrogate mothers, only with the power to arrest or even kill us.
I'm calling B.S. on that.
In fact, I think I posted that article here, although I can't readily locate it now.
I think we all should have audio and video equipment in our own cars just to protect ourselves from the cops.
Yup.
It is one thing that the event was recorded. It is a whole other thing to know that the cop knew it was being recorded by a major news outlet and twisted off anyway.
> Okay, so these days cops are our surrogate mothers, only with the power to arrest or even kill us.
Yeah, sort of... Certainly, back then the cops still had a lot of discretion with regard to how they handled a questionable situation. In comparing the differing results of different friends trying different tactics during a road-stop, I found that being polite and cooperative won every time over being defensive or confrontational. Girls could sweet-talk but that wasn't an option for us guys, which was fine with me anyway.
My feeling is that if you want to avoid a possible DUI, the proper approach is:
> I'm calling B.S. on that.
I'm willing to modify it:
Good cops are more likely to act like "Peace Officers" when the you're being peaceable yourself.Bad cops are ... well, bad cops.
I emphathize. I’ve been there. In my case, when I passed the breathelyzer test, they tried to throw everything they could (reckless driving, using a limited access road after hours (!), etc.). My car was also impounded. All charges were later thrown out, but not after I had to spend $1,000 in legal fees, plus $200 to get my car out of the tow lot (alot of money when I was younger), thanks to an overzealous cop who assumed that just because I was coming out of a liquor store, I was intoxicated (I was not).
Also, anybody who's done any research knows that nobody "passes" a field sobriety test unless the cop wants you to.
The whole purpose of those roadside gymnastics is to gather evidence necessary to convict if you happen to test out below the (ridiculously low) "legal" limit.
Well, it depends on what's important to you.
I like to go out to a bar and have a few beers, and when my band plays (a few times a month) I typically have 3 or 4 shots of tequila over the course of 4 hours. I drink plenty of water (which helps avoid hangover), and I make sure that it's been at least a full hour since my last alcohol, before I go out the door to my car to drive home.
That keeps me pretty well under the legal limit. There's still a little alcohol on my breath, but I'm sober enough to pass an honest Breathalyzer. And I am acting essentially sober.
But more to the point, to be perfectly candid, I have managed to avoid driving drunk (over the limit) for nearly three decades. I don't consider it my right to drive drunk (and being a small-l libertarian by nature, I am quite careful about my rights).
It's my belief that even today, cops are not, in general, out to prove that you're drunk if you're not. They're out to catch the guys who are a clear and present danger on the road. The faster I can convince a cop at a road-stop that I'm not a danger to anyone, the faster he lets me go so he can catch somebody he can nail.
Again, that's my opinion and experience, YMMV.
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