Posted on 03/29/2008 4:31:48 PM PDT by rarestia
WAUSAU, Wis. (AP) -- Cars lining the street. A house full of young people. A keg and drinking games inside. Police thought they had an underage boozing party on their hands.
But though they made dozens of teens take breath tests, none tested positive for alcohol. That's because the keg contained root beer.
The party was held by a high school student who wanted to show that teens don't always drink alcohol at their parties.
(Excerpt) Read more at baynews9.com ...
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Please indulge me...I got pulled over once when I was living in Florida. I was coming back from a freind's house (not in the PJs, but only a few blocks away) after 2 one morning. I was driving the red Jeep I owned back then. Tampa PD pulled me over and asked me for my DL and insurance. No arguments, I just handed them over. After they ran a check on me and saw I had no warrants or record, I asked them why I'd been pulled over. They told me it was fairly common for young (I was 35, but still looked relatively young) white guys to cruise that par of town for drugs, and they'd had a report of a guy in a red Jeep that very night doing that very thing. They politely suggested it might be a good idea for me to get to where I was going, and I didn't make an issue out of it.
The moral of that boring story is there are a multitutde of reasons police do things, but they don't always tell you unless you ask. If you do ask and they give you a load of hokum, push it up the chain of command. Get the city clowncil involved, get your state attorney general and legislators involved. Get rid of the scumbags and get good, dedicated, trustworthy officers and leadership in place. You and your fellow townspeople can do it if you work together.
Sure sorry to hear of the miserable state of your local police force. I hope you and your family stay safe and don't get hassled.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Small town. He knew who he was when he pulled up. They will stop any teenager. My son had left work and brought me potatoes(they are awesome from there). It was so cold. My son wanted me to let it go so they would not hassle him even more. I told him he is never to agree to any search without me or an attorney. He is lucky they did not just “find” anything.
Believe me when I harp about the money. That is what it is about. Kids messing around at the skate park and knocks omething over, puts it back, gets a ticket for $92 for disorderly conduct. You cannot prove otherwise. I saw that one in person. The cop that was there asked his superior if he should ticket and was told yes. Keep in mind, as some here can verify, this is a skate park with old equipment outside, nothing fancy. lol Oh, yeah, being a skater is not a good idea. lol
Yes, I'm actively trying to recruit conservatives to move to Idaho. Too many Left Coasters coming here and mucking up the works. We need right thinking people to offset their influence!
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Thank you for the invite. But, I am done living in cold. When we leave here, soon, I hope, it will be to the south. I am so fed up with this winter! I am thinking I should sue Al Gore for false hope with all the global warming crap.
I’ve written this story here before, but it needs repeating.
When I was in my mid teens, we had a police force that used to stop EVERY teenage male they saw, every time they saw one. The officers would then delay, harass, bullyrag and vex these same young men, often holding them up for literally hours.
One day, a distant associate of mine decided he’d had enough. He put 4 sticks of dynamite into his car, and when he was pulled over, he waited until the cops got close enough to him, then detonated the tnt. One of the cops was severely injured and permanently disabled. The other officer suffered minor injuries. My associate died.
The note he left at home described the whys and wherefores of what drove him to such a desperate move. One reason was that the stops had cost him TWO jobs due to his (stopped and delayed by the cops) “tardiness”. He was no angel by any description, but nobody deserves to be constantly and endlessly harassed by thugs with badges.
There was a major public inquiry, and the police force in question was severely reprimanded and several heads rolled.
Let’s all hope that the police in this little backwater back off their mission of annoyance, before something similar occurs.
I know about the mad dash. I just have a hard time believing it happened if, as is alleged, this whole party was a set up. If the kids knew what they were doing was legal (a fair assumption, since they planned the thing), then why would they try to flee when the police showed up? The most sensible explanation seems to be that the kids were worried about getting their cars towed, so they went outside to move them.
As the police chief said, if they'd had just one of those party kids get into a DUI crash, get hurt in a fight, or vandalize someone's property, they'd have been up the proverbial creek with no paddle. They have no room for error, and a lot to be accountable for.
If the police had merely taken a look around the house, and given a few kids a breath test, then I would agree with the Chief's attempted justification. But the officers did a lot more than that. From the article, it appears that they searched the entire home and tested just about every kid there, despite the fact that every one passed the test.
I don't think the officer's real concern was the risk of overlooking the one drunk kid hiding in the house. But if that was their real concern, then I think we would expect them to conduct a full search on just about every call they answer. That's scary.
I really think folks on this thread need to cut them some slack. ... can you not see how they would want to make sure there's absolutely no chance whatsoever anything could go wrong when they bust a party that, on first appearances, looks like every other high school party they ever busted? Cut 'em some slack. Or better yet, try doing a ride along some time, and see what they put up with. It'll open your eyes, man.
There's a reason the police face so much scrutiny- they have an incredible amount of power. Anyone that has the powers to stop, arrest, search, and use force like the police do SHOULD be held to a high standard and should be watched very carefully. "Eternal vigilance" and all that.
I know policemen are human beings and I try to cut them some slack when they make understandable mistakes. As a minimum though, I think they should be expected to act reasonably under the circumstances. In these circumstances, where it was clear the kids were not having a drinking party, I think the officers acted unreasonably. If the police had left the party after testing just a few kids, and missed a drunk hiding in the crowd, then I would loudly and proudly defend them.
But I won't defend them when they conduct inappropriate searches just because they are afraid of public scrutiny. Our rights are more important than police officers' egos.
(FWIW, I am waiting for one of my good buddies to finish his field training so I can go on a ride-along with him sometime this summer).
O.K. I will. Since judging by your posts, you would love to live in a Nation where the police control everything and everyone again, judging by your posts, everyone is presumed to be guilty of committing some crime against the State, you would be much, much happier if you moved to either The Pepole’s Democratic Republic of North Korea, or the People’s Republic of China.
Because in the United States we live under and operate a Constitutinn that among other things, reads that one is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt.
I don’t know if I should tell you this or not, but those same cops that you worship hold you in the same contempt that they do everyone else. In other words, they don’t like you.
By your own hand you typed that you produced a news program, or words to that effect. That in and of itself tells me all I need to know about you.
WHY On earth did the stupid cops show up there in the first place? We live in a SMALL town and the cops are all Barney Fifes here, with great big huge attitude problems and hateful mouths. One night we had just gotten home from a three week trip to EU and we were bringing in our luggage at midnight, tired, tired, tired. A cop showed up and demanded to see my ID to prove I lived here. I live in an area with ZERO crime, rarely lock my door. Cops are bored with nothing to do here. I had no idea where my purse was or my ID. I refused. I was carrying suitcases INTO the house, NOT out of the house. I just was so tired and angry I refused to deal with him. It is MY house. He left finally, I just ignored him. If he had arrested me, it would have been a HOOT! Our cops are so dumb here. One pulled right in front of my car at a very busy intersection and parked right in front of me ON HIS MOTORCYCLE. If I had been a young inexperienced driver with radio on loud I would not have seen him in time or stopped in time - I had a green light. He was stopping traffic for a funeral, but he didn’t have lights on or siren and he just pulled right in front of my VAN and parked there. He is a total idiot. He has been reported so many times for things like this.
I HOPE THE COPS GET SUED BIG TIME!
We have had the nicest mildest weather EVER here on the Texas Gulf Coast. If this is “climate change”
bring it on! LOL
It's obvious he's sending out scouts, looking for the Cavalry's Ho.
She ran off I guess.
I need to apologizt to you for post # 108.
I should not have descended to your level.
lol, I have had it with winter!
So you want to get in the gutter, motard? OK. I oppose fascism. Especially liberal fascism. Simple. Most people at FR do so, too, evidenced by your obvious lack of support. You seem to be one of those who support liberal fascism. So my advice stands. YOU leave.
Gee....
And I thought it was the cops job to investigate crimes, not run my life because I MIGHT commit a crime.
FORGIVeeeeee....Meeeeeee
And I didn’t see anything about anyone running away. I read that in response to some anal neighbors complaint and the cops threatening to tow vehicle, the kids came out to move their cars.
OH WELL...I guess some folks enjoy living in a police state.
I found these
http://www.reedsgingerbrew.com/order/virgils_keg.asp
http://www.popsoda.com/wattspartykeg.html
And from what I hear, you can get them at Costco.
Since you are so damned hard headed, and lacking in both brains and courtesy (NEW PRODUCER is evidence of both, let alone your one note rants) that you don't DESERVE courtesy at this point. An utter waste of both bereath and bandwidth, OLD MAN. (SS) yet another "newbie". P.S. Don't bother answering; it is past my bed time already, and my bottle is finally warm.
Thanks for the reply, I was unaware that soft drinks were “Kegged”. We get the syrup in the box as a “Fountain” drink here. ;-(
So people who are suspected of breaking the law but later cleared of all wrongdoing need to be billed for wasting police time? That's a pretty foolish suggestion. You may want to re-think that one just a bit.
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