DWI arrests: Saving lives and making lawyers happy.

Statistically speaking , yes that would be a good generalization haha , but in this case from my personal experience with LEO's (and anyone else that uses that line) he's dead on. Most times when I encounter LEO's , I have no time to influence the way they treat me with my cheerful and easy going attitude as they are abhorrent before I ever get a sentence out.

 

Well, sometimes an entire sentence isn't required.

For instance, if you're doing 80 in a 50mph zone, get pulled over and the very first thing that comes out of your mouth is, "What did I do wrong, officer or why are you stopping me?" That pretty much sets the tone for the remainder of the stop.

 

I'm offended! If I were to speed, it definitely wouldn't be just 80mph

 

I have been pulled over about 10 times since I moved down to Texas. Every time the officer could have legitimately given me a ticket but only 1 decided to actually write one out and I knew I was getting a ticket when I saw him getting out of the car.
1 in 10 isnt bad. If you get a ticket every time you get stopped you are either incredibly unlucky or some self reflection is in order. Most cops I have met are just people doing a job.

 

Funny. I don't call you cops names... despite having caught many in blatant lies.

 

Ironic how a few guys who complain regularly here about "cop haters" take every opportunity to shit on lawyers, uh?

 

BOOM . Last three encounters BTW all ended with the LEO lying , followed by court where charges were dropped ( speeding, one reckless, improper tag placement) because the LEO was.........drumroll.....LYING. Final case ended in a reprimand for the officer and tow bill, fees, etc being refunded albeit taking months to rec the check.

 

Shit on everyone, Doyle will clean 'em up! :up:

 

I was wondering what it was going to take to get a response...

 

Okay, here's how you can get a DUI in Cali:

Late October, buddy and I go to the local fairgrounds to watch flat track races. Get there around 5:30, watch qualifying and have a couple of beers each. I mean, literally a couple (at $6 for 14 oz draft). Just before the show is due to start at 7:00, we decide to go to the car to get our jackets - starting to get a little chilly and the races run until around 11:00. Planning on coffee the rest of the night. In the parking lot, as we are retrieving our jackets from his truck, security decides to investigate. Buddy shows him his license, registratoin and the fact that he has the keys, so we're obviously not breaking into the car. Security asks if we've been drinking and we honestly tell him "yeah, couple of beers". Turns out he had requested backup (apparently been problems with breakins) and a local sheriff deputy shows up. Since my buddy had the keys in his hand and was witnessed in the car, deputy decides to have him blow into a field testing device. We both tried to explain we were not planning on leaving until much later and had not been driving. Shouldn't be any problem. Doesn't matter. Buddy blew .08 and was arrested for drunk driving (later blew the same numbers at the station).
In California, at least this county, you can be charged with DUI if you are in a position where you could have been driving even if the act of driving is not witnessed by the cop. If you want to sleep it off in your car, better make sure the keys are outside or locked in the trunk.

Bottom line, my friend went to court this week -

$2,400 fine/court costs
6 month suspended license
12 weeks alcohol school for which he has to pay something like $800
48 hrs jail time
3 years probation.

All of these are fairly standard for 1st offense DUI in Cali apparently.
No we weren't dicks to the cop, although we were somewhat incredulous about what was happenng.

It's really become a revenue producer around here.

 

There are all sorts of subsets of people, all of which have some less admirable examples among them.

I know better than to mouth off to cops, so whenever I've been pulled over, or had any interaction with the police, I've always been respectful from the beginning.

Most have been professional and respectful, a few not so much. Whatever their attitude, it seems to be set from the beginning also. Only thing you can do by being a dick is make them worse.

It's my observation that the "professional" cops don't hang out on the internet, not under the identity of a police officer anyway.

Be careful not to let your experience with some, dictate your dealings with all. Genocides have been started based on that mode of thinking.

 

Wait...cop bashing is bad, but blanketing lawyers with 'liars' is okay?

Cops are a concern. A lawyer has never had the capacity to fuck up my life because he's retarded/having a bad day/perpetually angry about his teeny penis.

I don't know but when you find out, let me know. I have a, uh, friend that could use such a license.

How the hell do you have to go through a police academy twice? Isn't that like remedial kindergarten?

You've got it perfectly backwards, actually--most of the people that say that are very nice to me. If anything, I've observed an inverse correlation between the people that say that and how they act when you're a dick to them.

No, a dick is a dick is a dick no matter what or who they encounter. Don't get me wrong, interacting with an ass can certainly make a person return fire. But the sort of person that feels compelled to announce at every conceivable opportunity that they treat people as people treat them--always with the caveat that they're never a jerk until someone is a jerk first--is just an asshole looking for a place to land.

Not that treating such a person well might not get that person to be at least slightly less of an asshole in return. But they're still a dick just looking for an excuse to unleash it. If they were a decent human, there'd be much more latitude in that dynamic. Like the girl in the ski shop--she's a good kid and being mistreated didn't make her mistreat the woman back. A cock is just looking for an excuse for someone to be a cock to. When they see their chance (when they perceive someone disrespecting them), they take it. They just think the bullshit reverse golden rule line makes them somehow more 'fair' or 'honest'. It doesn't. It just makes them a passive aggressive dick. It's an immature attempt to exert control over a situation: Don't be mean to me! I'll be mean back!!! My brother will come beat you up!!! No, a normal, well-adjusted person doesn't need to do that.

And it's not that treating an ass like an ass back makes things go better for the person with that complex--invariably it makes things worse. It's just an asshole getting their chance to make someone else miserable.

I may have some experience with that mindset.

 

Conversely, "Do you know why I stopped you?" is never a winner. I always ask if the guy I stuffed in the trunk was trying to get out.

I have a theory that being a traffic cop turns you into a bad person. If you spent all day, every day, pissing people off for what is objectively a pathetic reason, it must eat at your soul. You know 55 in a 45 isn't hurting anyone, hell, you speed all day every day too. Since you can't realistically quit your job (what else would you do?), you embrace it and just turn into an ass.

I have no doubt if I had to write speeding tickets all day it would make me a less happy person. Eventually that would express itself in my demeanor.

I think the 'getting off' part isn't as easy as you think either. It's been a long time since I was pulled over, and longer still since I got a ticket, but I'm never driving when I'm not driving while white. And well-dressed. And in a nice car. And in a nice part of town. And with a general lack of concern with the uniform Trying To Look Badass, and a lack of hysteria about whatever it is he wants. In the south where people in general know people. Even if I'm not, I probably look to a cop like someone they might worry about complaining to someone. All those things seem to diffuse pretty quickly what I seem to remember was a more enthusiastic attitude toward writing tickets.

I don't remember it being so easy when I was a teenager in a crappy car, and I have talked to black people that claim their experiences with traffic stops aren't the same as mine. I don't know because I'm not them, but if most traffic stops go the way my traffic stops go, there would be less bitching.

Hell, I'm usually slightly annoyed they even stopped me--I was clearly in a hurry to get where I was going. Write the ticket if you want, just do it fast.

Ah. You were just rolling. Right.

















And I'm the Grand Duke of Luxembourg.

Dude...you can't fight that one? That's incredible. You don't have to be driving the car?

 

Just got back for getting Pizza up in Jasper Ga, stopped to get fuel...7 cop cars in the parking lot had the whole QT Gas station lit up...

All these cops standing in a circle (some of them with hands resting on sidearm) around ONE guy about early-mid 20's.."What the fk?? he got a gun or something?? NO>>>He was getting the field test..guess he failed...

Cuz the cop grabs him takes him to the hood of his SUV style patrol and cuffs him, yelling at him, asking him questions in a statement form...I was thinking WTF??

Why make it so freekn personal...just do the gawdamn job..arrest him put him in the car..stop making a public spectical out of it, it made me think way Less of the Cop...very un-professional acting. (I don't care what the kid may or may not have said..I didn't hear him, I did hear every word the cop said, (and the SHITTY TONE), Wife said it looked like the set of a episode of COPS...

$5K min..flushed down the drain, If it was his first one.

 

Same shit in the Peoples Republic of Canardia. I know a few people who have gotten DUI's for having the keys in the door just to grab something. I forget what they classify it as and am too lazy to look. I think it is care and control or some bullshit. Another guy I know got a DUI sleeping in the back seat of his car with the keys in his pocket. I usually side with the gestapo but this tactic is one that annoys me. Sadly the judges usually side with the officer. In my world you should at least need to be behind the wheel and the vehicle would need to be put in gear. Just because you have keys in your pocket doesnt mean you will drive. It is like charging someone with rape just because their dick got hard.

 

That is so fucking lame. The magistrate would laugh if I tried to give PC on a DWI arrest like that.

 

By any chance are you related to Jim Sehringer?

 

I know a guy who got busted pushing his moped on the sidewalk when I lived in Hawaii. Normally the cops were cool but I guess he really pissed them off or something. I believe that in order to get a DWI you should actually be DRIVING....

 

I guess I got lucky when the first one was a warning.

 

Same here. I blew a .10 on a stop once (shows you how long ago *that* was), and was given the lecture and the "you're three blocks from home, don't kill anybody" speech.