Where I live being drunk only means you could of drank 2 beers and blow a .08 and you can get a DUI. That is stupid! If you were speeding or something I understand them pulling you over and then checking to see if your drunk, but not just pull for you over no reason and while they walk up to the truck see ohh, his liscense platte is to shinny and then give you a dui b/c you had 2 beers.

 

It was the police officer with his lights off.

 

.08 is enough to impair your driving. I want other driver's fully attentive behind the wheel when I'm driving across the intersection with my wife and three kids. They can have beer at home any time they want, but if my family gets wiped out there's no getting them back. I think it ought to be illegal to drive with any alcohol in your blood.

 

In my neck of the woods, a commercial drivers license will put you in a category where 1 beer would put you over the legal limit. Well, I don't drink and drive, period. If you wanna drink, get a DD. Just that simple. I do however agree that 1 beer is questionable, but the answer to that would be to change the law, not expect someone assigned to enforce it to not do their job.

 

I'm a little curious, which civil right was violated? Freedom of time?!! It seems that's about all it cost. He already admitted to doing 45 in a 40 at 2 a.m. I'm no advocate for law enforcement, far from it, but come on. If he had said "I stopped you for speeding" he'd of had to write a ticket. Instead he lost a few minutes and went about his merry way. This incident doesn't strike me as an errosion of our civil rights. There are far better examples of that than this situation.

 

Good point.

 

Not trying to start anything, b/c I see your side of it completly, but I know I could go through a 6 pack easilly and be fine to drive, but if I was pulled over, I would be screwed

 

In some circles, I am considered an expert in this category. And in my expert opinion, save yourself some grief and don't drink and drive. You are correct on your assertion of your condition if pulled over, and to boot, whether we like it or not (personally i like it, that's why i drink) you are impared after drinking a six pack. Maybe not as much as another guy but still impared non the less. That's medical fact.

 

see..my uncle was killed when a drunk driver came into his lane in 1989. So im a little sensitive on this buddy. So you know what,im not bending over and taking it from "big brother" im saying that if a cop has to pull someone over for a BS reason to potentially stop some drunk sub human scum from killing me or MY family. Good for him,let him do it. You can complain complain complain about them invading my "civil liberties" But if it saves a life so be it....

 

yea that was BS. I got pulled over one sunday morning on my way to work at 4 AM. I came up the the stop sign and no one is in sight except for a car way 1/2 mile down the road so I do my California rolling stop and pull on because the car was so far away. Next thing I know the car is flying up behind me and then he hits the lights! When I stopped he gets on the PA system saying driver step out of the car! Then he tells me I ran the stop sign but he is letting me go after he sees I'm just on my way to work. I am white and I grew up on the Black side of town and my parents still live there. You can bet if anything looks out of place they are gonna stop a white person in that area, because they think If you're white then you have no business being on that side of town unless you are up to no good!

I got harrassed the other day sitting in my yard! I was burning limbs and leaves before it was to rain that day. I was well aware that we had been under a burn ban but the parish police jury lifted the ban at their thursday night meeting. This was Saturday I'm sitting there watching my fire (very little fire mainly smoldering) and they pull up in my yard and tell me to come over there. He says are you aware we're under a burn ban. I politely told him the police jury lifted the ban the thursday before. He says very smug let me check it out. The dispatcher comes back on the radio and tells him the ban has been lifted. The cop tells me he's been off for a couple of days so he didn't know that it had been lifted! I AM THINKING DON'T YOU WATCH THE NEWS!!!! THATS HOW I KNEW! He rolled up the window and drove off and didn't say anything else to me.

Jason
77 f100

 

Don't misread me. I think that our drunk driving laws are WAY too screwed up. The penalties need to be harsher for drunk drivers, and even more so for repeat offenders. And if you get caught DUI without a license because you already lost it - they should lock you up for life.

However, if you are driving along minding your own business, then you should not get pulled over just because a cop sees you and he wants to find out if you've been drinking. I've seen old films of things like that happening, but the narration is hard to follow because it's in GERMAN.

Dennis - we read that post entirely differently. I interpreted what he said as the cop didn't have his lights on, and his tags were not expired, but the cop said it was partially obstructed.

It's against the law to pull someone over for no reason. While the officer said he had a valid reason, you & I both know that it was a poor excuse for pulling someone over just to find out if MAYBE he had been drinking. The last time I checked, you have to be doing something wrong to get pulled over - unless the supreme court has changed that decision recently and I'm not aware of it.

Anything to save a life.

I tell ya what, when the police are allowed to randomly search people's houses because they 'might have drugs' or whatever excuse they'll give out, we'll see if you change your tune. If you think that's crazy or farfetched, stick around this country for another 10 or 15 years. You haven't seen anything yet.

Ben Franklin said it best - "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

James Madison is also right up there - "If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."

Think about what your attitude is enabling Big Brother to do.

 

It's too bad citizens have come to assume that a cop is harrassing them when trying to enforce the laws we citizens have passed into law, and that we pay the cops to enforce.
If they see something they feel is suspicious, I think they have an obligation to investigate it. That is what I pay them for.
People need to get outside of the box they and look at the big picture a little more. In most cases, investigations are a result of something provocative. Get the rest of the story before assuming harrassment. With an open mind, most would probably find an understanding.
Tough job. Glad it's not mine.

 

Truely wonderful words, written long ago when the dream was being built. I hope we can find a balance though, of liberty and JUSTICE. Tell the poodle butts that are abusing our liberties at the cost of our liberties. The bad guys. They're at fault! Look at the joke they have made of our judicial system. Their attorneys using the laws designed to protect us for selfish agenda's, to get the bad guys off. For $$$? At what cost, and for who?
Before blaming a cop for the state of our liberties, consider blaming those who are responsible for forcing their hand.

 

You're darn right it's a tough job. I'm not sure I'd want it either. We only have the information that the original poster provided us with - and nothing he might not want us to know about the incident.

As the story was related to us, a vehicle traveling down a street at 2am is not suspicious. The cop pulled him over for one reason - to see if he had been drinking or had a warrant out. That's harrassment in my book, but if the officer were here to defend himself, he might say that the vehicle was driving too slow, or swerving (maybe the driver was on his cell, calling his wife/girlfriend to let her know he's alright and is heading home?) or maybe it matched a description of a stolen vehicle. Those are things we don't know - we can't assume one way or the other.

Everytime I use those quotes, someone inevitably says that they are not relevant anymore, because things have changed so much since they were spoken. Of course things have changed since then. They've changed in ways no one could ever possibly have predicted. But are they still true? Human nature does not change. Power and greed are still forces at play just as much now as they were 200 years ago. That is why our system of checks and balances is in place today - or, at least, some of us still think it is.

 

Don't fall off your chair when you read this.

I can agree, well put.