A while back I linked to an article wherein Louisiana nearly decided to impound cars for littering charges. Louisiana decided better of it, but North Carolina went forward with a plan to seize vehicles that fail to pull over. Failing to pull over can mean anything from a 100-car high-speed chase to trying to find a bright place to pull over.
Speaking of North Carolina police, a rather disturbing tale of a cop hounding a citizen who had the audacity to pass a breathalizer. If there’s one thing cops should know, it’s not to mess with white, middle class lawyers.
We talk about traffic violations a lot on this site. How the deck is stacked, and so on. My friend Wes sent an interesting link on DWI law in Houston: Attorney Tyler Flood says he wins 80 percent of his clients’ DWI trials, even if they were 100 percent drunk as a skunk.
It’s the stuff of sitcoms, but it’s really true: people bond over a cigarette. The smoker’s dock is one of the only places where you have high management, suits, and dockworkers all hanging out at the same place and interacting with one another.
The state of Washington, which banned smoking in many public places, carved out an exception for cigar rooms. No cigarette rooms, of course. Cigarettes are for poor people. Cigars are classy.
Alex Massie writes in The Spectator about obesity and cigarettes. The long and short of it is that a new study suggests tobacco is conducive with being a healthy weight. Which is really quite remarkable, when you think about it, given how obesity and smoking tend to clump together in the lower classes. But a non-smoker from the upper classes is more likely to be overweight than a non-smoker in the lower ones. It makes me worry what’s going to happen when I finally give up the cigarettes.
Massie also has a piece on presidential pedigree, defending America’s fondness for politicians that come from humble backgrounds.
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Bakadesuyo: Men are better at everything society values.
A cool video from BBC looking at the Greek monasteries. There was a poster of one of them in a Greek restaurant in Estacado. It really tickled the imagination just to look at it.
Update: I forgot to put in the link to North Carolina’s new law allowing departments to seize cars accused of failing to pull over. It’s been added. Unanimous vote. How depressing.
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The more I see of police behavior, the less likely I am to give them the benefit of the doubt under any circumstances.
I’ve been watching a lot of old Dragnet reruns lately. One thing I notice in the shows is that the cops, every time, have a professional and courteous attitude towards citizens they are dealing with.
I’m not sure whether that’s a result of Webb and his staff “cleaning up” the stories and wanting to put cops in the best light, or whether police forces have simply fallen from grace in the past few decades. I can say, I’ve never seen a single cop behave as professionally as the actors did on the show.
I’ve been watching a lot of old Dragnet reruns lately. One thing I notice in the shows is that the cops, every time, have a professional and courteous attitude towards citizens they are dealing with.
I’m not sure whether that’s a result of Webb and his staff “cleaning up” the stories and wanting to put cops in the best light, or whether police forces have simply fallen from grace in the past few decades.
I’d say the first factor is the more important one. Webb worked very closely with the LAPD in creating the show, and clearly would not have ruffled any feathers even if he wanted to.
I’d say the first factor is the more important one. Webb worked very closely with the LAPD in creating the show, and clearly would not have ruffled any feathers even if he wanted to.
The Shield got a cease and desist notice from the LAPD for trademark infringement. To get out of it, their police cars started saying Farmington Police and they had to change up the uniforms a bit (something about switching the side that the badge was on).
The Law & Order shows started going by NYCPD at some point, instead of NYPD. As far as I know, the NYPD is still the NYPD.
Huh. I didn’t know government agencies could have trademarks. I wonder if it would have held up in court. Doesn’t seem like there would be any reasonable likelihood of confusion.
I’m not sure what the rules are, exactly. I do remember the NYPD and FDNY shutting down a bunch of people selling shirts with those letters on them.
I think the issue is less identity confusion (mistaking the Farmington Police for actual LAPD officers) and more fear of implied endorsement.
But it sure does seem that I see CIA logos, and state of California logos, and so on, with regularity. On the other hand, using a Tar Heel or Longhorn logo can get you in trouble really quickly, even though UNC and UTex are government entities.
Cigarettes are for poor people. Cigars are classy.
An excellent point. Logically, there is no difference between allowing a cigar bar and allowing a smoking room in a bar. While there is a positive correlation between being prole and smoking cigarettes, there is even a greater positive correlation between being an AHole and smoking cigars.
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I am at the point where I wouldn’t believe a cop if he told me tomorrow was Tuesday. If the story in link number 2 is accurate, the officers involved should be fired. For their sake, I hope there is more to the story. It sounds too horrible to be true, doesn’t it?
Mike,
Sadly, I’m not willing to put the second-link story out of the realm of possibility. Interactions I and friends have had in the past couple years with CPD have made it patently apparent that they are far more interested in making quota than in actually enforcing the law.
An excellent point. Logically, there is no difference between allowing a cigar bar and allowing a smoking room in a bar.
My sense of smell is less than stellar, but isn’t it the case that cigar odors are generally more pungent? If there’s a difference (other than SES), it would seem to favor cigarettes.
It sounds too horrible to be true, doesn’t it?
It does sound pretty bad. For what it’s worth, here’s a report on the cop’s side of the story. The cop claims that he did not make any contact with the trooper that pulled the husband over and that she had admitting to having had a little bit to drink that night.
In the cop’s favor: If he says he didn’t, he must be confident that it can’t be proven that he did. So maybe he didn’t? Unless he contacted him by some means other than cell phone or police radio.
In the lawyer’s favor: She scored 0.00 on the breathalizer test. That’s more consistent with “didn’t drink” than “drank a little” I would think. Unless she had so little that it was completely gone by the time of the test. However, once she got that score, it should have been end-of-ballgame. We’re not talking about a .04 score that might have been .08 at the time of the pullover.
Will,
If it’s the trooper’s word against hers, and she blew a 0.0, then that indicates he filed a false report when he claimed she “admitted to having had a little bit to drink.” I’d call that a big deal. As for a report saying someone is “unsteady on their feet” – a woman in a cocktail dress and high heels on gravel, really? I think that falls into the “well duh” category, rather than anything worthwhile.
As for the rest – the option of another trooper just “happening” to pull the husband over, while the first trooper was exceeding the speed limit running the woman in? I’m sorry, but it doesn’t pass the “smell test.” Especially when the trooper KNEW that the husband was supposed to be following them, and would have had quite an easy time getting on the radio and indicating that to the other trooper, but failed to do so.
I smell a rat or two. Wearing a badge.
Hell with it. Later investigations showed the two officers were communicating via text message. Not only did Wyrick fail to do his job, he actually encouraged the other trooper to give the husband a hard time.
Everything coming out about this case shows precisely the worst kind of coverup that leaves people with zero trust and respect for cops.
On the other hand, using a Tar Heel or Longhorn logo can get you in trouble really quickly, even though UNC and UTex are government entities.
People have filed to get copies of public universities’ football playbooks under their respective states’ Freedom of Information Acts…
When the whole situation with Jim Tressel at OSU went on, those emails were made available to the public under the same act.
Jim Calhoun, the UConn Basketball Coach, is a public employee, just like the lowliest custodian at your local directional state college (assuming he wasn’t outsourced).
If it’s the trooper’s word against hers, and she blew a 0.0, then that indicates he filed a false report when he claimed she “admitted to having had a little bit to drink.” I’d call that a big deal.
I don’t know how long it takes “a sip*” to leave the system entirely. It is apparent that she was not drunk (off alcohol), though, which should be sufficient to let her go**.
As for the rest – the option of another trooper just “happening” to pull the husband over, while the first trooper was exceeding the speed limit running the woman in? I’m sorry, but it doesn’t pass the “smell test.”
It does stink, but you can’t fire (or discipline) a public employee based on a “smell test.” The text message does not indicate that he requested the other officer (Smith) pull him over. According to Wyrick, the text messages did not occur until after the pull-over**. Smith is in trouble, apparently, but not for pulling the husband over. There doesn’t seem to be a smoking gun, demonstrating communication prior to the pull-over. Their version of events here are actually not incompatible.
Some are apparently rallying to the troopers’ defense based on some video of her taking the breathalizer and right before they left the magistrate. She is walking a little funny (possibly/probably a product of high heels and stress) and the officer’s demeanor is pretty calm and professional throughout.
So what happened? I have my suspicions (which are the same as yours), but I am not seeing much actionable here.
* – Wyrick’s report says that she confessed to “sipping” a drink. It’s possible that might disappear by the time of the breathalizer. However, he later tells Trooper Smith that she confessed to “1 drink.” That inconsistency would, in my view, cast doubt on the veracity of the “sip.” But it doesn’t disprove it.
** – My end-of-ballgame comment appears to be off the mark. According to state law, apparently, anyone who declines to take a field sobriety or BAC test has to see the magistrate regardless. So in this case, going to the magistrate appears not to be targeted abuse or a failure of proper enforcement/restraint, but rather a failure of law. There was some question about which magistrate he took her to, however.
** – I previously commented that Wyrick denied communication. The bottom of the report that I saw was cut off and I did not see the last line, where he says “until after the pull over.”
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Update: I forgot to put in the link to North Carolina’s new law allowing departments to seize cars accused of failing to pull over. It’s been added. Unanimous vote. How depressing.
Mike, has anyone ever had to turn over the playbook?
Ken Popehat – a lawyer and civil libertarian from North Carolina, apparently – says the NC state police are “the most corrupt state police force in America.”
He has apparently gone against the husband in court and says that he is “an honest man in a hotly contested trial.”
Mike, has anyone ever had to turn over the playbook?
Not that I ever saw. These laws exclude a lot of educational materials. Otherwise a student would be able to obtain copies of his exams before he takes them.
Besides, do you think a Texas judge would allow someone to have a copy of the Longhorn playbook?
Besides, do you think a Texas judge would allow someone to have a copy of the Longhorn playbook?
Is the judge an Aggie?
Is the judge an Aggie?
Trick question. An Aggie can’t get into law school.
🙂
One of them appears to have a shot at the presidency…