General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDWI, DWC, DWB, and white privilege
Last edited Sun Jun 14, 2020, 12:57 PM - Edit history (1)
Back in the late 70s my friends and I high school senior girls attempted to buy beer at age 17 when the drinking age was 18. I was in the back seat and not an instigator, just along for the ride. I am nearly positive that the driver was not drunk or even drinking. I dont remember the exact series of events, but there was a cop who allowed us to my friends to complete the purchase before making us pour it out in the parking lot. There was some bottle of Boones farm strawberry wine, and a friends nervous laughter telling the story of ossifer baker for the rest of our senior year.
Back in the 70s anything else as possible for white kids in Floridas relaxed culture. No cameras in parking lots, forgiving police who made sure you got home safely. Maybe even followed you home to make sure you got there safe. A few years later, smoking a little weed might
get you the same treatment if you were a couple of pretty-enough teenagers but just as likely youd be booked and before a judge if you were an young man.
MADD was working to change the sentencing rules, to make sure that drunk driving was taken seriously. Time to get the drunks off the roads. Horrendous accidents had been killing innocent bystanders on the bridges and highways. Functional and successful papers wrote feature stories about the loss of lives, the tragedies, the statistics.
It did get stricter. Two or three DUIs would cause you to lose your license. Suspended for a while maybe for the first one, revoked if you had a couple. The alcohol blood level limits started high, and got lowered. The culture didnt change over night. In the 70s DUI was a joking matter among the teens and twenty somethings; in the 80s it was a sheepish admission among family members; and then it became a matter of serious personal responsibility. No jokes, just reproach.
Except among the cops. A relative often told me years later about his friend who was a cop, and that a cop who got pulled over by another cop who turned out to be drunk off his ass would just get waived home. Maybe other officers would even escort him to make sure he got there safely. They looked out for each other. Didnt want to cause a record. There was white teen girl privilege, and there was white cop privilege. I think the former has disappeared when it comes to DUI, but the latter still exists.
There has never been any black man privilege. Never any black-father-its-my-daughters-birthday-privilege. Even if youre a white teen girl, getting pulled over by the cops is scary. If youre a black man youve seen a hundred images of black men dying in police custody. Too bad Mr. Rayshard Brooks didnt submit to getting arrested, too bad he panicked and started trying to fight to get away. But also too bad he didnt have white teen girl privilege, or white cop privilege.
But what was he getting arrested for anyway? Didnt he do the right thing pulling off the road when he realized he had had too much to drink? Trying to sleep it off? In Drivers Ed class I was taught not to get behind the wheel if Id had more than one or two drinks, but also, if I got behind the wheel and realized I was impaired in some way maybe sleepy, maybe a little too much to drink to pull over someplace safe and get some sleep.
Wish the cops had said Well maybe next time please dont get in car if youve been drinking. But you did the right thing pulling over and getting some rest. Do you have a friend who can pick you up? Whats that, you can walk home you said? Do you feel safe walking home? OK then. Were going to ask the Wendys to let you leave your car in the lot For the next 12 hours. You can come back and get it later.
Maybe we ought to create some black man privilege in our society to start to offset centuries of its opposite. Veterans got special parking at a whole lot of stores. Cops get special passes for their wrongdoing, and free coffee. What can a black men get for special privileges? I know, people say they just want to receive what everybody else gets. But that doesnt seem to be happening. Maybe they should be entitled to diplomatic immunity. A special hotline. Free life insurance paid for by the Police benevolent Association. Membership in some fancy country clubs. Special tax breaks.
Government issued body armor.
He seemed like a pretty nice man. Sad.
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On Edit: Everyone needs to see THIS part of the video: https://t.co/kPs9qZmXm2
rainy
(6,092 posts)olegramps
(8,200 posts)I think that MADD got why out of control and primarily became a revenue generator. It branded people who had a bit to much to drink with habitual serious alcoholics. When I was a kid, many moons ago they just didn't arrest you and throw you in jail for minor transgressions. They most likely warned you and told you next time it will be serious.
malaise
(269,157 posts)Was thining about the affluenza case - the white teen who killed a family but was freed when the judge said he was too rich to be locked up.
sop
(10,231 posts)Simple stops of black men by white cops all too often seem to end up with them in handcuffs, under arrest and headed to jail, or dead on the side of the road.
dalton99a
(81,566 posts)MichMan
(11,960 posts)If that was the case he would have been parked in a parking spot with the car turned off. It sounds that he fell asleep/passed out in while waiting in the drive through lane.
lostnfound
(16,189 posts)The first video on the webpage has been SPLICED. The SECOND video is NOT spliced. It shows him having a calm conversation with the Police including taking a breathalyzer. I dont know who decided to splice the first video but it presents a distorted view of what happened because it makes it appear that he came out of the car and immediately started fighting with the cops. That is totally not what happened
The second video tells quite a different story. The cop is asking him any questions, trying to get him to admit that he was drunk driving. The man was answering calmly saying that he had had a couple of drinks but his wife dropped him off. He says he is also tired because they had just driven there today from North Carolina. He appears slightly tipsy not plastered, and is cooperative and calm and answering questions posed by the police. Up until the point where they decide to cuff him. If theyve been inclined to let him off the hook, they couldve taken his keys perhaps, or told him to walk to his sisters house, which he offered to do.
Maybe he didnt want to be suffocated like George Floyd. Maybe he was dreading the financial ruin of paying thousands in court fees. Maybe he wasnt thinking clearly after 2 margaritas. But the man that is talking to the cops in the second video did not deserve to die in the Wendys parking lot.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)They woke him up and told him to pull into the space, which he did fine. They should have got him to call someone to come get him.
Horribly mishandled. I've said before, and I'll say again, I really think the use of steroids by cops is at play in many of these incidents.
lostnfound
(16,189 posts)olegramps
(8,200 posts)StarfishSaver
(18,486 posts)And thank you for doing this:
Ms. Toad
(34,086 posts)Hew was in the middle of the parking lot, or in the drive through, asleep. After the police arrived, banged on the window, opened the door, and shook him awake, they asked him to move his vehicle into a parking stall, which he did.
The shooting was not justified, but he wasn't in the parking space because he chose to go there to sleep it off. Watch the other body cam.