Last night's DUI hunt went well - the six of us locked up 9 drunk drivers in 6 hours, and fortunately none of them were involved in accidents or hurt other people. Made for a busy night at the jail getting your paperwork done, but well worth it.
Of course one of them had to punch one of my buttons... I am so gorram tired of people who get arrested for their own bad judgment, then start on the "You ruined my life." rant, then start trying to file complaints about excessive force, police rudeness and everything else in hopes of making their problem go away.
Folks - we don't put the drink in your hand. We don't start the car for you and tell you to drive home. We didn't make any of the choices which led to your life on this night & you getting stopped for driving under the influence.
And when we do encounter you, quit taking every freaking thing as a personal attack and judgment of you and your life. I'm doing my job - nothing more. Whether you are a preacher, a teacher, a businessman or a thug during your normal day has nothing to do with it - at this point in time you are driving drunk & that is my concern. Should you be over the limit, you're going to wear handcuffs, no matter who you are - that's the rules folks. No, they aren't comfortable - they aren't meant to be. You're going to go to jail & have to deal with the sounds, smells and sights of all these other people; and while I will treat you courteously and respectfully make no mistakes - you are under arrest, and will be treated as such. Bitching and whining about tight handcuffs, or that you weren't a risk to anyone and I should be after "real criminals," or the even better "You can't do this!" are going to do nothing but annoy me and get added to the file of statements for the judge to hear at trial.
But, apparently it's just part of modern society that no one is to blame for their own actions in life...
8 comments:
9 drunks in 6 hours! You rock! I'm sorry you have to put up with their BS, but I'm glad you do. Recently, a friend's son got busted for DUI & pot. Someone said it was bad luck. I said it was bad judgement(duh). Someone was offended.
"Modern society"? More like since the inception of civilization...I seem to recall a story about a man and a woman who were kicked out of their paradise home for eating the wrong fruit and she claimed some snake made her do it...
Drunk Stupid People = Overtime
I was married to a cop for 28 years and the truth is that more cops drink and drive than any other group of people. I hope you have the strength of character to arrest your buddies as easily as you arrest the public. Don't get me wrong- its never right to drink and drive but I really got disgusted by the hypocrisy.
Good luck and be safe.
Great work and yikes! on all the drunks in that little time. Society today feels they are entitled and we just poop in their parties. It's time they all put their big girl panties on and deal with their own choices, don'tcha think?
@One Woman's Life...if you're interested, go back and read Sean's post on July 20th (Demons)...an exceptionally well written piece. I'm the Wife and I can assure you that he is the least hypocritical person I know.
Suz & Momma Fargo - it rarely surprises me when we get a lot of drunks - what bugs me more is the officers who never seem to find ANY. Latest study I saw showed that 10-15% of drivers on the road between sunset Friday & noon Sunday were impaired to some extent... they are out there definitely.
One Woman's Life - fair comment - yes there are officers who won't arrest another. I am not one of those, nor is my agency one with that policy. I have a zero tolerance approach to impaired driving & less than that for officers, judges etc - because we've seen the effects and definitely should know better. As for "more cops drink & drive than any other group of people" - I will respectfully disagree. I have seen the gamut of society from the ghetto to the rich part of town; cops, citizens, military, preachers, politicians and everything in between - and I can't say any group drives drunk, or commits any other crime, more than any other. The simple fact is when cops (or former cops) do it we get more public press because of the nature of our job.
I don't disagree with anything you wrote and I applaud the efforts. It burns me up to see people get a slap on the wrist or 3 strikes just because they're in a car when they endanger other people. A car can run over a lot of people without having to reload.
I don't know any stats outside my own experience but I haven't seen any LEO (in an official capacity) treat anyone with any kind of courtesy or respect in over 20 years.
I've been detained, ticketed, searched and harassed as a designated driver on more than one occasion.
I do know some officers that will pull a full shift and then help me out of a jam but they aren't the ones yelling and shining a light in my face while I'm helping. I suspect I only see the bad ones because the good officers aren't interested in irritating the folks on their own team. Wish there were more like you.
You know what I loved when I worked in the ER? All the drunks who suddenly "knew their rights".
"You can't draw my blood - I KNOW MY RIGHTS!"
"You can't handcuff me to the bed - I KNOW MY RIGHTS!"
Yeah, well, if you knew your rights, then you'd know that you have the right to drink yourself into a drunken stupor, but I have *duty* to keep everyone else safe.
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