As has been mentioned before on here, I occasionally work the DUI specials around town - both for the overtime money, and for the fact that I have no sympathy for drunk drivers. Last night was another such event, what with St. Patrick's Day & Saturday night being rolled into one.
Unfortunately, it wasn't one of my most fun - it wasn't a bad night, just gorram long. I was only supposed to work about five hours & ended up doing just about double that - getting home at 7:30 this morning and getting just a few hours of sleep while my gracious wife wrangled the kids out to give me a quiet house.
Just a few highlights, as I'm not in the mental condition to type a story:
- While I admire the fact that the least-drunk member of the group was driving you all home, the point is they were still drunk...
- Whose bright idea was it to only have on magistrate working on a Saturday St. Paddy's??? W.T.F.???? Having to wait over an hour to get my warrants was simply ludicrous.
- I freaking love people who are whiny crybabies on the side of the road "Oh, my life is ruined, you don't understand," and then when they get to jail are all full of themselves is always amusing.
- No sunshine, when you've peed your pants three times in the course of two hours, the "But I'm not drunk!!!!" argument isn't going to fly very far with anyone.
- When you reek of booze and can't stand, answering "Nothing, I swear!" when I ask how much you've had to drink isn't a good way to start our discussion.
- No Mr. Magistrate, your job is to determine if there is probable cause or not - it's not to do the whole trial that night. Taking thirty minutes to do a probable cause hearing for possession of marijuana is a sign of a problem.
- When you show up to jail and are laughing and saying hi to numerous people in the first ten minutes that you recognize, it might be a sign that it's time to reconsider your life's choices. I'm just sayin'.
2 comments:
Sounds like a very long, indeed!
But kudos to you for getting them off the street and saving lives! :)
My agency used to have a similar issue with the Magistrate's Office being understaffed when a special operation (IE: DUI checkpoint) was in effect. We found a simple solution: Tell the Magistrate's Office that there is a special operation. The Magistrate Office does not think "Oh, this time/date will be really busy!" They need to be prodded.
Sadly, your comments on the Magistrate playing Judge is just an example of one of the issues in the Commonwealth are just going to increase due to their new employment policy. Most of the "original" magistrates have been chased out and the new policy is to just hire law students. So, those with experience and common sense have been ridden out on a rail, and now we only have "kids" who's only goal is to get some experience under their belt and then move on.
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