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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - props a bad boy... Pulled over for DUI

Wow... what an experiance

1st off, Im totally clean... I blew a 0.00 on the breath aylzer Legal drunk Iis 0.08 but I sure was treated the part of some guy that just hacked up a bunch of school children with a machete

I got mixed up in a sobriety check point, at least 200 cops, maybe more and they were pulling everyone over... they even searched my truck...im guessing for naked girly magizines....which I had no say in the matter, very odd....nothing found

We started with the heel toe nine step reverse.and repeat back to the line which I failed badly then stick your leg out for 2 minutes with out falling over, again I failed badly, then I had to say he alphabet starting at c to m, then next I had to count 53 to 67 and back to 53, and because im a old white guy with matching balance and corrdination that just failed my walk and leg out exercise I had to do the breath alzer which I scored a perfect 0.00

So I got off with a stern warning about something, I have no idea what the idiot cop was saying, I decided not to push the issue and just leave with a yes officer, a smile and nod....it was 12:30 am, no point risking jail by arguing


what gets me... why not just start.with the breath alizer test 1st, so much simplier and accurate...but I guess you cant show off your cop attitude and hassle people as much if you make it to easy and simple

So that was a 1st doing the dui thing... certianly an interesting experiance and Its nice to be reasurred that cops are still Idiots with serious mental issues...its no wonder they cant cut it in fast Food

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

While working away in the Australian Outback the local police took great pleasure in stopping us at least once a week on the way in to work in the morning to breathalyze us, in 10 weeks he never had one positive result but that did not seem to upset him must have been on some sort of bonus for more testing .The first time worries you but after a few times you got used to it.
mark (1977 1500 Midget) Preston Lancs

The tests the US police use for suspect drunks always seem bizarre to us over here when we see them on TV police shows. Here if they think you've had a drink it's straight to the breathalyser. And quite right too. When I think back 40 years ago, helping paralytic guys into their cars to drive home after some party, it makes me shudder. They couldn't stand, but they were OK sitting behind the wheel in a car !!!
Mike Howlett

Man with two brains drunk test

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unseSFWjuqs
David Billington

I forgot to mention... I also failed the eye dialtion test....the one where they use the flash light and you follow the ink pen tip back and forth...

The idiot couldnt figure out why my eyes stayed dialated with or without the flash light shinning in my eyes... I didnt have the nerve to tell him that the HUGE FREAKIN road construction BILLION CANDLE LIGHT SPOT LIGHT was shinning straight into my eyes, with the power of the sun looking me straight in the face it was difficult to even see the pen tip....needless to say, Iim not even sure his flash was even turned on..


I dont know, it just seems that at some point common scence has to kick in, if for no other reason just because the natural law of chance has to apply at some point

Having thought about this for several hour, we really need.some serious change with our local police department... I just think stupidity and cop attitude is just a bad mix

The county sheriffs and the MO. Highway patrol did an excellent job and where vary professional, but its embarrassing to think back at the performance of our local city cops

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

our cops are state of the art, we get breathalysed at least once a month, but we don't have all the other crap you have to put up with prop, this only takes about 45 secs unless your over, then it's a blood test and a world of pain. Cheers
Rod
R W Bowers

When I've watched those reality TV shows the US cops always seem to ask permission from the driver of the car before doing a search of it - or so it seems to me.
Adrian Jones

That will be just for the sake of the cameras ...
Paul Walbran

Adrian...

I was under the same impression... appeartly its just a suggestion until it becomes a national tv case

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

The US has scores of lawyers looking to take advantage of any procedural mistakes the police might make, hoping to let their client off and to win a hefty settlement. The police have to be very careful to show probable cause, even if the offender is actually in the wrong.

Around here it's the land of random breath checks, and generally if you get caught DWI then that's the charge that sticks, regardless of how you came to be caught. It's possible to hire a lawyer and argue the case, but without the hope of a lucrative settlement hardly anyone bothers.
Growler

Have you tried to board a plane lately? Try dealing with the illustrious TSA! Ha Ha Ha! They are in the news out here all the time for removing money from your wallet and laughing at your naked body which they must look at as you pass threw the explosives detector machines... Almost makes me ashamed I helped put them in after 911. I wonder if my electronic ignition would still work after I passed the check points these days. Welcome to the New Age America!
Steven Devine

The US tests make some sense IMO as they are trying to measure ability to drive; the breathalyser measures alcohol in your breath. We know that alcohol affects people differently. Also, a rising alcohol level has more effect on ability compared with a falling one (for the same measured amount).

I was stopped around 12.15am recently 'for doing 32 mph in a 30'. (I watched the police-car catch me up and follow me for a ~mile). I was asked 'did I just leave the car-park?' which was a bit of a strange question, so rather than give an evasive answer, I said "i'd just had 2 pints (of 4%) at the Swan". I passed the breathalyser very easily - the policeman told me that - and I was sent on my way.

It was a good reminder of why I stick to just 2 pints of 4% or lower when I'm driving.

A
Anthony Cutler

On a side note the bloke who invented the breath test kit, got done caught drink driving at Birdlip Hill near Cheltenham shortly after its introduction..

Anthony sure you weren't pulled for looking dodgy lol.
Ken Harris

Hi Prop
We have random breathalizer testing here, You can be pulled up anytime anywhere without a reason and tested
The limit here is .05
If you are only just over you can cop an on the spot fine and three months license suspension or opt to go to court
If you are further over it's off to the police station for further testing
cheers Willy
William Revit

I had a lift years ago by a magistrate in Cambridge, who was driving very slowly. In conversation he said he'd had a few and "wouldn't be done, to be called before ones own bench!"
Art Pearse

I lost my (modern) car on ice a couple of winters ago, just drifted off on me at walking pace, but came to a rest on a grass verge and tapped into a dry stone wall. Knocked two stones off the wall (I paid the farmer later!) and cracked the front bumper. A passer by called the police, who arrived and breathalyzed me. When they first arrived they treated me as though I was rolling drunk and had hit the wall deliberately. His breathalyzer wasn't working so it took him a few minutes to sort it out, during which time his colleague restrained me in the car (it was dark, the middle of nowhere and -5, was I really going to run off?!) which made me feel like a criminal deemed a flight risk. They were both utterly obnoxious to me. I was finally able to take the test, which I passed (I had no rating, had not had a drink), at which point they both became charming, couldn't do more to help with pushing the car off the verge (it took us two minutes and then I was able to drive it home). I'm afraid I came over all Victor Meldrew as I was so cross at how I had been treated. At the time I was a serving Customs officer, plainclothes, but DCI-equivalent. I gave them chapter and verse on how I thought they could both do with refresher training on how to deal with members of the public. One of them had the cheek to say that I should have badged them sooner, as they had not realized that I was 'in the job'. I had actually deliberately not badged them prior to the test as it could have looked like an attempt at coercion.

I was so blunt with them at that point that I got a letter of apology from their commanding officer a couple of days later.

I was pretty shocked at the presumption of guilt, presumably just because it was dark, it was a performance car and I was a youngish (32) man. Actually I have done all the performance driving courses and I just lost control on black ice at 10mph. It happens occasionally, it doesn't mean we're criminals.

Anyway, apologies for the rant, just thought it was a relevant anecdote and echoed prop's experience!

Piers
Piers Colver

Im sorry to say... I havent been very pro law enforcement for many years

Im not sure if its the type of person that does the job or if the job makes them the way cops are

Its a very cops vs everone else mentality...an arrogance of being drunk on power, it its only getting worse, granted this is not a job for boy scouts and church choir leaders.... but 2/3 the "cop attitude" is not nessary ... sometime just acting like a regular person can go along way

The idea that you pull me over for a burned out headlight and then treat me automatically like I just raped 26 dogs is gotten out of control

And it didnt used to be this way.... tbh... I hope I never come across a cop thats been shot and needs my help... I just dont know what Id do, one hand I hate to see him die, on the other hand, you know its definatly not going to go well for you if you help ....darn if you dont and probably 10 years for practicing medicin w/o a lic. And god knows what else if you do help...catch 22, shame the cops see all socity as criminals...and not just people Trying to exist Iin a modernday world

Sadly... I dont see how.we can turn back the clock to 15 years ago... when cops where normal people, and we all got along, none of this us vs them mentality or a internal desire and rite of passage that your not a real cop until you have smoked and ghosted some member or the non-law enforcement member of the community.

Prop


Prop and the Blackhole Midget

Hi Prop

Seems to me there are two types of PO, ones who see and understand shades of grey and ones who do not. The ones who do not would book their Dad for parking illegally whilst sat in the passenger seat!

I got one of the blinkered ones when Sandra and I first moved in together. The house we rented had been used by 'druggies'. Bad news for us. In the UK if someone is arrested for drugs they can be released if they have home address.....all the little beauties around the UK gave the address we were living at! Good fun having 2 or more visits a week! One night three Pos arrived. Sandra opened door as I was coming downstairs....the look of love the female PO gave me was stunning, she knew cos I have a beard, ear ring and long hair I was a DRUG BARON....glad she wasn't armed or she would have shot me!

More fun and gave me seriously good street cred was the week we moved into the house we bought......two police cars blocked road sideways on, two POs from each car, two of them with guns. Knock knock knock, MR Burgess? Yes says I. Mr David Burgess....No says I......Oh, are you sure? Yes says I. Told em all I had done wrong was park with car pointing wrong way up street as dusk fell. Shut door and listened to then debate this for about 5 minutes before leaving! Turns out a lad called David Burgess was renting a house about six doors up from us....someone had stolen his motorbike and he had sorted the perp himself after finding him...Police werent too keen on him sorting it himself it seems :)

Don't smile Prop or they will know you are guilty, mind you keep a dead pan face and they will also know you are guilty!

Peter
Peter Burgess Tuning

This thread was discussed between 30/06/2013 and 18/07/2013

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