See post #16.Originally Posted by stodgdog
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See post #16.
I remember him flipping his car pretty seriously on the interstate too. Not a peep
I know you are in law enforcement, so I don't want you to take this personally. This is NOT about you. But the world is full of bad cops that finished at the bottom of their class academically. Many....far too many....are not the smartest people in the world. I can point to a thousand incidences to back this up. You can too.
http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2016...ily-says.html/
Sure, we can say that there are bad apples in every profession. And this is certainly true. But "bad apples" in most professions don't end up with unquestionable legal authority, where power can be abused, and bad results can really hurt or even kill people. That's the difference. So when someone tells me "prosecution is then based on the officers observations", I cringe.
The issue I have is you assuming the police are lying, wrong, stupid, or not trained well. That is what I took from your initial comments. The facts are that less than 1% of the nations law enforcement disgrace the badge. When it happens it is national news, for the reasons you explained, and should be. However, I think police officers deserve the benefit of the doubt until evidence develops that points otherwise.
It's true some agencies have better training than others, but all have minimum training requirements and dui detection is standardized nationally and backed by scientific evidence. The officer who arrested Prescott is assumed to be wrong by some, based partially on shoddy reporting which made it sound like he passed a breathalyzer (which is why i tried to explain the intoxilyzer procedures).
And also, officers do not have "unquestioned authority". I am questioned every day about nearly every decision I make. I have to back up every decision with law or case law. In court, attorneys question every little thing, important or not, and grill you about it to see if you really know what you're talking about.
I don't anyone believes that Dak is wrongly accused. He just has a solid case to get off (labg).
Which is why the officers observations are important. We can't force someone to take a test, so if the officer can't be trusted all you have to do is refuse the test and you can drive drunk all you want. That's also why any officer caught lying is not able to testify, and is either fired or assigned to some desk duty where they never work the street again
In Texas they can be forced to take a blood test. It's called "no refusal" and generally they do this on holidays. They get their warrants before hand.
Dak's a good kid with a good family...some of them I know personally. This was a boo-boo he will recover from and learn from. I know there was many a time during my college days I'd have failed a test or two in such a fashion.
“Towie Barclay of the Glen, Happy to the maids, But never to the men.”
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