Starting to believe Benson

[jason]

Really? Well you sure are a patient guy. Somehow, given the personality of your posts, I doubt you wouldn't say something if the same cops stopped you every time out for a "safety" check of your boat.

 

Who knows why officers do what they do? I have two friends that are cops. One is a perfect guy. Polite when he pulls people over and everything. Doesn't break the law.

 

The other guy is one that speeds with his lights on while driving down the street for no reason. Throws attitude at the people he pulls over, because "he can". Basically thinks he is above the law.

 

So just like in life, there are many different types that are cops.

 

It's odd. I see where you are coming from, and see how you could think that about me. I'm quite outspoken, and very vocal. However, I know when trouble is brewing. I wouldn't say a word, believe it or not, if put in Benson's situation. I never send food back that sucks. I almost never say anything about bad service, a bad product, etc. I just chalk it up to a loss and choose not to frequent the places that screw me over. About a year and a half ago I was at a bar, didn't say a word to anyone all night outside of my few friends, was very quiet, and when I walked out that night I got sucker-punched in the eye. I didn't say a word. Nothing was wrong medically after the black eye went away, and I didn't even press charges.

[Mongo3451]

Sounds odd to me. Why would she say "black friend", like that would make things any different?

Personally, my black friends would be offended if called them by anything more than friend. That being said, the scenario of her saying "black friend", implies a mutual understanding between father and daughter that there are known and agreed upon racist activities in the area. In other words, the picture of that lone word told the entire story. I live in the Indianapolis area and it is well percieved in the "black" community that a higher than usual amount of black people are pulled over after dark for suspicious reasons. They simply say, I got another DWB "driving while black".

 

On the other hand, it could be an ingeniously crafted scenario to proactively cloud an offense that had yet to occur. I am really interested to see if there some provable timelines to all of this.

[azbearsfan]

It's odd. I see where you are coming from, and see how you could think that about me. I'm quite outspoken, and very vocal. However, I know when trouble is brewing. I wouldn't say a word, believe it or not, if put in Benson's situation. I never send food back that sucks. I almost never say anything about bad service, a bad product, etc. I just chalk it up to a loss and choose not to frequent the places that screw me over. About a year and a half ago I was at a bar, didn't say a word to anyone all night outside of my few friends, was very quiet, and when I walked out that night I got sucker-punched in the eye. I didn't say a word. Nothing was wrong medically after the black eye went away, and I didn't even press charges.

lol There is one thing to be cool when trouble is brewing. There is completely another to be frikin Eeyore.

 

You pay for bad service, bad serive and food? If you bought a LCD and it didn't work you would just eat $2000?

 

Come on, man.

 

You talk about all that stuff like its a good thing. You get punked in the eye at a bar and dont press charges? Thats assault.

 

 

Well hearing all that maybe you would let the cops harass you all the time, but 99% of people wouldn't without saying something. Its not against the law to get pissed at cops, especially if they are abusing their power.

[balta1701-A]

[AZ54]

If this boating area is as heavily used as stated in the article then there are a lot more witnesses than the people who were on the boat. The LCRA doesn't pull up to one boat without being noticed and watched by the boaters nearby.

[Iguana]

I think she was trying to convey quickly to her dad what she saw was going on. Otherwise it might have gone Dad these cops are picking on this kid cause we think because they are racist. The cops are white and the kid is black etc. etc Or maybe it was meant to answer his follow up question "why would they be beating up a kid?" Plus who knows how she and her dad spoke with one another. Sometimes the use of certain words or a certain order will mean more to her dad who knows her very well then to a stranger.

Ultimately I don't think its very important in the grand scheme of things.

 

What I dont get is why she called her dad to call the cops instead of her calling the cops herself. that to me is VERY odd.

[jason]

lol There is one thing to be cool when trouble is brewing. There is completely another to be frikin Eeyore.

 

You pay for bad service, bad serive and food? If you bought a LCD and it didn't work you would just eat $2000?

 

Come on, man.

 

You talk about all that stuff like its a good thing. You get punked in the eye at a bar and dont press charges? Thats assault.

 

Well hearing all that maybe you would let the cops harass you all the time, but 99% of people wouldn't without saying something. Its not against the law to get pissed at cops, especially if they are abusing their power.

 

I obviously don't bite the bullet on big price things like that. Nobody who isn't rich does that. And I agree it's not against the law to get pissed at cops. But it is against the law to resist them in any capacity, and I wouldn't do it. I was once cuffed and it took about 2 seconds. I just think that people tend to complain and jump to conclusions too quickly nowadays. It's typical in our culture. Nobody is to blame for their actions any more, and the first thing most people do is start blaming.

[ASHKUM BEAR]

What I dont get is why she called her dad to call the cops instead of her calling the cops herself. that to me is VERY odd.

 

Supposedly her dad is a judge or lawyer or something like that. She probably called him because dads know best

[KiLoc69]

I think it just makes a lot more sense to side with officers serving in any legal capacity, than it does to side with Benson.

 

Jason,

 

I think this is where the big split is between the two sides in this argument. You and a few others are already choosing sides while I and a couple of others choose not to make such determinations yet because we don't have enough evidence to support one side or the other.

[KiLoc69]

I just think that people tend to complain and jump to conclusions too quickly nowadays.

 

 

Define irony lol.

 

I'm glad you're finally seeing it our way Jason, lets not jump to conclusions and wait and see what happens haha

[nfoligno]

If this boating area is as heavily used as stated in the article then there are a lot more witnesses than the people who were on the boat. The LCRA doesn't pull up to one boat without being noticed and watched by the boaters nearby.

 

Except that I believe it was 9:30 at night, and thus dark. No telling how lit the LCRA's boat was.

 

I do not have much hope there will be many witnesses, other than those on Benson's boat. What I would love to hear is whether or not there was a video camera on the LCRA boat. Some years back, police cars started keeping camera to capture, among other things, field sobriety tests. I personally questioned why Benson was taken off his boat. If the LCRA boat had a camera going, it would make more sense.

[LT2_3]

What I dont get is why she called her dad to call the cops instead of her calling the cops herself. that to me is VERY odd.

 

One thing that I've heard floated out there is that she isn't from that area and her dialing 911 from her cell phone would've called another city altogether. That kinda makes sense. Her Dad lives in the area and she and her fiance are visiting from out of town.

 

Even if her phone and cell carrier are fully E911 compatible, SHE might not have known that.

[kyyle23]

Too bad police boats dont have dash cams, because that would straighten this out in a hurry.

 

No matter what, this is going to be a "He said, He said" deal. Of course all of the people on the boat are going to agree with Cedric, and of course all of the police involved are going to back their own. Its going to end in a stalemate where nobody wins, Cedric is going to have this hang over his head and the Lake Travis PD is going to look really bad

[LT2_3]

Too bad police boats dont have dash cams, because that would straighten this out in a hurry.

 

No matter what, this is going to be a "He said, He said" deal. Of course all of the people on the boat are going to agree with Cedric, and of course all of the police involved are going to back their own. Its going to end in a stalemate where nobody wins, Cedric is going to have this hang over his head and the Lake Travis PD is going to look really bad

 

I'd read in a Texas article that someone call a local TV station claiming they had video of part of the incident and the girl that came forward claims to have pictures too.

 

Here's what I think happened: The drunk tests are designed for the subject to fail. I had a buddy that worked as a bartender and got pulled over on his way home from work at 3:00am. He hadn't had a drink all night, but reeked of booze because it was spilled on his clothes. He told the cops that he hadn't been drinking and even breathed in their face to prove it. They gave him the standard sobriety test and said he failed. They took him down to the police station where he blew .000 on the breathlyzer. Because of this, I know that the sobreity test is ridiculously subjective.

 

So everything is a grey and subjective issue. So, in this case, perhaps Benson hesitated at some point during the test. That's automatic failure. The rent-a-cop went by the book and wanted to take him to shore for further testing. Benson was feeling harassed and complained. I believe in Benson's statement, he said he was asking why more tests were needed. Because he complained, and the fact that he was probably much bigger than the officer, the officer felt that pepper spray was the appropriate course of action to maintain control of the situation. Again, that's a subjective judgement.

 

The thing that I think the cops have to be aware of is that if they claim he resisted arrest but it's proven that they were wrong to do so (like by a sub legal limt BAC test), there is no valid arrest for him to have resisted and it all gets thrown out.

 

It'll be interesting to see what more information becomes available in the future.

[Controlled Chaos]

The scene at Cedric Benson's arrest

 

Safety inspections, sobriety checks common on 'the party cove,' where Bears RB had weekend run-in

By Howard Witt

Tribune correspondent

 

May 7, 2008, 10:23 PM CDT

 

AUSTIN, Texas -- The truth about what happened to Bears running back Cedric Benson aboard his motorboat Saturday night on Lake Travis—whether he was drunk and disorderly, as the police who arrested him allege, or whether he was harassed and abused by the authorities, as Benson asserts—eventually may emerge inside a courtroom.

 

But what's already clear is Benson, by choosing to park his boat inside the lake's most popular cove for drinking and partying, placed himself at the center of an ongoing police crackdown on drunken boaters along the 64-mile-long lake, which was formed by a dam along the Colorado River and ranks among the most pristine bodies of water in all of Texas.

 

Alarmed by a spate of 22 boating fatalities in the last three years—more than half of which involved alcohol—enforcement officers of the Lower Colorado River Authority and four other area police agencies have stepped up their weekend lake patrols and the random safety inspections that give them a pretext to check the sobriety of boat operators.

 

Devil's Cove, also known to Lake Travis regulars as "the party cove," long has been a particular focus of the authorities because of the hundreds of boaters who pack into the 300-yard-long niche each weekend to lash their vessels together into giant floating party rafts.

 

That's where Benson's new 311/2-foot, $147,000 motorboat—an average-sized vessel on a lake teeming with huge houseboats and yachts—was parked Saturday night when an LCRA officer approached and asked to perform a random safety inspection.

 

What happened next is the subject of sharp dispute. LCRA officials say Benson, 25, failed a field sobriety test, resisted complying with the officer's requests and had to be pepper-sprayed to be restrained. He was transported to a nearby marina and charged with resisting arrest and boating while intoxicated.

 

But Benson, a former University of Texas football star who owns a home in the hills overlooking Austin assessed at $1.4 million, insists he was not drunk and did not resist the officer. Instead, he has accused the authorities of pepper-spraying him without provocation, dragging him from the patrol boat and nearly drowning him with a water hose before dumping him into a waiting police car. He says family members and friends who were aboard his boat can vouch for his version of events.

 

One passenger on the boat, Elizabeth Cartwright, told the Tribune on Tuesday night that she didn't believe Benson was drunk and that she and her fiance, also a passenger, were surprised when an officer made Benson take a sobriety test. She also disputed Benson was resisting arrest.

 

At the Emerald Point Marina, a dock across the lake from Devil's Cove where LCRA police brought Benson for transport, an employee of a boat rental company said he witnessed part of the incident Saturday night but declined to offer any details.

 

At the spot where the employee said Benson was removed from the police boat, there is no water hose, although a small garden hose is visible next to a boat slip about 30 yards away.

 

LCRA officials say they will not release any details about the Benson incident, beyond an arrest affidavit that was made public earlier this week, because Benson's first court hearing is pending for May 19.

 

But they deny police abused Benson or that he was singled out for special scrutiny.

 

"It's routine to stop people on the water for safety checks," said Krista Umscheid, an LCRA spokeswoman.

 

"It's not based on anything in particular that people are doing. The officers are not required to have probable cause to do an inspection."

 

Each weekend, the LCRA deploys three or four patrol boats in the most heavily used sections of Lake Travis to make safety checks, respond to medical emergencies, rescue stricken boats and watch for drunken operators, Umscheid said.

 

In 2007, LCRA officers—who are armed and fully licensed police—conducted 839 random safety inspections, issued 149 citations and made three arrests for boating while intoxicated, official figures show. So far in 2008, the officers have performed 184 safety inspections, issued 47 citations and arrested two people for boating while intoxicated, one of whom was Benson.

 

Several boaters randomly interviewed Tuesday evening on Lake Travis said the LCRA officers generally are respected as responsible law enforcement officials who prefer to issue warnings rather than citations when they see violations to avoid spoiling recreational experiences for people.

 

Although the City of Austin Police Department has been the subject of scrutiny over racial-profiling complaints in recent years, no such complaints have been made about the LCRA police, according to the Texas ACLU and other civil rights watchdog groups.

 

LCRA statistics indicate that of 457 total arrests made by LCRA police between 2004 and 2008, 94 percent of those arrested were white, 2.2 percent black, 2 percent Asian and the rest were unclassified.

 

hwitt@tribune.com

Copyright © 2008, The Chicago Tribune

[CubbiesFan07]

ESPN said that the girl took many photos during the scene. Maybe they'll be released sometime?

 

Where'd you get the photo above?

[Controlled Chaos]

ESPN said that the girl took many photos during the scene. Maybe they'll be released sometime?

 

Where'd you get the photo above?

It's right in the article...it was in the Trib this morning. Dam, sorry I forgot the lin inoriginal post. It's there now.

 

May I also say...I don't like at all how that article is written. It seems to paint Benson as being wrong right off the bat for even being there. Which is BS.

Then it throws out some statistics on how many whites are arrested vs blacks...well wtf how many boaters are black out there? Could those stats be leaning that way cause most of the boaters out there are white??? I mean I don't know....it just seemed like a useless point to make.

[Lucky Luciano]

The scene at Cedric Benson's arrest

 

May 7, 2008, 10:23 PM CDT

 

AUSTIN, Texas -- The truth about what happened to Bears running back Cedric Benson aboard his motorboat Saturday night on Lake Travis—whether he was drunk and disorderly, as the police who arrested him allege, or whether he was harassed and abused by the authorities, as Benson asserts—eventually may emerge inside a courtroom.

 

But what's already clear is Benson, by choosing to park his boat inside the lake's most popular cove for drinking and partying, placed himself at the center of an ongoing police crackdown on drunken boaters along the 64-mile-long lake, which was formed by a dam along the Colorado River and ranks among the most pristine bodies of water in all of Texas.

 

Alarmed by a spate of 22 boating fatalities in the last three years—more than half of which involved alcohol—enforcement officers of the Lower Colorado River Authority and four other area police agencies have stepped up their weekend lake patrols and the random safety inspections that give them a pretext to check the sobriety of boat operators.

 

That's where Benson's new 311/2-foot, $147,000 motorboat—an average-sized vessel on a lake teeming with huge houseboats and yachts—was parked Saturday night when an LCRA officer approached and asked to perform a random safety inspection.

 

What happened next is the subject of sharp dispute. LCRA officials say Benson, 25, failed a field sobriety test, resisted complying with the officer's requests and had to be pepper-sprayed to be restrained. He was transported to a nearby marina and charged with resisting arrest and boating while intoxicated.

 

One passenger on the boat, Elizabeth Cartwright, told the Tribune on Tuesday night that she didn't believe Benson was drunk and that she and her fiance, also a passenger, were surprised when an officer made Benson take a sobriety test. She also disputed Benson was resisting arrest.

 

At the spot where the employee said Benson was removed from the police boat, there is no water hose, although a small garden hose is visible next to a boat slip about 30 yards away.

"It's routine to stop people on the water for safety checks," said Krista Umscheid, an LCRA spokeswoman.

 

"It's not based on anything in particular that people are doing. The officers are not required to have probable cause to do an inspection."

 

Each weekend, the LCRA deploys three or four patrol boats in the most heavily used sections of Lake Travis to make safety checks, respond to medical emergencies, rescue stricken boats and watch for drunken operators, Umscheid said.

 

hwitt@tribune.com

Copyright © 2008, The Chicago Tribune

 

first of all what a biased load of crap by whoever wrote this article. it's clearly written to garner sympathy for the law enforcement/DNR by putting in useless garbage about how much money benson has etc.

 

that said.... if what i am reading is correct it appears that benson's boat was at anchor. if that is the case then these "law enforcement" clowns have NO right what-so-ever to single out ONE person on a non-moving boat for any sobriety test, period. although they could and can ask to see that each vessel has a fire extingisher, whistle (if appropriate), coast guard certified life jackets for every person on board and functioning running lights IF dark, and the boat is away from it's docking slip on public waterways. but that is ALL.

 

being a non-moving vessel at anchor, who is to say which person on board will be the operator when the vessel leaves? the owner of the boat is NOT subject to sobriety if he is not the moving vessels operator. even if drunk at the time he was checked there would be no possible way that they could determine that he would have operated the boat in the future under the influence OR if he was indeed intoxicated operating his boat to get to the anchorage.

 

in fact even if ALL the people onboard were drunk who is to say they wouldn't have CAMPED in that spot until they were sober thus not creating a danger or violating any laws. by not checking all the people onboard for sobriety the discriminated against cedric benson.

 

this clown DNR punk more than likely just wanted to get his name in the paper.

 

i would also like to add that continually checking someone for safety equipment OR fishing licenses time after time by the same officer is harassment. legal harassment? maybe but certainly harassment.

[azbearsfan]

first of all what a biased load of crap by whoever wrote this article. it's clearly written to garner sympathy for the law enforcement/DNR by putting in useless garbage about how much money benson has etc.

 

that said.... if what i am reading is correct it appears that benson's boat was at anchor. if that is the case then these "law enforcement" clowns have NO right what-so-ever to single out ONE person on a non-moving boat for any sobriety test, period. although they could and can ask to see that each vessel has a fire extingisher, whistle (if appropriate), coast guard certified life jackets for every person on board and functioning running lights IF dark, and the boat is away from it's docking slip on public waterways. but that is ALL.

 

being a non-moving vessel at anchor, who is to say which person on board will be the operator when the vessel leaves? the owner of the boat is NOT subject to sobriety if he is not the moving vessels operator. even if drunk at the time he was checked there would be no possible way that they could determine that he would have operated the boat in the future under the influence OR if he was indeed intoxicated operating his boat to get to the anchorage.

 

in fact even if ALL the people onboard were drunk who is to say they wouldn't have CAMPED in that spot until they were sober thus not creating a danger or violating any laws. by not checking all the people onboard for sobriety the discriminated against cedric benson.

 

this clown DNR punk more than likely just wanted to get his name in the paper.

 

i would also like to add that continually checking someone for safety equipment OR fishing licenses time after time by the same officer is harassment. legal harassment? maybe but certainly harassment.

 

 

 

I thought the same thing Lucky. I didn't know that it was illegal to have drinks on a "parked" boat.

 

That pretty much sums it up for me.

[akshaz]

Doesn't really matter. What's the big deal. Black men are free game for police abuse. We all know that a beating must come with an arrest or a police encounter.

 

Gimme a break. Most people turn a blind eye to this stuff because it's not likely to happen to them, their sons, friends or brothers. Their folks never come home beaten up after getting roughed up by the cops and then let go; or ever got the crap choked out of them by a police baton (I witnessed the first, was the "chokee" in the second) Better yet, they'll just deny that this stuff even happens at all. Everyone is just making it up. The recent case in Philly, the Sean Bell case in NYC.....I can go on and on. The due process that everyone is screaming for isn't granted by the police who many times abuse their authority when they think they have an easy, indefensible target.

 

After looking at the picture on the Trib, are you guys really that surprised that they got stopped by the police? A whole bunch of black guys, some with dreadlocks on an expensive boat with a bunch of white girls. They were almost begging to be pulled over.

 

Nothing will come of this. It's all "he said/she said" and people will always give cops the benefit of the doubt. Even when video evidence is there, they'll say "let's not rush to judgement. We don't know how much they were resisting arrest".

 

Everyone can go back to sleep now.

[nfoligno]

More pictures to come?

 

Just caught the below piece off PFT, which uses a local Austin paper as its source. Benson hiring an attorney is no shock, but one thing that did stand out from the story is a member of the boat, a former Texas LB, took pictures. He is the fiancee of the chick already discussed. That isn't new news. But they are saying he took pictures of Benson while he was undergoing a field sobriety test and being arrested

 

That is new news. If he has pictures showing Benson during the tests, which may show him not being aggressive or falling down drunk, that could go a long way toward making Benson's case.

 

http://www.profootballtalk.com/category/rumor-mill/

 

BENSON HIRES LAWYER TO FIGHT CHARGES

 

Posted by Michael David Smith on May 8, 2008, 2:04 p.m.

 

Bears running back Cedric Benson, who says he was mistreated by officers who pepper sprayed him during a weekend boating excursion, has hired a new lawyer as he prepares to fight charges of boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest, the Austin American-Statesman is reporting.

 

“I do not believe from what I’ve been told that Cedric was intoxicated,” lawyer Sam Bassett said. “I do not believe he was aggressive toward an officer to warrant being pepper sprayed.”

 

Meanwhile, the paper reports that former Texas linebacker Aaron Harris also was on Benson’s boat, and that Harris said he took pictures of Benson while he was undergoing a field sobriety test and being arrested, pictures that he plans to give to Benson’s lawyer.

 

Harris is the fiancé of Elizabeth Cartwright, another passenger on the boat, who told the Chicago Tribune that Benson wasn’t drunk and was mistreated by police.

 

On the night in question, Cartwright says she called her father and told him “to call 911 and tell them my black friend is getting beat up by cops,” possibly suggesting that Cartwright believed the police targeted Benson because he is black. The Lower Colorado River Authority, which made the arrest, says that in the last five years, its officers have made 457 arrests on the lake, and that 428 of the people arrested were white and 10 were black.

 

The American-Statesman reports that Bassett will represent Benson in a preliminary hearing on May 19 in front of a Travis County administrative judge.

[Controlled Chaos]

Doesn't really matter. What's the big deal. Black men are free game for police abuse. We all know that a beating must come with an arrest or a police encounter.

 

Gimme a break. Most people turn a blind eye to this stuff because it's not likely to happen to them, their sons, friends or brothers. Their folks never come home beaten up after getting roughed up by the cops and then let go; or ever got the crap choked out of them by a police baton (I witnessed the first, was the "chokee" in the second) Better yet, they'll just deny that this stuff even happens at all. Everyone is just making it up. The recent case in Philly, the Sean Bell case in NYC.....I can go on and on. The due process that everyone is screaming for isn't granted by the police who many times abuse their authority when they think they have an easy, indefensible target.

 

After looking at the picture on the Trib, are you guys really that surprised that they got stopped by the police? A whole bunch of black guys, some with dreadlocks on an expensive boat with a bunch of white girls. They were almost begging to be pulled over.

 

Nothing will come of this. It's all "he said/she said" and people will always give cops the benefit of the doubt. Even when video evidence is there, they'll say "let's not rush to judgement. We don't know how much they were resisting arrest".

 

Everyone can go back to sleep now.

Thanks for educating me.

[jason]

first of all what a biased load of crap by whoever wrote this article. it's clearly written to garner sympathy for the law enforcement/DNR by putting in useless garbage about how much money benson has etc.

 

that said.... if what i am reading is correct it appears that benson's boat was at anchor. if that is the case then these "law enforcement" clowns have NO right what-so-ever to single out ONE person on a non-moving boat for any sobriety test, period. although they could and can ask to see that each vessel has a fire extingisher, whistle (if appropriate), coast guard certified life jackets for every person on board and functioning running lights IF dark, and the boat is away from it's docking slip on public waterways. but that is ALL.

 

being a non-moving vessel at anchor, who is to say which person on board will be the operator when the vessel leaves? the owner of the boat is NOT subject to sobriety if he is not the moving vessels operator. even if drunk at the time he was checked there would be no possible way that they could determine that he would have operated the boat in the future under the influence OR if he was indeed intoxicated operating his boat to get to the anchorage.

 

in fact even if ALL the people onboard were drunk who is to say they wouldn't have CAMPED in that spot until they were sober thus not creating a danger or violating any laws. by not checking all the people onboard for sobriety the discriminated against cedric benson.

 

this clown DNR punk more than likely just wanted to get his name in the paper.

 

i would also like to add that continually checking someone for safety equipment OR fishing licenses time after time by the same officer is harassment. legal harassment? maybe but certainly harassment.

 

Have you never heard of a guy being arrested for "sleeping it off" while in his car with keys in the ignition?

Have you never heard of the owner of a car being charged when someone in the car has possession of something illegal, or is otherwise doing something illegal?

 

I don't claim to know the law on boating ordinances that well, but it seems like a fairly easy and logical step to compare DUI-related laws to BUI-related laws.

[jason]

Doesn't really matter. What's the big deal. Black men are free game for police abuse. We all know that a beating must come with an arrest or a police encounter. Gimme a break. Most people turn a blind eye to this stuff because it's not likely to happen to them, their sons, friends or brothers. Their folks never come home beaten up after getting roughed up by the cops and then let go; or ever got the crap choked out of them by a police baton (I witnessed the first, was the "chokee" in the second) Better yet, they'll just deny that this stuff even happens at all. Everyone is just making it up. The recent case in Philly, the Sean Bell case in NYC.....I can go on and on. The due process that everyone is screaming for isn't granted by the police who many times abuse their authority when they think they have an easy, indefensible target. After looking at the picture on the Trib, are you guys really that surprised that they got stopped by the police? A whole bunch of black guys, some with dreadlocks on an expensive boat with a bunch of white girls. They were almost begging to be pulled over. Nothing will come of this. It's all "he said/she said" and people will always give cops the benefit of the doubt. Even when video evidence is there, they'll say "let's not rush to judgement. We don't know how much they were resisting arrest". Everyone can go back to sleep now.

Thank you for at least showing you are far beyond reason, and far too deep into conspiracy theories, to actually look at anything from this point on without being ridiculous. It's specifically this line of thought that causes more problems than it fixes, blaming everything on racism, the man, and the system. I'd suggest listening to the ideas of Chris Rock before posting something so stupid again:

 

 

Aside from the "white friend" part (because white people NEVER get arrested ) , the rest is a fairly safe set of rules to follow.

[nfoligno]

Have you never heard of a guy being arrested for "sleeping it off" while in his car with keys in the ignition?

Have you never heard of the owner of a car being charged when someone in the car has possession of something illegal, or is otherwise doing something illegal?

 

I don't claim to know the law on boating ordinances that well, but it seems like a fairly easy and logical step to compare DUI-related laws to BUI-related laws.

 

Regarding "sleeping it off", that I would call different because the individual is behind the wheel of the car. Also, it sort of depend on the situation. If the car is parked outside a bar, then it likely is not going to be a DWI. If the car is on the side of the road, then the obvious belief is the driver drove the car to that point, and if drunk, DWI. But this is all different from a person simply being on the boat he owns, and the boat being at anchor.

 

As for possession, no, I have never heard of that. If there are drugs, or the like, in the car but not on a person, then yes, the owner of the vehicle gets the charge, but not if the drugs on on the possession of someone else in the car, which you allude to. regardless, this is not a logical step to the DWI laws. If a passenger in the car is drunk, does the driver get a public intoxication charge? No.

 

I agree it is easy to compare boating to driving in terms of DWIs, but that is the whole point. The boat was at anchor (parked). While Benson is the owner, he was not the driver and not behind the wheel. Consider this. You and your friends go out, and you drove your car. At the party, cops test you, and because you had a vehicle there, they arrest you for a DWI. To me, that would be the more logical comparison. Problem is, there is no way to know whether or not you would have driven the car. At some point during the party, you could have agreed to have one of your friends remain sober and drive your car.

 

If Benson was behind the wheel and driving the boat, there is no question this would be a DWI issue. Whether or not Benson was drunk would be key, but it would be a DWI issue. But the boat being at anchor changes things IMHO.