Have you ever been arrested?

[ichy]

I got taken to a police station after a guy fell out of a van I was driving in high school. They never read me my rights or anything, but it was definitely serious business.

Contrary to popular myth they don't have to read you your rights if the arrest you. They only have to read them if you're under arrest and they want to question you.

 

[Squisher]

Breaking the law, breaking the law

 

[DainBramaged]

yes

 

[dank69]

I don't like to go more than a year without being arrested. My taxes pay the cops' salaries, I want to get my money's worth.

 

[dennilfloss]

Where's the Hell no! option? ()🙂

 

[acheron]

I think it's more a question of age than anything else. If you make it to 30 and never been arrested you're either still living in your parents basement, part of the 1% or, both.

what is this i don't even

 

[Linflas]

No, and even if I was I wouldn't be stupid enough to post about it online.

Given that adult arrest records are public records if you were it is likely online someplace whether you post it here or not.

 

[JoLLyRoGer]

Yup. I got picked up back in 2003 for DUI. I was 24, in the military. Was gone on deployment to the sandbox and came home to my then wife having an affair with.. get this... the bartender at the NCO club!. Bringing him home to our base housing and, yeah.. right in the bed I was supposed to sleep in.

Well after the divorce I was feeling pretty low and fell into some bad routines and it all caught up with me one night out on my motorcycle. I had a few too many and dumped the bike while crossing some railroad tracks (at an angle). Got drug under my bike for about 30-50ft and some good road rash that's still there today to remind me.

Anyway, there was a cop on the other side that saw the whole thing go down. He was actually the one who picked my bike up off me cause my foot was pinned under it. Good thing he was there too cause there's no way you're gonna pick up a Dyna Wide Glide by yourself once it's on top of you.

So we did the routine.. Field sobriety which i did surprisingly good at (adrenaline fueled mostly) and I blew a .12 so I got cited and had to leave my bike there and go back for it the next day. Cop was pretty cool and relased me to my friend that night that came to get me insted of booking me.

They charged me with two counts. 1 of BAC >.08 and Impared to the slightest degree. I took it to trial and hired a lawyer all that jazz. Stipulated to the 90 day license suspension. Took almost a full year before we went to court and I beat the impared charge but lost on BAC charge so the Judge handed down the standard fare 10 day jail scentence and suspended 9 days so basically I had to spend 24 hours in the county jail and attend classes afterwards.

Looking back on it I'm just thankful the only person I hurt was myself. It's nothing I'm proud of and I treated the whole thing as a learning experience to make myself better. In the end it was an expensive lesson to the tune of about $5000.00. The worst part of it all was facing my commander and peers at the squadron. I had to basically humble myself infront of 300 or so of my brothers in arms and talk about how big of a f-uckup I am. Not fun. I might have stayed career military had that not happened but having that sort of thing in your PIF pretty much kills any chance you ever had of going far and you have that stigma with you forever so I separated at the end of my term and moved on to civilan life. Did I learn from it? Absolutely. And in fact I'm one of the lucky ones considering how these things can turn out. For one I'm still vertical, for another no one else got injured. Cost me a ton of money, my license for a while, my pride, and my reputation. It's a steep price and not worth it - ever.

I've worked hard over the last 10 years to put that night behind me. Sometimes it still haunts me though (like when filling out a job application). In spite of it all, today I hold a good job, have re-married a wonderful woman who has gone to great lengths putting up with my BS to tame the wild streak out of me. I've got kids now and I won't even touch alcohol unless it's in the comfort of my own home and I'm not going anywhere. And even then I don't let myself get trashed. I don't go to bars anymore, I don't even order a glass of wine with my meal at a resturaunt. Hell, I don't even break the speed limit (by more than 5mph) anymore. What a boring surburban middle-class life I lead nowadays! LOL! A medium sized house, a pickup truck, three kids, two dogs, my 4-wheeler (no more motorcycles), and a good strong woman who keeps me out of trouble and is just as stubborn and hard-headed as me (which is a good thing).

Anyway that was my experience and the time I got arrested and sent to jail.

I do want to state something just because I know the way ATOT gets. I posted this for the benifit of others so that they can learn from my poor judgement. It's not something I'm proud of and not something I enjoy talking about. So before anyone starts in with the typical ATOT holier-than-though nannying and telling me I should have been handed down the death penalty.. just save it. Me opening up here is not an invitation to be trolled by others. Read my story and my learning experience and take away something positive like a life-lesson.

-JR

 

[iRONic]

Yes.

 

[alkemyst]

Fortunately the stigma of DUI is getting lesser and lesser as cops are using it for revenue generation instead of saving lives. Average pay out to various entities is $5k, not counting attorney fees, driver costs and loss of wages.

Many insurance companies don't even increase premiums unless there was an injury/property damage and sadly most DUI arrests don't involve any...

 

[PricklyPete]

Fortunately the stigma of DUI is getting lesser and lesser as cops are using it for revenue generation instead of saving lives. Average pay out to various entities is $5k, not counting attorney fees, driver costs and loss of wages.

Many insurance companies don't even increase premiums unless there was an injury/property damage and sadly most DUI arrests don't involve any...

? If anything the stigma has only gotten worse in my drinking lifetime...and I think rightfully so. I personally do not think any less of a drunk driver than someone texting, talking on the phone, shaving, putting on makeup, reading, or whatever else when they should be driving. In every case the person is being a douche (and i am not saying i haven't done any of these activities...i'm not proud of that). All of these activities are putting your convenience above the safety of others on the road.

 

[ichy]

I don't think a one-time DUI makes a person terrible if they learn from their mistake and clean up their act. What makes me want to tear my hair out though are stories of guys who kill after getting their third, fourth or fifth DUI. If you get busted multiple times for it then you're a drunken low-life.

 

[alkemyst]

? If anything the stigma has only gotten worse in my drinking lifetime...and I think rightfully so. I personally do not think any less of a drunk driver than someone texting, talking on the phone, shaving, putting on makeup, reading, or whatever else when they should be driving. In every case the person is being a douche (and i am not saying i haven't done any of these activities...i'm not proud of that). All of these activities are putting your convenience above the safety of others on the road.

The level at which you can be arrested for DUI was never the intent of the woman that started MADD. Once they found out how profitable it could be they lowered the standards.

There should be no reason why someone should be arrested for having two drinks, but the current laws make it possible.

Add that into the fact that you don't even have to be driving anymore. The only requirement to make an arrest is your proximity to the vehicle and keys to it. When I got my DUI half the class was full of those going to their trunk, getting a light for a cigarette or a pack of cigarettes out, getting a jacket, getting a bag, etc. In fact in my class the guy with the highest 'DUI cost' was an defense attorney from New York that got his DUI and his new/paid off corvette impounded and sold to one of the arresting officers while washing that car in his driveway.

He was over $150k. Came from money and made a lot of money. He may have been bullshitting, but he stated his net worth from his and his families trust was in the 10's of millions of dollars and he'd just keep fighting it. He was driven in a new Rolls Royce.

I have yet to meet anyone guilty of DUI that actually did any damage to anything. There are more people arrested for murder than those that actually killed someone (including themselves) in a DUI. Yet we arrest millions for DUI each year. Many murderers have less costs and end up walking.

 

[alkemyst]

I don't think a one-time DUI makes a person terrible if they learn from their mistake and clean up their act. What makes me want to tear my hair out though are stories of guys who kill after getting their third, fourth or fifth DUI. If you get busted multiple times for it then you're a drunken low-life.

That's the key thing, there have been a few people just victims of DUI stops that never hurt anyone nor probably would have.

I agree though you kill someone and get another injury behind you chances are great you have a problem. Sadly the way DUI stats work, if a sober driver totally hits a car with a drunk driver in it, it's a DUI crime. It's very rare but happens.

I tried hard to fight mine. I had my drink receipts on me, my chick I was breaking up with knew the cop arresting me personally, I also split my lower lip totally bad. I had about 6 beers in 6 hours and blew a 0.168. I actually completed the entire FST tests perfectly as well. It would have been too expensive to fight it versus fast-tracking it by just paying it out. They even let you pay for your community service time at $10/hr which I did.

 

[KeithTalent]

Almost, but no.

KT

 

[some_guy]

Then I must be part of that 1%. :awe:
The 99% were probably stupid enough to be caught. 😉

There is a big difference between doing something that could get you arrested and getting arrested. Shoplifting, drugs, petty theft, taking something from work, receiving stolen goods, DUI are things where the crime numbers are a lot higher proportionally than the arrest numbers.

And besides stupidity as a factor there is luck and whether the police like you or not.

I wonder how much stuff on ebay is stolen.