Brickbat: Walk This Way

An investigation by Cedar Rapids' KCRG-TV found that totally sober drivers in Iowa are routinely arrested and charged with operating while intoxicated (OWI), and there's no system to keep track of how often this happens. Over the past two years, more than 2,000 OWI cases were dropped, and in the last year alone, nearly 1,000 breath tests on arrested drivers showed zero alcohol. Defense attorney Bobby Rehkemper says he sees 10 to 20 of these mistakes every year, blaming unreliable field sobriety tests that officers use to justify arrests based on their gut feelings. In one 2023 instance, police arrested Dominic Tangen, strip-searched him, and held him for six hours before charging him with OWI because an officer said he seemed high on a stimulant. More than two months later, Tangen's urine test came back, showing he had been clean at the time.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

...police arrested Dominic Tangen, strip-searched him, and held him for six hours before charging him with OWI because an officer said he seemed high on a stimulant.

The accuser is also the evidence.

[Chumby]

Shitty driving is sometimes just shitty driving. Hopefully they did something else to warrant getting tickets (e.g., swerving over the breakdown lane).

[Vernon Depner]

NEVER submit to a field sobriety test.

[AT]

and there's no system to keep track of

Said the libertarian.

More than two months later, Tangen's urine test came back, showing he had been clean at the time.

So it all worked out in the end is what you're saying.

[Zeb]

Right, because being arrested and charged with a crime never has any lasting negative effects on a person's life.
More than an officer's feelings needs to be required for probable cause for a DUI arrest.

[AT]

Right, because being arrested and charged with a crime never has any lasting negative effects on a person's life.

That's where having a good moral character and reputation in esteem come into play.

"It was all a big misunderstanding, but they were just doing their job" comes through a lot clearer from the altar boy who volunteers at the old folks home, got straight A's, and the character reference backing of other community members of fine repute; than it does the hoodrat who spends his time with dubious company and has a dozen truancies or actual convictions on his record, and declares that his arrest was "total pig BS."

[MollyGodiva]

This is why you never do a pre-arrest sobriety test. Always decline, they can never help you.

[paris1]

I don't know about Tangen, but what's the woman pictured doing driving on the wrong side of the car?!

[LIBtranslator]

Good title.