There’s a student worker at the library where I’m employed whom I would describe as a “not particular” student: he’s not particularly bright, not particularly stupid, not particularly nice or not-nice, not particularly cute or not cute, etc… Just sort of a generic skinny frat-boy type that I don’t particularly like or dislike, but I think he’s being royally fucked.
He’s 19 years old. On Halloween weekend he went to a frat-party and got shit-faced on beer and liquor. That certainly isn’t admirable but I doubt any prime-time series has ever been interrupted for a “Special Report: Underage College Kid Gets Drunk” broadcast.
He went outside to talk with some of his buddies. As happens when large amounts of beer are consumed, he soon had to pee. There was a line to get into the frat-house bathroom and he had to go rather urgently, so he went to an empty lot behind the house and whizzed. There was nobody around him, but a cop happened to drive by at just this time.
The cop turned on the blue lights, called him to his car, had him put hands down and spread, and according to the student and at least one witness actually gave him a choice: 50 pushups or arrest. The kid has tendonitis (diagnosed) and was drunk off his ass- he was only able to do about five push-ups before collapsing, so the copper arrested him and took him downtown.
Alright, the part with the push-ups was a bit of assholery, but I can understand the arrest, sort of. It would have to be tough being a cop and being smarted off to by drunk college kids, and I’m familiar with the stats on underaged drinking and driving (though this kid had no intention of driving- he lived a five minute walk from the frat-house and didn’t drive as he knew he was going to drink).
This was the kid’s first offense; I personally would probably have put the fear of God into him, perhaps made him call his parents, and then released him with a warning when he was sober. At most, I would say let him spend the night in jail and then give him a fine and some community service for underage drinking and public intoxication, both of which he was undeniably guilty of. However, in addition to these things the cop charged him with indecent exposure for pissing in the empty lot.
What’s wrong with that, you ask?
Indecent exposure, in the local- ahem- penal code, is a Sexual Offense. This means that, if convicted, the kid will be a Sex Offender and will have to register as such for several years whenever moving into a neighborhood just as if he were a rapist, child molester or pimp. The policeman most definitely knew this and even taunted him about it while he was in jail.
The local prosecutor was asked by a student with the school paper if he actually intended to prosecute this case knowing that this could be the outcome. His response:
Again, I am not condoning underage drinking, but also again- if convicted this kid will have to register as a Sex Offender- essentially his life will be ruined because he got drunk and took a piss!. He didn’t whip his penis out in front of fourth grade Catholic schoolgirls or masturbate in the frozen food aisle of a grocery store- he just relieved himself, the most asexual act imaginable. No women or children were present, the only witness was the cop, none of the other party attendants made a complaint or pressed charges, he just happened to pull it out and pee at a bad time. Worst case scenario: a couple of really innocent kids may have driven by and had their first look at a male member evicting golden stream- I’m pretty sure they’d have recovered.
Incidentally, last month the same cop, who is white and young-ish, made the paper for harassing a group of black male college students because they were- gasp- standing around talking outside of the student cafeteria. There were groups of white students talking outside as well, but he told the black male students that they had to disperse because they resembled drug-dealers. Ironically, it was actually the white students who witnessed this who became insensed and wrote angry letters to the editor about it, stating that they had heard about profiling but this made it real to them.
While I have no sympathy for any reasonable punishment for a dumbass fratboy getting drunk, I think this case is sickening. Luckily for the student his middle-class parents plan to fight this and have hired an attorney, so there is a good chance they will either get the charge reduced or dropped, but were he indigent I’ve almost no doubt he’d get totally railroaded. I know that law enforcement is a thankless and underpaid job, but I honestly think one reason decent officers do not get the respect they deserve is because of power-mad dickheads like this officer and the prosecutor.
Thoughts?
