A University of Iowa football player faces a public intoxication charge after police say he drunkenly mistook a police car for an Uber.
University police say 22-year-old Brady Reiff was arrested in Iowa City early Saturday.
According to police, Reiff tried to open the doors of the parked cruiser. When an officer asked what he was doing, Reiff said he was looking for a ride. When the officer asked whether Reiff thought he was an Uber driver, Reiff replied, “Yes.”
Reiff allegedly registered a blood-alcohol content of .204... not that he was trying to drive, but apparently, being a public drunk and getting noticed? That's going to get you arrested - unless you are the mayor https://www.10news.com/news/da-asked-to-investigate-la-mesa-police-actions
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/bigten/2018/07/23/iowa-football-player-brady-reiff-arrested-charged-public-intoxication/823846002/
Hat tip to https://twitter.com/AndyFales
One of interesting thing in US legislative system is that public intoxication is defined by State not Federal law. What in one state will be ok in other will be punished. This dude was in Iowa so "public intoxication is a Simple Misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of 30 days' jail and a $1,000 fine. Aggravated Public Intoxication (3rd or subsequent Offense) is an Aggravated Misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of 2 years in prison." Funny if he was in Nevada he would get nothing, there is no law there that prohibit or punish being totally wasted in public. Seriously, state laws are so funny that you can pick where to get drunk to not get charged, in city of Milwaukee supposedly you can be wasted in public but... you can't drink in public. :D
ReplyDeletewhat a crazy world we live in.
DeleteSeparate topic... land of the free? Not when you can't be a happy quite drunk in public. Getting arrested for mistaking your ride home? They seriously handled this wrong. They should have been cool, helped him home, and thanked him for not trying to drive.
In this case, yes. He was wasted to such level he try to sit in patrol car not knowing even that, better he did call (or someone) for Uber to drive him home. I would call this attenuating circumstances, they should play cool.
DeleteBut I'm also supporting the anti public intoxication laws. As you remember I'm from Central Europe that is steeped with Eastern Europe drinking culture. That's not such unusual thing to see someone drinking (not in bar or pub) or wasted on street. I do not want you to have a bad idea that we look like land of alcoholics, but alcoholism is a bigger problem in such drinking culture then in different one. So we have strict laws about public intoxication that at least scare some people to not do this on main street in the middle of day. At least most of them. I don't know how this look in different States of US, where this is a problem, where not, how people react when they see someone heavy drunk on the street. They accept this, they shrug and walk away or call public service to "remove" such person in to Drunk tank for sobering up?
I agree in principle with the public intoxication laws, but only to the extent that they exist so cops CAN arrest a drunk and disorderly for more than public nuisance and disturbing the peace. But REALLY... how many laws do we need to cover one thing? Just so they can throw the book at some poor bastard with a problem? That is NOT good for a society, a community, that person with a problem, nor any other thing I can think of, EXCEPT the govt getting more money in fines from the worst off lowest rung of the social ladder. They can't get any MORE from the rich, who can afford the best attorneys, accountants, CPAs, and political friends to insulate the wealth from the govt.
DeleteSo, there's that.
But, just for a moment, lets look at the original news article "police say he drunkenly mistook a police car for an Uber." and that, isn't a crime. It's a case of mistaken identity. Be cool, serve the public (Serve and protect is what is written ON most police cars) and cops do NOT serve the people. No one is served by arresting a guy trying to get a responsible ride home.
IF he'd been a problem, loud, angry, fighting, singing, or playing the bagpipes... fine, arrest the lout. But the drunk trying to responsibly get a ride, quietly, peacefully, and RESPONSIBLY ought to be congratulated.
To focus on answering your last question, in the United States, people usually react by just getting away and putting distance between themselves and the drunk, and letting it be someone else's problem. Not responsible in any way for preventing the drunk from bothering others, becoming a problem, or getting them help.
Maybe they had a quota to fill up of tickets, I know that it is at least in many countries prohibited but there are situations when Police chief if station have the informal order from higher up (or this is his decision) that there need to be this and that number of tickets given and "income" to the end of the month. Not saying this was the reason or it is ok to do this, but I do try to find some explanation why they did not act cool when it was such a trivial thing, hell this drunken dude after all act responsible, they should play it cool... I fully agree on that. Shame on them they did not.
DeleteHow many laws you say, in US type of legislature when such cases are internal State law. At this moment 51, that's a lot. But I speak from position of single type of law for whole country, with very diverse and different approach in different states I doubt that people in US would agree on single Federal law about this topic. You do like your State law's to be semi independent from Federal law in many aspects, don't ya?
But overall I do agree on all points, this could be funny story but it did turn in to absurd one. About people reaction, I see this is universal everywhere, if we ignore problem it will disappear...even if we just walk away from it.
in this case it wasn't a ticket quota, remember, the drunk WENT to their car. They didn't look around for someone to be mean to. There are quota's on a lot of police though, to write tickets. Tickets = fines = bigger budget for spending.
DeleteBy the way, thank you for a good discussion!