Last month they decided the 4th Amendment doesn’t exist any more. This month the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that you can still get a ticket for being drunk even if someone else is driving.
What the hell is wrong with the Indiana Supreme Court?
Indiana Supreme Court 2, Common Sense 0
This entry was posted in Alternate Universe. Bookmark the permalink.
Good news is they can vote the bums out.
http://twowheeledmadwoman.blogspot.com/2011/05/vote-out-justice-steven-h-david.html
Clearly it’s the Indiana Supreme Court who are drunk.
I can be charged with public intoxication for being a passenger in my own vehicle? (or someone else’s) What the hell?!
Great, you’ve just made a criminal out of probably millions of people who are trying to be responsible. Hell, I did what she did over the weekend with a group of 20-somethings. Thankfully I wasn’t in Indiana.
Alan, you do realize that the PI charge for passenger(s) has been used for years by the Texas LE community, yes?
Granted, normally it’s used when the passenger(s) in question are argumentative or aggressive, but the charge can be used at any time as long as the passenger(s) are intoxicated.
I don’t know if anyone has ever tried to use as a defense to prosecution that the vehicle is an extension of their home, but the agency I worked for arrested passenger(s) for PI all the time.
“We’ve always done it that way.” Is not a good excuse.
On the one hand you have the “Don’t drive drunk, use a designated driver” message. But on the other hand you will arrest people for PI if they’re doing what you told them to.
That attitude creates contempt for law enforcement and the law in general.
So what made the local Prostitutor decide to waste Tens of Thousands of Taxpayer Dollars to push this case up to the Indy Supreme Court? All so they could collect a $300 dollar fine? Somebody’s EGO is Really out of Whack on this one.
I wasn’t attempting to offer a justification or excuse it in any way, I was just pointing out that the exact thing you were complaining about has been going on for years in your (our) own state. From the tone of your post it appeared that you were not aware of the history behind the potential PI as a passenger charge.
None of the officers I worked with would have arrested a passenger for PI after a normal traffic stop, especially if it was someone utilizing the designated driver concept, unless the passenger was in some manner causing a disturbance.
However, what the Indiana Supreme Court appears to have done in this case is to not rule on the particular incident, but instead verify that the PI charge was validly applied, which regretfully it seems to have been because the complainant was intoxicated and in public (just going from the article).
What any of this does not excuse is the asshattedness of the arresting officer for turning a simple traffic stop with possible citation into an arrest. Maybe he was having a bad day. Maybe he’s just a dick. Maybe his sergeant had been on to him about low arrest numbers. Who knows. What we do know though is none of what I listed excuses the actual incident and does do what you mentioned, which is foster contempt for LE in general based on the actions of one specific dumbass. That (his actions, not the perception) is inexcusable.