sbcmetroguy wrote:
I cannot walk a straight line ... never could. I always fear getting pulled over by cops or stopped at a DWI checkpoint and being asked to walk a line!
Years ago, I got a DUI for just this reason (well... partially). I was taking home a friend from a party (I was the DD) and I got pulled over for speeding. Yeah, the car reeked of alcohol because my friend had nicely barfed up his last 5 drinks into my floorboard. So the officer asked if I would do a roadside sobriety test. "Sure!" I failed the straight-walk, couldn't touch my finger to my nose very well, and told him that I could not stand with my feet together because it made me pass out (I'm knock-kneed - some people call it 'double-jointed'). I thought everything was okay, but then he got rough-voiced with me and said I would need to take a breathalyzer. It caught me off-guard and I got mad (it was like he was calling me a liar and I get VERY upset when people do that - it's my shortest fuse, so to speak). It went badly after that...
I said "What the hell for?"
"I need you to blow into this tube."
"What, you think *I'M* the one who's drunk??!"
"Ma'am, please put your hands behind your back!"
"What the hell for?"
"I'm placing you under arrest!"
"What the hell for?"
"You refused the breathalyzer test and that means you will automatically be arrested for DUI."
"No I didn't!"
"Yes you did."
"Well, I'll do it, just take these cuffs off me!"
"It's too late now. You're going to jail."
"Sounds like Gestapo to me!"
At any rate, I went to trial, and at the 'Gestapo' comment, several of the nice ladies in the jury gasped loudly. Conviction, and everything that goes with it. They even brought in an 'expert witness' who testified that my about-face in attitude (I was polite and compliant up the point where I was asked to do the breathalyzer) was an indication of inebriation.
If I knew then what I know (suspect?) now...
goat
}:)~