USF tight end Bleakley arrested on DUI charge

[usfcop]

I also know that lately the cops just sit outside Peabody's in the parking lot...I've seen them pull somebody over as soon as the guy got in the car. No joke. It's pretty ridiculous

BTW, the police need probable cause to pull over someone for DUI.  The person must commit a primary offense - weaving, erratic driving, broken tail light, etc.  They cannot pull you over for leaving a bar.  Any lawyer with a night school degree could beat that charge.  Now if they watched someone stagger from the bar like a drunken fool and then jump behind the wheel, then they can pull them over.

DUI checkpoints are also have a narrow legal line.  The police must annouce them and their location 24 hours before they set up one.  They cannot just set up a road block on a whim ala Dukes of Hazard and start pulling people over.

BELIEVE ME ALL THE COP NEEDS IS A LITTLE "CREATIVE WRITING" TO HAVE PC FOR A STOP AND DUI CHECKPOINTS DO HAVE TO BE ANNOUNCED but a couple deputies sitting running "traffic enforcement" does not

huh, so a police officer is going to risk his/her career (not to mention thier own freedom) to falsify an arrest affadavit, make an illegal arrest, and then perjure themselves on the witness stand to get a misdemeanor traffic conviction on a person they know to be innocent.  hmmmm... riiiiiight.  and MADD is a terrorist organization???   LMAO...  Since the beginning of Mothers Against Drunk Driving traffic alcohol related deaths have FALLEN, thousands of lives have been saved.  It has been scientifically proven that most people are impaired at a .08 breath alcohol level. It is amusing the statements that are made against public safety officials and organizations dedicated to making our roads safe.  I was speaking to a group of convicted drunk drivers one time and one of them stood up and said it was societies fault (their drunk driving) because we would not allow bars to be built in neighborhoods so that they could walk home.  hahaha... I wonder what color the sky is in some peoples worlds.  If you truly think MADD is a terroist organization (like the PLO, HAMAS, IRA, or Al Queda) may I suggest AA?

This kid made a mistake. I am sure he is a good person who just screwed up (alledged), we have all made mistakes.  Many of us have also been impacted by drunk drivers (having family members killed or injured).  Don't be enablers for bad behavior and attack Public Safety people. I know the coaches sure don't.  

Also if you are going to "sleep it off" put the keys somewhere else in the vehicle, better yet give them to a friend, better still call a cab or the safe ride guys (if they are still in operation at USF).

[Guest JulmisteForPrez]

Well said, HOTMello!  All this other crap we're discussing doesn't matter in the scheme of things.  I have nothing to do with MADD, but I can't blame them for being....well.....mad!  There is NO EXCUSE whatsoever for DUI!  None!

[Guest JulmisteForPrez]

Everyone....

Could we please quit saying Bleakley made a "mistake"??  We heard the same statements when the three potheads failed their SECOND drug test.  Do we not understand the difference between a "mistake" and a foolishly wrong concious decision??  If you really need to (but I doubt you do), look up the word "mistake" in a dictionary.  It's something you didn't intend to do!  Did Bleakley ACCIDENTALLY pour the booze down his throat??  Did Ponton, Julmiste, and Chambers MISTAKENLY light up a fat one and accidentally puff away??

All I'm asking is that we call a spade a spade.  Euphemisms drive me nuts, and it's part of what is dumbing down our society.

Thanks!

[Knight_Light]

I also know that lately the cops just sit outside Peabody's in the parking lot...I've seen them pull somebody over as soon as the guy got in the car. No joke. It's pretty ridiculous

BTW, the police need probable cause to pull over someone for DUI.  The person must commit a primary offense - weaving, erratic driving, broken tail light, etc.  They cannot pull you over for leaving a bar.  Any lawyer with a night school degree could beat that charge.  Now if they watched someone stagger from the bar like a drunken fool and then jump behind the wheel, then they can pull them over.

DUI checkpoints are also have a narrow legal line.  The police must annouce them and their location 24 hours before they set up one.  They cannot just set up a road block on a whim ala Dukes of Hazard and start pulling people over.

BELIEVE ME ALL THE COP NEEDS IS A LITTLE "CREATIVE WRITING" TO HAVE PC FOR A STOP AND DUI CHECKPOINTS DO HAVE TO BE ANNOUNCED but a couple deputies sitting running "traffic enforcement" does not

huh, so a police officer is going to risk his/her career (not to mention thier own freedom) to falsify an arrest affadavit, make an illegal arrest, and then perjure themselves on the witness stand to get a misdemeanor traffic conviction on a person they know to be innocent.  hmmmm... riiiiiight.  and MADD is a terrorist organization???   LMAO...  Since the beginning of Mothers Against Drunk Driving traffic alcohol related deaths have FALLEN, thousands of lives have been saved.  It has been scientifically proven that most people are impaired at a .08 breath alcohol level. It is amusing the statements that are made against public safety officials and organizations dedicated to making our roads safe.  I was speaking to a group of convicted drunk drivers one time and one of them stood up and said it was societies fault (their drunk driving) because we would not allow bars to be built in neighborhoods so that they could walk home.  hahaha... I wonder what color the sky is in some peoples worlds.  If you truly think MADD is a terroist organization (like the PLO, HAMAS, IRA, or Al Queda) may I suggest AA?

This kid made a mistake. I am sure he is a good person who just screwed up (alledged), we have all made mistakes.  Many of us have also been impacted by drunk drivers (having family members killed or injured).  Don't be enablers for bad behavior and attack Public Safety people. I know the coaches sure don't.  

Also if you are going to "sleep it off" put the keys somewhere else in the vehicle, better yet give them to a friend, better still call a cab or the safe ride guys (if they are still in operation at USF).

Well said.

As a recently MADD radio commercial mentioned just last week (i.e. for those that didn't know, there was a National DUI priority over Labor Day Week...couldn't miss it with all the ads on TV/radio):

"For the price one has to pay for getting a DUI (i.e. laywer fees), one could hire a helicopter for a ride home from the bar/party and avoid the DUI all together."

KL

[Triple B]

And it's time for Ms. Genshaft, Mr. Woolard, and Mr. Leavitt to sit down and have a chit-chat about the alarming rate at which we are supplanting UM & FSU as the thug capital of the football state of Florida!

>

You have got to be kidding me ..........

[Triple B]

Everyone....

Could we please quit saying Bleakley made a "mistake"??

No.

mis-take

–noun 1. an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgment caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, insufficient knowledge, etc.  

[Bobcat99]

 It has been scientifically proven that most people are impaired at a .08 breath alcohol level.

And it has been far more consistently proven that using a mobile phone while driving impairs a driver more than the most common levels of intoxication.

Furthermore, 65% of accidents are caused by individuals with over a .15 and there's no evidence (Freeman 2005, S. Levitt per a personal email to me) the .08 limit forced on states has had any impact whatsoever on fatalities, indeed, DUI fatality rates have remained constant since about 1997.

But you know all that, and I'm sure you know about the notoriously inaccurate nature of Breathalyzers in general, so I won't even bring that up. I would advise any diabetics or those on the Atkins diet to refrain from Breathalyzers, as even the NHTSA admits this.  Breathalyzers assume an average crit level that is in no way the same in every individual; women are particularly at risk of false positives since a machine that assumes a crit of 47% is rating at the very top of where the average woman would be (most women are 35-47% crit).

But again, you know all that.

If you truly think MADD is a terroist organization (like the PLO, HAMAS, IRA, or Al Queda) may I suggest AA?

"[...] activities designed to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence the policy of a government through intimidation or coercion,[...]" Title 18, U.S.C.

Threatening to withhold needed highway dollars for the implementation of a state policy is the very definition of coercion.

Look, I love cops, and trust them, so much so that I TRUST THEM MORE THAN I TRUST A MACHINE. Not to mention field tests allow the official to spend more time with the suspect and get a better bearing on his or her faculties. Unfortunately, due to being in a hurry, or whatever, it seems that it's "pull 'em over and get 'em to blow" nowadays.. it certainly has been in my case (and every time, I was stone cold sober... but read .02...)

[Guest JulmisteForPrez]

Everyone....

Could we please quit saying Bleakley made a "mistake"??

No.

mis-take

–noun 1. an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgment caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, insufficient knowledge, etc.  

Okay, Triple_B....

So here's what you're saying by providing us with that definition and saying that applies to Bleakley's actions...

Will did not know that drinking alcohol would cause him to become intoxicated....he had insufficient knowledge of that fact.  It is either that, or he did not know that driving while intoxicated is against the law....he had insufficient knowledge of that.  So which is it?  It HAS to be one or the other according to what you have stated.  Either way, if that's true, then the kid needs to have an IQ test, we need to check the validity of his high school GPA and standardized test scores, because...

If Will Bleakley did not know one or both of the facts stated above (as you claim), then there is no way he is competent enough to be enrolled for classes at the University of South Florida.

Bleakley did not make any choices that night that he did not know the effects and consequences of.  He did not become drunk by "error" as the definition you provided says.  When a shortstop makes an "error" it is ALWAYS unintentional.  When Bleakley drank booze, it was intentional, and when Bleakley chose to drive an automobile thereafter, it was INTENTIONAL.  No error involved!  Hence, no "mistake."  

All I ask is that we call a spade a spade.  Why is that so difficult?

[Triple B]

Everyone....

Could we please quit saying Bleakley made a "mistake"??

No.

mis-take

–noun 1. an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgment caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, insufficient knowledge, etc.  

Okay, Triple_B....

So here's what you're saying by providing us with that definition and saying that applies to Bleakley's actions...

Here's what I'm saying without addressing all that other extraneous crap you babbled about. He made an error in judgment. It's one that I would venture that almost anyone who socially drinks has made. I know I have, stupidly.

I guess I just don't hold the student-athletes up to any higher standards than regular students. That's just me. These things happen and to equate him to a "thug" because of it is one of the most ridiculous things I've read on here from a non-Kanigit.

[Bobcat99]

I guess I just don't hold the student-athletes up to any higher standards than regular students.

Really? Because the regular students are paying their own way for school, while the athletes go to school on YOUR DOLLAR. (And everyone else who buys tickets.)