Cedric Benson Arrested

I heard Benson's lawyer on KLBJ this morning, he quickly played the race card.

Amazing that the police are being painted as the problem by some here, ever think the person arrested was being an uncooperative a-hole? A lot of boaters get arrested, just because one is one of your athletic heroes does not mean he did not deserve it.

Nice painting all cops in Austin as racist, profiling renegades.

He will face the charges and continue to rack up arrests, this is his third by the way.

I would rather defend the guys trying to make the lake safe, but that is me.
 
Had this been any other player from any other school you guys would be claiming he got what he deserved as was a thug.
 
There are bad apples every where and Ced's arrest record is certainly not on his side. But some of you are sticking your heads in the sand if you think the APD, TCSD, HCSD and WCSD don't have piss poor track records. And "piss poor" is actually being a little generous.

That being said, I seriously, seriously doubt that either side is telling the complete truth, but I am inclined to believe that Ced is more likely telling the truth based on my professional and personal experiences.
 
I am beginning to question the real rationale of some of the posters on this site. Even though this isnt the 50's, 60's, or 70's anymore, racism is still alive and well in this country. I cant believe that some of you think that it doesnt exist. Some of you just dont get it. You think that just because you have never been pulled over or have never been arrested that that makes what happens to any athlete/person that gets arrested / accosted alright.

There are several legitimate cases out there where someone isnt guilty of anything, yet they are pulled over and accosted basically for the fact they questioned why they were pulled over in the first place and/or because of how they looked. As I stated earlier, when I was pulled over, I was more than cooperative with the overzealous cop (provided him w/ my D.L., insurance, registration, etc), but the entire time I was etching down his badge number, name, and any other significant items of note about him into my memory bank. Fortunately, for me, everything worked out through the judicial system in my favor. Others arent as fortunate to have that happen. This could happen to any of you, even if you arent a minority, it could be because you look different than the average guy or even because the law enforcement official feels like abusing their power at that moment.

And again, I am not saying that CB is totalling innocent, I am just saying that as much as I love the Austin area and cherish my days as a student/soldier there(I was stationed at Ft Hood, while I was a student), the local police/sheriff departments have started to develop a disturbing pattern there of abusing their power. Actually, in subtle ways, it was occurring even while I was there.

This is in no way pointing a "racist" finger to any of my fellow Horn posters. I am just letting you know that this ugly group of what I call "quota rodeo cops" rounding them up, so to speak, exists within the overall decent law enforcement system. BTW, I am a proud young, African-American Texas grad, not Texas-Ex. I will always be a Texas grad!
 
For those backing the APD, here some interesting links.

Again, I am not defending Cedric, but APD is far from the saints that some on hornfans are portraying them as. In fact, it's really a joke of a police department.
The Link
The Link
The Link
The Link
The Link
The Link

I found these stories in less than 5 minutes doing a simple google search. I would love to see more detailed statistics on problems within APD.
 
Here is what I know about boating while intoxicated in general (I am not even going to consider getting into the racist cop arguments):

I have done lots of boating in and around Austin and in North Texas. I have been pulled over and boarded by the LCRA and BRA more times than I can count (they can do this for no reason at all). Though I have never been ticketed for anything on the lake other than an expired registration sticker.

From my experiences, and what BRA/LCRA have told me, you do not have to actually be operating the boat to get a BWI. If you are anchored sitting around having beers, they can board your boat, ask who is or will be driving the boat, and perform a sobriety test. If nobody owns up, they will generally go after the owner of the boat, if present.

Now, if you are anchored with a lot of people around and nobody currently on the boat is sober enough, you can get out of being in trouble by specifically telling the officer that "so and so driving and he is right there." I have seen this many times.

Another thing I have seen, that really sucks (although the people deserved it and should not have put themselves in this situation - I am not condoning boating drunk) is that if nobody on the boat is sober enough to drive, or if nobody owns up to driving and the owner is not present, everyone gets arrested. This has happened a couple of times to people I know. Once the owner failed a sobriety test and nobody else would take one to see if they could drive home, so the owner got a BWI and everyone else got PI's. And the boat was impounded (expensive and bad to deal with).

All that being said, if they were anchored up, someone else could have just said they were driving (assuming they were sober). The LCRA may have stayed and made sure that person drove when they left, but it would not have been difficult for them to do it. If nobody else was sober enough, I am not sure why they all did not get arrested - I know it is a lot of people, but I have seen boats of 12 people get arrested. Therefore, I either assume that he was operating the boat, or he claimed to be the driver when they were anchored.

So, that is what I know - or at least have experienced.
 
Being drunk and on a boat is not a crime. If someone wanted to arrest me for that, I'd be asking questions too.

I have yet to see a claim that Benson posed a physical threat to anyone who was trying to place him under arrest, only that he refused to leave the boat because he didn't feel it had been properly explained to him WHY he was being arrested and that he didn't want to put on a life jacket. Sorry, but none of that warrants the use of pepper spray.
 
So if that's considered being drunk in public then why wasn't that the charge, and why was Benson the only one arrested?
 
The cops very well may have over reacted in this situation and/or acted unappropriately, but Cedric could have just as easily done the same. You seem to fail to realize this. Cedric says one thing, the cops say another, but you (and some others) automatically come down on the cops. This is just ignorant.
 
Who here trusts a cop when it comes to him making a decision on your temporary freedom.
Not I certainly.
About the only thing I can do in order to pacify him is do as he asks as long as he's not asking anything immoral.
Cedric is the one who needs to take sensitivity classes because this isn't the first time he's been arrested & probably not the last.
If he knows everyone is going to be picking on poor ole' Ced then he needs to know how to act when confronted w/ the situation.
I've yet to hear a guy not claim after he was arrested he did nothing wrong & it's the cops fault.
Arrested for weed in my drawer, not my weed, girlfriend like to stash her weed by my underwear, cop is mean.
Arrested for B&E, they have my TV, wasn't there but, you know, they HAD it, cops are mean.
Arrested for boating while drunk, they asked me to put on a lifejacket, I didn't want to, they then asked me to prove I wasn't drunk, I did it & passed but they said I failed, they wanted me to come on shore, I didn't want to, they insisted, I said no, they arrested me, cops mean.
 
I don't think the water hose was meant to harass or hurt Cedric, sounds to me like they were running the hose to get the pepper spray out of his eyes.
 
But here's the thing. The first time Cedric was arrested, the charges were dropped because an immediate drug test proved he didn't do anything wrong. The second time, he admitted to what he was charged with and served his time in jail and his temporary suspension for it without complaining. APD and pretty much all law enforcement groups in this area have a history of being morons when it comes to arresting UT athletes. Cedric may have a history of arrests, but he does not have a history of lying about any of it, so color me more inclined to believe Cedric than some river cop on a power trip.
 
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