by Scott Creighton
Years ago I got a DUI in Florida.
I was coming home from dinner at around 9pm, had beer with my meal, cop followed me out of restaurant parking lot for 2 miles, finally pulled me over for a tail-light being out. According to the cop, I had committed no moving violations. Passed all the roadside tests, the video showed no swerving no leaning no stumbles in the tests, but he gave me the DUI anyway.
But that’s not the story here.
Took 6 hours for the jury to convict and according to my lawyer they had returned a hung verdict, but the judge sent them back to make a decision. The only reason they convicted me was because they played a video of me yelling at the cop after he arrested me for what he knew wasn’t a DUI, and they removed the part where the officer told me in the car, that it didn’t matter what I said, because I would never take it to court. I was poor and my Public Defender would just plead it out. They happened to lose that part of the video (in a pretty bad edit job if you ask me).
I spent 28 days in jail, and it ruined my life for a long while.
Donte Stallworth, also in Florida, left a “club” at 7:30am (in the morning) and by his own account, had been partying there “all night”.
He ran over and killed, in his Bently, 59-year-old Mario Reyes, a construction worker who had been working all night and was trying to catch a bus to go home.
Reyes had a 15 year old daughter.
Stallworth’s blood-alcohol content was .126 (limit is .08).
Stallworth, having plea guilty to DUI manslaughter, will serve… 19 days in jail.
19 days for killing a man while driving home drunk after partying all night… because Dante Stallworth is a multi-millionaire football player who works for billionaires who want him to show up for work this season to make them more money.
Stallworth will do 19 days for killing a man while driving drunk. Killing a poor, working man. (do you think there would be the same outcome if the roles were reversed?)
A commentator on the ESPN like show talking about this, said that this was a “just” conclusion for the case and that Stallworth and his attorneys should be praised for “working the system”. When the wealthy “work the system” we must all be very very pleased that they did.
The family of Reyes took an undisclosed settlement before the trial, I guess so they wouldn’t raise a fuss about Stallworth getting less time for killing their father than do homeless people arrested in Florida for the crime of “being seen while homeless”. They get 30 days for that crime and the cops throw away all their meager belongings. So in effect, being seen while homeless costs them everything they own, plus more of their freedom that Stallworth will give up for killing a man.
The family of Reyes should be proud that their father contributed something to Stallworth’s effort at “working the system”. You see? His life did have meaning. The ESPN like commenter gave him that much…
It should also be noted that the family of Reyes should not feel in the slightest way responsible when the next millionaire football player leaves a nightclub in Florida at 7 am after partying all night and feels since there are no consequences for DUI manslaughter, they grab their keys, hop in their Bently, and kill one of Reyes’ co-workers when he gets off work…
After all; all they are doing is “working the system” right?
Stallworth, the Reyes family… laws only apply to the poor, and if you think I am kidding, just go watch the video of that fine up-standing man, Dante Stallworth. He shouldn’t be held accountable for the same things poor people are.
Because he is rich.
Just like the family of Mario Reyes, now.
In American Ju$tice, laws aren’t for the rich…. and justice isn’t for the poor.
Well stated. Cops like to hang out around bars at closing time. Easy prey. And the rich always get off the hook. Case in point - OJ. I've personally seen it too many times. The problem is, cops get advancement thru citations, not merit of work or level of social interaction with the neighborhoods they patrol. Now I came from a family of cops (on one side) - so I know what their game is and try and avoid confrontations - and I've had my share. Every cop I've known likes to take any excuse to duke it up, choke em, or make em bleed with the billy club. (Says a lot for my circle of friends :) I've seen it first hand, in your face, close up. Getting paid to be a tough guy, and a license to seek sweet revenge, is a great deal for many robots who'd otherwise be street thugs.
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