Who's a naughty boy then! >:(
http://www.abc15.com/dpp/entertainment/celebrity/star-trek-actor-brooks-charged-with-dui-in-conn (http://www.abc15.com/dpp/entertainment/celebrity/star-trek-actor-brooks-charged-with-dui-in-conn)
Quark should have flagged him...
Uh, yeah. Not surprising at ALL!
I heard about this a few days ago. I don't have much sympathy for anyone driving drunk or intoxicated. So if he was that way, I hope this serves to wake him up to the damage that he could have caused.
well what do you know? serves him right, of course, but i wouldn't have guessed.
Wow. What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty? What's more telling is that he was pulled over in a wealthy neighborhood after someone called the police. Having been in a similar position and not being guilty of anything other than my skin tone didn't match the neighbors, I'll wait until the evidence is released before I pass judgement.
Quote from: X on February 02, 2012, 05:47:19 PM
Wow. What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty? What's more telling is that he was pulled over in a wealthy neighborhood after someone called the police. Having been in a similar position and not being guilty of anything other than my skin tone didn't match the neighbors, I'll wait until the evidence is released before I pass judgement.
Yeah true, that can happen. But with DUI isn't there usually a breathalizer and a sobriety test? I had a cop friend give me a sobriety test sober and then drunk as a goof one night, and I can tell ya, you can't fake sober.
I figured I'd see him in the news for being way too high on life. (Watch the Captains)
King
I have clients and friends in Wilton, CT. It's very near where I grew up. It's very rural and wealthy, it's not a big town with a lot of cops.
It's all the more disappointing and a little painful to see one of the Captains do something so humanly dumb.
I hope this is it, because I want to see this guy around a little longer.
I am not going to jump to conclusions on this either, have seen cases in the past, where at first glance the person looked very guilty, but after the facts came out, it was something much different.
My point is that you REALLY have to be doing something obviously odd to get pulled over in Wilton. And I am not judging the guy at all. There have been many times I havce driven a car when I likely should not have. More then i would even care to admit in my younger days for sure.
Quote from: X on February 02, 2012, 05:47:19 PM
Wow. What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty? What's more telling is that he was pulled over in a wealthy neighborhood after someone called the police. Having been in a similar position and not being guilty of anything other than my skin tone didn't match the neighbors, I'll wait until the evidence is released before I pass judgement.
Chris makes a really good point here about jumping to conclusions. Sadly neither option would be preferable...I mean what's worse, Avery Brooks is a drunk or a victim of racial profiling?
Quote from: X on February 02, 2012, 05:47:19 PM
Wow. What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty? What's more telling is that he was pulled over in a wealthy neighborhood after someone called the police. Having been in a similar position and not being guilty of anything other than my skin tone didn't match the neighbors, I'll wait until the evidence is released before I pass judgement.
Uh, probably because he IS wealthy? Dude, just because an African-American was popped for DUI in a "wealthy" neighborhood doesn't me race had anything to do with it. I'm thinking it was because, oh I don't know, he was driving erratically?? Maybe??? So, you say not to judge him guilty until all the facts are in, but YOU'RE jumping to conclusions yourself as well by saying, and I quote..."What's more telling is that he was pulled over in a wealthy neighborhood after someone called the police. Having been in a similar position and not being guilty of anything other than my skin tone didn't match the neighbors..." Just sayin'...
Quote from: Bryancd on February 03, 2012, 06:42:24 AM
My point is that you REALLY have to be doing something obviously odd to get pulled over in Wilton. And I am not judging the guy at all. There have been many times I havce driven a car when I likely should not have. More then i would even care to admit in my younger days for sure.
I to have been in the spot when I was younger and in my late teens and early twenties where I was driving when I clearly should not have been, and had a few close calls in getting caught. Once in the parking lot of a liquor store well the police were checking the car park beside me, and I left before they got to me after a friend came out with a flat of Beer. In my province, at the time, the legal age to drink was 18, so I was probably not mature enough to determine if I should be driving. Those experiences really influenced how I view drinking now, and especially driving, just not worth the risk at all. I don't drink much, but if I do, then someone else drives, if my wife and I go to a party, if she drinks, then I do not and drive, or the other way around, she will drive and not drink. Like stated though, will wait until I hear more before passing Judgement on Avery.
Quote from: QuadShot on February 03, 2012, 06:49:04 AM
Quote from: X on February 02, 2012, 05:47:19 PM
Wow. What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty? What's more telling is that he was pulled over in a wealthy neighborhood after someone called the police. Having been in a similar position and not being guilty of anything other than my skin tone didn't match the neighbors, I'll wait until the evidence is released before I pass judgement.
Uh, probably because he IS wealthy? Dude, just because an African-American was popped for DUI in a "wealthy" neighborhood doesn't me race had anything to do with it. I'm thinking it was because, oh I don't know, he was driving erratically?? Maybe??? So, you say not to judge him guilty until all the facts are in, but YOU'RE jumping to conclusions yourself as well by saying, and I quote..."What's more telling is that he was pulled over in a wealthy neighborhood after someone called the police. Having been in a similar position and not being guilty of anything other than my skin tone didn't match the neighbors..." Just sayin'...
You're missing my point. I lived in the neighborhood where I got pulled over for something similar. I was driving fine. I'm saying that there could be several things going on and instead of jumping to the conclusion that he was guilty, we should wait for more evidence. I used an anecdote from my own past because I'm probably not the first guy to get pulled over for driving while black and DUI is the easiest thing to charge someone with because most field sobriety test are subjective to the desires of the arresting officer. You can't really argue with them about not being drunk, but you can wait for the evidence before assuming guilt.
Quote from: Bryancd on February 03, 2012, 06:42:24 AM
My point is that you REALLY have to be doing something obviously odd to get pulled over in Wilton. And I am not judging the guy at all. There have been many times I havce driven a car when I likely should not have. More then i would even care to admit in my younger days for sure.
I get what you're saying Bryan and I also agree, but part of me knows that if you are in a wealthy town and call the cops on someone, someone is going to jail. I think that there could be a lot of factors to this, but I was trying to point out that situations like this aren't always cut and dry.
I do know that when cops are called in my father's neighborhood, they respond quickly and swiftly. Misunderstandings are usually sorted out at the police station.
X, I apologize for misinterpreting your post then. For the record, I haven't passed the guilty judgement on Avery yet. I merely stated that it didn't surprise me, and it doesn't or won't SHOULD he be found guilty...:)
All I can say is that if he was indeed driving drunk, I'm disappointed. If it's proven he wasn't, no harm done. I've also been in a few situations where I probably shouldn't have been driving and thankfully nothing bad happened and I wasn't caught (nothing bad happening being the more important point).
I had a few friends who did get caught, not sure how it works in the states but they always got out of it with a few thousand dollars handed over to a good lawyer and some community service. I don't think Avery Brooks is famous enough to be "made an example" of celebs not being above the law.
Don't they have you take a sobriety test right after they pull you over? If they did, I would assume he failed the test or no charges would have been filed.
Here they give you one on site and then another once they get to the station, if one of them comes up clean, you walk.
Having been pulled over many times 'driving while Black', I will wait for the details to emerge. I got pulled over once when the first thing the officer asked me was "Is this your van?". WTH? Never even asked for my insurance or registration. Then he gave me a speeding ticket. One of our corporate attorneys came with me to the hearing to press the case. But at the hearing, the officer never showed up so it all got dismissed. So many stories like that. It happened a lot given I live in a city with few African-American residents. It happens a lot less now that the local police "know" me (not saying that makes me feel any better).
But if he was driving drunk, I will not be sympathetic. It may not be "fair", but I hold black celebrities, athletes, and business persons to a high standard because black youth like my kids need positive role models.
My opinion, having lost someone very close to me as a result of an underage, impaired driver, is that when you're caught driving while impaired, you should lose the privelege of driving. Forever. Thank god you didn't hurt anyone, and figure out the public transportation schedules for the rest of your life.
I will also add that Wilton is a VERY wealthy and VERY Caucasian dominated town. So the idea that he could have been hassled because of his skin color has some merit, I just think, knowing how rural the area is, he more likely did something to draw attention to himself beyond that. In Arizona, thanks the the infamous Sheriff Joe, we have a zero tolerance DWI policy. Get caught once and you are going to what is referred to as "Tent City" for a few weeks. It's literally a tent camp in the desert where all the inmates, men and women, wear pink jumpsuits. And I mean EVRYONE caught and convicted goes, rich, poor, black, white, hispanic. One of the advisors here at my office, a wealthy 50 year old white woman, cooled her heals there last year.
Quote from: Bryancd on February 03, 2012, 07:47:53 AM
I will also add that Wilton is a VERY wealthy and VERY Caucasian dominated town. So the idea that he could have been hassled because of his skin color has some merit, I just think, knowing how rural the area is, he more likely did something to draw attention to himself beyond that. In Arizona, thanks the the infamous Sheriff Joe, we have a zero tolerance DWI policy. Get caught once and you are going to what is referred to as "Tent City" for a few weeks. It's literally a tent camp in the desert where all the inmates, men and women, wear pink jumpsuits. And I mean EVRYONE caught and convicted goes, rich, poor, black, white, hispanic. One of the advisors here at my office, a wealthy 50 year old white woman, cooled her heals there last year.
The Goalie for our NHL Team had to serve time at Tent City in the Summer, got quite a bit of press up here. At the start of the season, looked like the best way to prepare as he was on his game, but then that sort of went off the rails, so maybe they could send him back for another stint :)
He certainly is innocent until proven guilty but I've known a few people charged with DUI's - and they ALL ended up in pretty big trouble. One guy I know even did it twice. Cops don't mess around with this stuff. That plus it being a celeb. make me tend to think they have some pretty solid test evidence that will be very hard to refute.
While he is innocent until proven guilty, the cops are also innocent of racial profiling unti some evidence comes to bear. Although racial profiling happens sadly to this day, it's more likely that this is a sad case of a man we respect doing someting dumb.
Plus my thought on this is, Avery Brooks just doesn't strike me as the type of guy to take an obvious racist move laying down, I'm pretty sure he would have reacted as soon as he was able to get a lawyer and start firng off statements.