Yeah!
I was going to start my own thread, but since no one answered this question, and my situation is strikingly similiar, I thought I'd add-on...
My situation. Simply...
I am an american citizen, completely. Generations back, white, german-irish. First of all. I am 20 years old(21 in march). I have a lot a lot of russian friends who are my age. I have been to russia to visit some of them even, in the past year. More to the point. I spent the whole summer in ocean city, and the police were a nightmare. I will admit that the 2 times at first I got an underage possession of alcohol charge, it was ligit. I got to do community service wihtout going to court, and I was ok with that. The police were just enforcing the law. Whether I agree with said law or not is irrelevant. However, last week, I returned to ocean city, a town which, in the fall and winter is like a ghost town. The cops hang around the wawa's without much of anything to do. I returned to Ocean City to do my community service for the previous charge as my court date was approaching. The night I got there. I went to the nice condo where my russian friends live, as I was going to stay there for 2 days while I complete this community service. I then, drove 1 of my friends, 23 years old, Bulgarian guy, great english, to dunkin donuts where another girl was about to get off work at 2 AM. None of us had been drinking at all. On the way there we stopped at a 7/11 and he went in and he purchased and small 12 pack of beer. He carried it in the back seat with him, when we got to the dunkin donuts, which was in a strip mall outside. I went around to the back of the strip mall, where nobody was, an empty place behind a shopping center if you can imagine. And of course I didn't put my car in a parking space. I left it sit, i thought we'd just be several minutes. I even left the doors open and maybe the lights on. The beer was in the back, unopened of course, nobody in the car. We went inside and helped the girl finish her work. After 5 minutes or so, we went outside to find 5 police in 3 police cars all over me. Questions flying, I thought there had been a robbery or something. They quickly realized that I spoke english and the other 2 were obviously from another country which may have been the reason for the mistreatment, however unjustified. They first questioned me about why my vehicle was sitting, not in a parking spot, I said come on I just stopped for a minute, it's the middle of the night, no people anywhere. Then they said about the beer they saw in my car while shining a flashlight in there. I explained to them that this beer belonged to my friend who was 23 and with me. Of course he cut me off and said I was lying so I stopped speaking. They then took my friend, the purchaser of the beer 10 feet from me, took his id(passport) and asked him about the beer. He said that "the beer is mine". They said, "but you bought it for him didn't you", ' so it's his beer". He said "no the beer is mine". The cop said, "I can tell by your body motions that you are lying and the beer is his" "and THAT"S ENOUGH OF AN ADMISSION OF GUILT FOR ME" He said nothing more. I was waiting for a while while they wrote me a citation for underage possession. After I was even honest to them about the reason I was in ocean city. I told, perhaps stupidly, that I was in ocean city to do community service for a previous charge, that this was his beer and I had no intention of partying in ocean city, I just wanted to do the work and leave this **** hole. I should point out that I was extremely polite and cooperative throughout this whole ordeal, in spite of the fact that they were trying to provoke me to get angry and do something stupid. I was made to dump out each can of beer in their presence, a standard maryland practice, and then I awaited my citation. The girl finally finished working and came out while I waited. She started to speak to me in russian. She asked me where the romanian guy was, and what had happened, I started to say that I didn't know where he was. It was at that point that the ******* cop said, "uh if you guys are gonna talk, I'd prefer if you spoke english". So she asked me the same exact thing in english, and I told her I didn't know where he was. One cop even tried to call the next day to the ladies who gave me the community service option for the previous offense and tried to see if they could get me a few nights in jail. Apparently that will teach me my lesson. Frankly all this money and the outrageous fines are more painfully to me then a few nights in jail, as I am dirt poor and a 500$ fine is a nightmare for me.
Of course this was all laughable to the foreigners. They understand we have strict laws about drinking. But they couldn't believe I would have to go to court. No one was drinking. No drugs were involved. The owner of the alcohol, 23 years old, was with me.
The following are my serious questions...
So what am I supposed to do? I have no money for a lawyer. I will be assigned a public defender, I just want to know what my rights were. What the police did wrong if anything. I want to know if the police can consider beer in my vehicle, my property, even if the true legal owner of the beer is with me and tells them so. Can the police use "body movements, or nervous twitches" as an admission of guilt? And will anyone listen to me in these redneck run, puritanical, witch trial court rooms in rural Maryland?
The remaining text is simply me ranting and raving about laws and politics and the failure of american law enforcement and policy to suppress crime. If you an answer to the questions above, you may skip reading my nonsense below
I'd like to state, without trying sounding like an *******, but I can't help it, I do know some good cops and there must be some more out there somewhere, but cops in Maryland are total dickheads to me. I spent the summer in Ocean City, MD, and the police literally were a nightmare for me the entire time. The police in Ocean City, are young, immature, and power crazy. They are completely biased, sometimes very racially biased, antagonistic to rational discussion to solve problems, completely out to get anyone and anything they can, rude, and seem to constantly violate citizens rights. These young redneck cops are totally ignorant of their positions, and they think it's a game. The worst thing is in Ocean City, there are hundreds of international students there for the summer. Like 50% of everyone there. These guys often don't speak english well, and cops do horrible things to them as they can't stand up for themselves. They come from places where you can do almost anything you want, a place where you can bribe a cop with 2$ to get out of a DUI charge. You don't even need to initiate the bribe, it's standard practice. Just hand it out the window and drive away. Of course I'm talking about russia and eastern europe. And I'm not saying that they shouldn't be expected to follow american laws. But most of them are completely violated and thrown in jail by police, half the time for crimes they didn't commit. Then they are waiting a trial for 6 months, while the court has their passport, and they can't go back home in September when they were to begin the next year of college. And some of them get kicked out of their universities because of this, and just because some cop arrested them on a small charge or something they didn't do, their entire lives are ruined. I'm american, I speak perfect english, and it's even hard for me to stand up for any of my rights with these cops. They come at you 5, 6 at a time and barely let you speak. And demand you answer questions. I know one situation where one russian student was arrested simply because the drunk american guy that kept messing with him told the cops that he tried to rob them and that he hit them, none of which was true. The student couldn't say anything as his english is very bad. And now he remains in ocean city, the lawyers couldn't do anything for him and he was kicked out of his university. And nobody seems to give a ****. It's like, "Welcome to America bitch, where everyone has rights, at least if you speak english and have money for lawyers," then they'll go back to wherever they're from and tell everyone how america has crazy laws that it knows no one will follow then arrest people and fines people for these crimes taking 1000s of dollars a year in fines and filling its prisons with 20 year old men who had a case of beer in their car, or someone with a gram of weed in their back pocket.
The worst thing is the cops seem to think they are doing something good by catching "minors" with alcohol. Is it really possible to have a law that a vast majority of people violate almost everyday, ESPECIALLY, those college age kids 18-20. It's not even that hard to catch someone doing it. In ocean city during the summer you can just see anyone carrying a drink and ask for id, and you'll have your next victim.
And what's with the big "crackdown"? Crack down on something worthwhile, like GUN CONTROL! People are getting shot everyday because america's streets are flooded with guns. You will not find any of those "hey I was young once too" cops, let me write you a warning, and you be careful now. These cops treat your underage(20) alcohol situation like they just found a case of heroin in your trunk.
END!
