D
I had a cop tail me for a couple miles before flashing me. Claimed I swerved and tested me. I was stone cold sober and remain convinced that I didn't swerve. You can't prove or refute that claim. Speeding, they clock you. But swerving? When I passed he was visibly annoyed. Whether there is a quota, bonus system, or they just really feel like they're protecting the world--it absolutely does happen.
THIS.
This one time I was driving a shiny red with white stripes dodge viper about 74-76 mph in a 70 and out of nowhere this black thing appears in my rearview mirror almost immediately. It's an undercover charger. I vaguely remember passing an undercover charger going the OTHER WAY about 4-5 miles ago. The hellish-looking black vehicle suddenly developed blue lights, so I pulled over thinking I was getting busted for my window tint. To my surprise the cop writes me a ticket for doing 90. Then I realized what this was about. Shiny red viper, cop with a fast car and ego, 4-5 mile lag between location of supposed offense and location of traffic stop? Yeah, the guy saw my car, floored it until he got to the next median turnaround a mile away or so, then proceeded to do probably about 130 mph on a wide open stretch of empty highway until he finally caught me. I am sure that this must have made him miserable. But clearly me exceeding the speed limit by 4-6 mph justified him chasing after me at 130+ mph and giving me a lecture about how me driving that fast results in "brain matter all over the highway."
So yeah, cops can do pretty much whatever they want and charge you with whatever they want. You get a good lawyer and do what you can if this happens to you (and driving a silver honda civic always helps).
My point is, try not to ever drink
anything and drive. If you have one beer and hop in the car, get pulled over, and the cop doesn't like you and smells alcohol, he can make you get out of the car and do a field sobriety test and fail you and charge you with DUI. Even you have a 0.04 down at the station, you can still be charged and convicted of DUI. Remember, the USA has one of the most liberal drunk driving laws in the world. In many countries it's <0.05, and many others have a zero tolerance policy. That said, I am always amazed at two things:
(1) The number of people who drink to the point of intoxication and claim they have never done it. Bullsh|t. If you've ever been drunk in your life more than once, you almost undoubtedly have gotten behind the wheel while impaired whether you admit it to yourself or not (besides the scores of other bad decisions you have probably made -- Somehow you thought texting your ex, buying patron shots for the whole bar, and sleeping in the alley were all ok things to do, but you've always been smart enough while drunk to never drive? Yeah right.) Hopefully you learned from it, didn't make excuses, and don't put yourself in the position again. But we see all the time people going out and drinking and driving home (oh I had 5 drinks, but it was over 4 hours, I'm good. Yeah right buddy tell that one to the judge)
(2) The number of med students, residents, and physicians I see drinking and driving and using drugs while driving. Yet, I almost never hear about a DUI charge. Something doesn't add up there. Somehow it's not shameful if you do it, but only if you get caught and can't hide it? You think with more to lose, you'd be more cautious, especially in an environment where a DUI can be career ending and cops can pretty much make up stuff and get away with it (he was swerving, I smelled alcohol, etc.)
