Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
From the LA Times:
An off-duty Orange County sheriff's deputy, who allegedly was intoxicated when he crashed his Mercedes-Benz into another vehicle and injured a passenger, had crashed 30 minutes earlier and was allowed to drive from that accident scene by fellow deputies, authorities said Friday.Sheriff's deputies were called Monday afternoon to a crash involving Deputy Allan James Waters, 36, and another vehicle outside City Hall in Dana Point. Deputies took a report and permitted Waters keep driving, said Assistant Sheriff Mike James.
And the result:
About 30 minutes later, at 5:20 p.m., Waters crashed his Mercedes-Benz into a Toyota in Laguna Niguel, causing it to cross the center median and slam into a tree, according to the California Highway Patrol. Dolores Molina, a 78-year-old passenger in the Toyota, suffered minor injuries.CHP officers said Waters showed signs of being intoxicated and was booked on suspicion of driving under the influence. He was released Wednesday, according to jail records.
Because when you drive drunk, that's a felony; when a cop drives drunk, it's okay. He can count on his buddies to let him go because cops don't arrest cops. But these are the same people, of course, who will talk endlessly about the rule of law.
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Until the penalty for the enabling cops are made severe enough, no change will occur in their behavior.
If these 'rule of law' class acts want to help their drunken brethren, put them in the back and drive them home.
Posted by: MikeMa | March 12, 2010 9:10 AM
Sometimes I have to work hard to maintain respect for the police as people. Maybe that's because when police act this way they are showing no respect for the citizens.
Posted by: gski | March 12, 2010 9:45 AM
The recent story of University of Florida grad student Kofi Adu-Brempong deserves more attention in the annals of cops-gone-crazy.
When Adu-Brempong was having a noisy nervous breakdown alone in his student-housing apartment, five UF PD officers (previously famous for the "don't taser me, bro!" incident) broke down his door, shot him twice with a taser, three times with bean-bag shotgun shells, and once in the face with an M-4 (a combat-grade automatic rifle) - all in 30 seconds.
Two other facts need mentioning here: a) Adu-Brempong is 5-foot, 4-inches tall, weighs 140 pounds and walked with a cane, and b) the cop with the M-4 was recently involved in an incident in which he and several other police drove drunk through a black neighborhood throwing eggs at pedestrians.
Posted by: Pierce R. Butler | March 12, 2010 9:55 AM
In fairness, I know a guy -- not a cop, not a friend of a cop -- who hit a curb or something, was obviously drunk, and the cop asked him how far away he lived (it was just down the street) and let him go without a breathalyzer or anything. Not that this makes it okay; I'm just saying, it's not entirely unheard of for non-cops to get away with this stuff too.
Now me, any time I interact with a uniformed authority figure, the mutual contempt is palpable. I would never get away with a warning in a situation like that. heh...
Posted by: James Sweet | March 12, 2010 10:18 AM
I don't know. I think this is sort of a gray area. I mean, there is a police shortage in many towns, so even if he was drunk, and even really drunk, he was probably needed out there on the streets.
Hopefully, he had his gun so when he rammed that car if the little old lady had caused a dust up he would have been able to take her out with a warning shot to the leg or something.
Drunk or not, I say, arm 'em to the teeth and turn 'em loose. We need cops.
Posted by: Skip | March 12, 2010 10:25 AM
This actually kind of worked in NYC, as I understand it... Just recruit so many damn cops that there has to be a half dozen of 'em hanging around any time there's a crime.
Then there was that whole Amadou Diallo thing, which kind of threw a monkeywrench in that whole idea....
Posted by: James Sweet | March 12, 2010 10:30 AM
@Pierce:
I loved this line from that article:
We don't know if you're harming yourself, so we're going to break in and make sure you get harmed.
Posted by: Tacroy | March 12, 2010 11:40 AM
In the Florida - Adu-Brempong case, the police electrocuted him with tasers, beat him with explosive propelled bean bags and shot him in the face with a military assault rifle.
In the excitement they forgot to use mace, batons and their sidearms. Come on people; you are given those tools for a reason; use them!
Would it be fair to say Adu-Brempong's fears are no longer delusional? He is not mentally ill, he is right.
Maybe the police were influenced by the US Army's philosophy during the Vietnam conflict; villages must be destroyed to be saved.
Posted by: Pinky | March 12, 2010 11:01 PM