One More Thing, Well Two or Three
So what should one do if they feel like they’ve been wrongfully arrested? Shut up and be polite. This advice works for when you feel you’ve been rightfully arrested as well. Shut up and be polite. One of the worst effects of alcohol as far as my clients’ cases go is diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain. Alcohol does a bang up job at destroying peoples’ internal filters and they often just go on and on about whatever happens to cross their minds which is compounded by the rightfully intense emotions that one feels upon being arrested.
Shut up and be polite. Everything that is being said and done by you is being recorded. Just about every Austin PD squad car is equipped with a camera facing forward, a camera facing the inside back of the car, and microphones on the police officer and inside the car. Everything you say and do is being recorded even if the officer is not in the car with you. You will not be able to come up with something clever to say to help your case. The officer will not let you go, will not call a cab for you, and will not make all of this go away. The more you ask, the more you talk, the more evidence you give that you really are drunk.
Being rude is just the icing on the cake of your conviction because no one (particularly prosecutors and jurors) likes a jerk. It’s fine to have righteous indignation. It’s fine to be offended at the way you are being treated. It’s fine to be upset and unhappy at being arrested. But you cannot show it. You’ve heard of angry, sad, happy, flirty and obnoxious drunks. What you haven’t heard of is the quiet, polite and calm drunk, and that’s what your lawyer wants to see in that arrest video because it’s going to make their job so much easier.
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