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Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson arrested and waterboarded ? for drinking beer while boating
Posted May 5th, 2008 by doctor011
output
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson was charged with failing a sobriety test while operating a 30-foot boat, then resisting arrest before being hit with pepper spray and dragged ashore by officers.
Benson faces charges of boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest after the incident Saturday night on Lake Travis, Travis County Sheriff's Department spokesman Roger Wade said Sunday.
Benson was operating the boat with 15 passengers aboard when he was stopped by a Lower Colorado River Authority officer for a random safety inspection. He failed a field sobriety test on the officer's boat and was uncooperative when the officer tried to take him ashore, the authority said.
Sunday night he told the Chicago Tribune he was going to fight the charges and gave a different account, alleging police abuse.
Benson told the paper, "There was no resistance on my part. Was I drunk? No."
"They gave me a field sobriety test, told me to say my ABCs and told me to count from 1 to 4 up and down. I'm thinking, I passed all the tests, did everything right. Then the officer told me we needed to go to land to take more tests. I politely asked him why we needed to go to land to take more tests when I took every test. Then he sprayed me with mace, on his boat.
"I'm not handcuffed. I'm not under arrest. I'm not threatening him. I'm not pushing him. I'm not touching him. And he sprays me right in my eye."
The situation escalated when they reached shore, Benson told the paper.
"Once we got to land, the Travis County police grabbed me and kicked my feet from under me. So I landed on my back while I was handcuffed. They held me down and held the water hose over my face. I couldn't breathe, I'm choking, I'm begging the cops, 'Please stop. Please stop.' Then they picked me up and dragged me backward toward their car. And I'm still being polite, asking them, 'Sir, could you please allow me to walk like a man to your cop car?' They just kept dragging me on."
The Lower Colorado River Authority officer said Benson presented a threat.
"When Benson did not pass the test, he presented himself as a threat to the officer and argued about whether or not he would be taken to land to have a follow-up field sobriety test performed on land and refused to put on a life jacket," the authority said in a statement.
The officer had to use pepper spray to subdue Benson. He then refused to leave the officer's boat and authorities had to drag him to a car to be taken to the Travis County jail, the authority said.
Chicago coach Lovie Smith said he's still trying to figure out exactly what happened in Texas.
"I haven't had a chance to speak with Cedric yet, but any time we're talking about one of our players getting arrested you're disappointed in it," Smith said Sunday at the end of the Bears' three-day rookie minicamp in Lake Forest, Ill.
Bears officials said general manager Jerry Angelo was out of town Sunday and unavailable to comment
http://msn.foxsports.com/...
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as much as I
Hate the Chicago Bears, from what it sounds like is a whole bunch of who haw! And to think now it'll come down to a whole case of he said, he said (assuming the arresting officer in charge was a male). If Mr. Bensons side of the story is true in the fullest, then I am saddened yet again of the portrayal of the law enforcement system of Texas. What a circus this might turn into.
Shouldn't they have tazered
Shouldn't they have tazered him as well?
So, maybe he was guilty of driving/boating while drunk and maybe he was not. That is still yet to be determined.
I think he may have a reasonable claim regarding abusive and undue force being used by the officers. I suppose it all depends on if and how he was resisting.
Someone mentioned there was a helicopter video... hopefully someone on the boat also took video as well.
I Hope So!
As an old school Bears fan who watched Walter from his rookie year, I hope they do waterboard Cedric's ass!
http://www.youtube.com/wa...
Oh for crying out loud!
Oh for crying out loud! Give it a break! It was Texas and we all have seen what they do in case of a danger to any one. You know: kidnap children, and separate mothers from their children.(of course you need machine guns and tanks when you do that!) Drag people off boats just in case they had a beer/bear (sorry, had to put that in there!). They know what is best for any and every one in the state!
Hopefully some one that is a celebrity of sorts can get their day in court, even though the families ruined by April 3rd don't seem to be entitled to individual hearings.
Everyone who drinks bear should be waterboarded.
___________
Lisa C.
http://www.women4ronpaul....
But was it alcoholic or
But was it alcoholic or non-alcoholic bear? (I hear the non-alcoholic bear tastes like crap!)
I prefer to drink moose heads myself.
OR
Anyone who plays for the chicago beers,lol
Well I dunno
I`d have to give the benefit of the doubt to the officers on this one.
The benefit of doubt is a
The benefit of doubt is a right of the accused, not the police.
really?
which rock do you hide under? The "police state" is here, and unless we question them every time there is a doubt, they will just keep pushing the limits. Don't "give" them anything, investigate and find out for yourself the best you can. And if there was policeman acting that far out of line, speak out.
If it really happened like that, it is just unreal
_________________________________
My liberty-minded home base of thought:
www.ponderthis.net
bump
nwo
a random safety inspection ? ?
So much for the 4th amendment
Oh yeah, boating in the kings waterways is a privelge not a right, I suppose.
On most bodies of water this is very
common. They also check to see if enough life preservers are on board for the number of passengers. Also check for license is fishing, etc.
Obey the state you are instructed
to go to the "camps" quietly.
let justice be done...
As much as I disliked Cedric the Entertainer's on-field performance last year and how he was doing his best impersonation of Curtis Enis--and how likely I am to believe that a professional athlete would be guilty of assorted indiscretions such as those of which he is accused (see Pacman Jones, Mike Vick, etc.), I am troubled by this story and that he might simply be the victim of the emerging police state. I hope that Mr. Benson receives a speedy trial and is judged by his peers that he might prove his innocence (if that is the case).
"If we want to live in a free society, we need to break free from these artificial limitations on free debate and start asking serious questions once again." -Ron Paul
just so you know
Fortune Favors the Bold
not that it matters, but cedric the entertainer is not the same person as cedric benson.
:-)
Yes, I know. I was being jocular.
"If we want to live in a free society, we need to break free from these artificial limitations on free debate and start asking serious questions once again." -Ron Paul
I understand there is
a video out there shot from helicopter if you can find it,,,I bet that was a blackwater trained (gestapo) officer.
I dunno..but I will tell you
I dunno..but I will tell you one thing. For whatever reason he was given to have his boat stopped, he was found innocent. If fishermen and yachtsmen can no longer drink on their own boats without consequence, we have another REAL PROBLEM!!!! He was NOT stopped because their was suspicion he was drunk, and I doubt he was. This is turning into a VERY weird union. Perhaps they wanted just to seize his boat.
A friend of mine works for a
A friend of mine works for a government agency that is responsible for patrolling ocean waters (not sure how far out they go). He once told me that they have the right to stop boats for no reason at all in order to conduct safety checks, etc. I have never verified the law, but I was surprised that there was no requirement for them to have any sort of probable cause to stop a boat.
Indeed
never thought i would see this happening
This government trains its
This government trains its operatives to treat us all as criminals. They might not know what you are guilty of at the time, but they will find one.
The colonists rebelled against the greatest military power in the world over much less.