Isn’t It Ironic?…Police Procedure Gone Horribly Wrong

After completing my first semester at college I am proud to report that I’ve learned a great deal inside the classroom and perhaps just as much outside of it. The knowledge you gain in college reaches far beyond the textbooks and lectures. You learn how to cheat the system and about the ills of society. There is a lot of foul shit out there and surprisingly, it’s only taken me 6 months to discover some of it.

At a young age I began to learn about alcohol, it’s effects, and the laws that the United States of America has regarding the liquid substance. If there’s one thing that is taught through repetition in school, it’s alcohol and drug awareness. The single most phrase I’ve heard in my life isn’t “I love you” or even “thankyou”, it is “don’t drink and drive”. That mixture is synonymous with death. I have heard this from my parents, my teachers, my local law enforcement, my elders, and even my peers. It’s just something you don’t do. I’m not an idiot; not only do I want to save myself from getting a DWI, but I’d also like to live to see another day or perhaps even live life without the guilt of killing another human being. These are my main motivations for not drinking and driving. Sure, I drink,in fact what college student doesn’t, however drinking and driving was not on my list of talents…until I went to college.

Okay, so right about now you’d probably call me a hypocritical son of a bitch for admitting to drinking and driving…you’re absolutely justified in saying so, but hear me out…just hear me out. College is all about the parties. I’ve attended my fair share of them. Each time my buddies and I would head out for a night of wild inebriation we wouldn’t plan on driving afterward, however on occasion a recurring theme would fuel my obligation to get behind the wheel. What I’m refferring too is when a party is broken up by the cops.

There is nothing I like more than to meet down to earth cops who aren’t walking pricks. Comparing encounters with local law enforcement prior to college and while at college the results are totally different. Most of the cops surrounding my college relate to the students. They sympathize with the college student. They were that college student a few decades ago, they’ve been through what we’re going through. College police officers are rarely out to screw you over for drinking or partying violations, at least in my experiences so far. Here in lies the problem…the way in which they handle these situations are severely dangerous…and frankly it’s stupid.

On several occasions I have attended parties that were broken up by the cops. The cops are quite leinient. Leinient in the sense that they don’t arrest anyone. Each time the cops would bust the party they would follow the same procedure…tell everyone to pack up and get home. This is where I run into a problem…the cop’s are sending carloads upon carloads of intoxicated kids onto the roads. Fifteen to Twenty Car loads, sometimes, are told to go drive home. On one hand the cops spare you an arrest and a citation, on the other, they’re condoning drinking and driving, and in fact causing it to happen. It’s something that just doesn’t make sense to me. Who’d of ever thought that the police would advocate drinking and driving? While I fully understand that the cops are not literally placing us behind the wheel…I continually find myself contemplating this…isn’t it ironic?

-Billy