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Bottled-water purchase leads to night in jail for U.Va. student

timesdispatch.com

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Re: Bottled-water purchase leads to night in jail for U.Va. student

#11

Post by netcraft »

jffry wrote: post #6
Natsu wrote: post #4

At least they dropped the charges. Whatever misgivings I have about how the whole thing went down, at least they dropped the charges once things were straightened out. She probably was, technically, guilty of eluding police and such, but I'm glad they did not go through with that. I'm sure she's not happy about spending a night in jail, but just as I give her credit for mistakes in the heat of the moment, I'll give t…

To be fair to her, these were agents who were not uniformed, who (it seems) did not sufficiently identify themselves, who surrounded the girl and her friend, who drew a firearm, who tried to break their windows. If I was in that situation I would attempt to drive off as well.

absolutely - if I had been armed I would have tried to defend myself - unless there are major parts of the story missing I can't see any justification for their actions

Re: Bottled-water purchase leads to night in jail for U.Va. student

#12

Post by Natsu »

soundgecko wrote: post #7
Natsu wrote: post #4

At least they dropped the charges. Whatever misgivings I have about how the whole thing went down, at least they dropped the charges once things were straightened out. She probably was, technically, guilty of eluding police and such, but I'm glad they did not go through with that. I'm sure she's not happy about spending a night in jail, but just as I give her credit for mistakes in the heat of the moment, I'll give t…

This could've easily gone wrong. What if they had a gun in their car? A knife? A gram of pot? What if there was a minor injury to the agents? All for a 20 year old drinking beer?

Indeed, it could have. That's why I'm glad it didn't go more wrong and that they didn't double-down on the mistakes and press charges anyway.

Re: Bottled-water purchase leads to night in jail for U.Va. student

#13

Post by jffry »

netcraft wrote: post #11
jffry wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair to her, these were agents who were not uniformed, who (it seems) did not sufficiently identify themselves, who surrounded the girl and her friend, who drew a firearm, who tried to break their windows. If I was in that situation I would attempt to drive off as well.

absolutely - if I had been armed I would have tried to defend myself - unless there are major parts of the story missing I can't see any justification for their actions

  Charlottesville Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Chapman
  read Daly's account and said it was factually consistent.

Re: Bottled-water purchase leads to night in jail for U.Va. student

#14

Post by sophacles »

Natsu wrote: post #4

At least they dropped the charges. Whatever misgivings I have about how the whole thing went down, at least they dropped the charges once things were straightened out. She probably was, technically, guilty of eluding police and such, but I'm glad they did not go through with that. I'm sure she's not happy about spending a night in jail, but just as I give her credit for mistakes in the heat of the moment, I'll give t…

And your opinion of the "cold blooded" mistakes? That is to say planning to swarm a couple of young college kids without any clear identification that they were officials? This type of swarming is always loud confusing and chaotic. All on purpose. The goal is to overwhelm and induce a "deer in the headlights" situation in the people approached. This girl just happened to have good survival instincts and did what she could to get out of a situation that was designed to activate those instincts. At the very very very least, those officers should be punished for entrapment. I honestly think she would never have tried to get away if they had calmly approached and showed proper identification without the drama.

But hey, they are just doing their job right? If something bad happens, they as fully sentient beings can't be held responsible for their own actions, because job.

Re: Bottled-water purchase leads to night in jail for U.Va. student

#15

Post by samsolomon »

DanBC wrote: post #10

Why do you pull a gun on an underage person buying beer? (Especially when she's not even buying beer?)

ABC agents are mainly a police force to stop college kids from drinking. They are armed like police officers, but their primary mission is a lost cause.

Good use of taxpayer dollars.

Edit: redundancy

Re: Bottled-water purchase leads to night in jail for U.Va. student

#17

Post by ecocentrik »

stevoski wrote: post #9

I liked Hacker News better when it was a place for sharing and discussing start-up based news. Not to say that these other types of articles are not worthy of reading and sharing. But I can get them elsewhere.

I agree. I have no problem with the occasional political article highlighting some issue that might be of interest to the community but 60% of the stories on the front page have nothing to do with technology. This story isn't even relevant outside of Virginia.

Re: Bottled-water purchase leads to night in jail for U.Va. student

#18

Post by cujo »

Natsu wrote: post #4

At least they dropped the charges. Whatever misgivings I have about how the whole thing went down, at least they dropped the charges once things were straightened out. She probably was, technically, guilty of eluding police and such, but I'm glad they did not go through with that. I'm sure she's not happy about spending a night in jail, but just as I give her credit for mistakes in the heat of the moment, I'll give t…

I imagine it's pretty easy to be "technically, guilty of eluding police and such" when you haven't done anything wrong and half dozen people in street clothes come barreling at you screaming and jumping on the hood of your car.

Frankly, if half a dozen trained officers are so afraid to rationally approach a sorority girl who might have beer on her, then maybe these fuck-ups need to be fired. Paint the picture for me, where what they did would have provoked a rational response from the girl.

Did I mention they did this because they thought a sorority girl might have beer? Beer! Context is everything, and these people don't have it.

Re: Bottled-water purchase leads to night in jail for U.Va. student

#19

Post by revelation »

netcraft wrote: post #8

how would they have known she was underage, yet not known that it was bottled water not alcohol? Why would it be appropriate in any situation to pull a weapon for a possible underage drinking charge? There is too much about this that doesn't add up - there should be an investigation.

The obvious question being - who gave these morons a gun instead of a flashlight?

Re: Bottled-water purchase leads to night in jail for U.Va. student

#20

Post by nknighthb »

DanBC wrote: post #10

Why do you pull a gun on an underage person buying beer? (Especially when she's not even buying beer?)

I don't know anything about the Virginia ABC's habits, but if California's ABC had officers like this[1], it wouldn't surprise me at all to read an article about them behaving like this. They seem to see themselves as holy warriors defending society from the inevitable total breakdown that would result if people are allowed to drink.

[1] California ABC has "investigators", but from what I can tell, "street" enforcement is all done by or with local law enforcement.

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