Posted on 03/27/2014 5:22:39 AM PDT by PaulCruz2016
So, it’s a warm day, and you’re standing in a parking lot, drinking a refreshing can of iced tea.
Suddenly, a random dude walks up and demands your beverage. You show him that it is in fact iced tea and that you aren’t publicly intoxicated. He tells you to give him the can and you say no, figuring this stranger can get his own iced tea.
This is exactly what happened to rapper Christopher “Xstrav” Beatty, who was handcuffed and arrested by Officer Rick Libero of the Cumberland County Alcoholic Beverage Control Law Enforcement for drinking a can of Arizona iced tea in the parking lot of a liquor store in Fayetteville, North Carolina last April. Luckily for Beatty, a friend was right there, capturing the arrested on his camera. It’s also important to note that Officer Libero did NOT immediately identify himself as a police officer.
One would think that with the entire debacle on video that Beatty’s plight would have ended shortly after this incident. One would be incorrect. Beatty was charged with trespassing and resisting arrest, and is being offered a “deal” by prosecutors. (Is it an election year? This wouldn’t be the first prosecutor to “crack down” for a ridiculous reason in order to win fame and garner votes.)
Let’s be sure we are 100% clear on this.
THEY WANT A MAN WHO IS GUILTY OF DRINKING ICED TEA AND NOT GOING AWAY AT THE ORDER OF AN (AT THE TIME) UNIDENTIFIED MAN TO TAKE A PLEA BARGAIN.
According to a court document, the deal would punish Beatty with probation and community service on misdemeanor allegations that he was trespassing and resisted a public officer.
(Excerpt) Read more at dcclothesline.com ...
Any wonder why so many people are scofflaws. Laws should be rare, clear and enforced rigorously.
Freakin amazing. Arresting a man for drinking Ice Tea in public. Throwing him to the ground and handcuffing him for doing nothing wrong.
I hope this man has a team of lawyers and takes them for everything including the Toilet paper in the restrooms.
There are legit cases of arrested for being black; this looks like one of them.
He should take the deal and consider himself lucky that the SWAT team didn’t show up and shoot him. /s
He was not arrested, he was KIDNAPPED BY AN ARMED THUG, and the THUG belongs in Prison for LIFE.
No doubt there is a problem in Fayetteville with public intoxication, and no doubt they’re attempting to disguise it by mixing drinks in iced tea cans. But, there comes a point when the “solution” is worse than the problem. They have reached that point.
Sounds like a good civil liberties suit. He should file and see if he can get 10k for it.
I didn't realize there were legitimate reasons for being arrested for the color of your skin?
One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt
Ayn Rand.
This is ridiculoud
Poorly written and ill-conceived laws become tools of oppression.
The one thing I dont get about this story is the trespassing charge. If itmwas public lot how could that be a charge? Is something missing here?
I think you just invented a new word!
The main point here is that the man was not in uniform and didn’t identify himself as a police officer. If a random dude walks up to you, accuses you of drinking, then demands to peek in your can, you’d probably tell him to go take a hike as well.
Part of the problem is, he wasn’t wearing a badge and didn’t identify himself as a police officer when he approached the individual and demanding his can of iced tea.
This is definitely a case of EWB (Existing While Black).
Doesn’t it say somewhere in the Constitution something about the right to pursue happiness, like having a refreshing drink, for example? Didn’t the Supreme Court say something about the “right to be left alone”?
Why don’t Sharpton and Jackson go nuts on cases like this? I’d actually SUPPORT them if they did.
As far as I’m concerned, this is not just a crime against just the tea-drinker.
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