Stupid 2013: You Wouldn’t Like Me When I’m Angry
This week I’m taking a look at all the stupid ways people got themselves busted for weed in 2013, hoping that you will turn these tragedies into teachable moments that keep your ass out of a cage. Catch up with how breaking traffic laws, poor cell phone protocol, and talking to cops landed some uneducated tokers in a jail cell.
Today it’s the people whose anger led them to bad decisions that led them to a pot bust. I know dealing with cops is a stressful situation and as we learned yesterday, you shouldn’t chat them up like they are your friends. Neither should you treat them anger and contempt; rather, you should be calm and polite and refuse to answer questions without an attorney present.
Unfortunately for Jerrald Edwards of Tennessee, he was both friendly and belligerent to the police. He was drunk when he ran his bicycle into a female cop’s car. She notices his slurred speech and glossy eyes and performs the field sobriety test, which Edwards failed. So, of course, Edwards admits he’d been drinking and invites the lady cop back to his place to smoke some weed. When his flirting fails and he’s arrested for public intoxication, that’s when he flips and becomes belligerent on the way to jail.
Tobias Bulger of Georgia let his anger for his father get the best of him and decided it would be a good idea to carve expletives into dad’s car’s paint job with a key. When dad calls the cops, they decide to interrogate Bulger, who cheerfully led them right into his house, where the cops find a half ounce divided into separate baggies along with a digital scale. Bulger is arrested and charged with possession with intent to distribute.
The worst example of dealing with a cop for 2013, but perhaps the most momentarily satisfying, came when Laketta Ransom was pulled over by cops in Dallas. Two cops are already working on a traffic stop when Ransom rolls by in a 2007 Mercury Grand Marquis and the odor of pot smoking is so strong they can smell it from the street. They pull the car over and the male driver complies with instructions and exits the vehicle calmly.
But not Ransom – she refused to exit the car and began arguing with the cops and shuffling her hands around in her purse. Fearing she might be going for a weapon, Officer Aaron Tolerton tries to pull her out of the vehicle. That’s when Ransom kicked Tolerton right square in the balls, twice, and then took her bag of weed out of her purse and threw it at him. I’m sure it felt good, but it just got her a charge of assault on a cop to go with her marijuana possession.
Weed’s supposed to mellow you out, so let it. Don’t let your anger lead you to a jail cell.
