South Pleasant Street 8:15 PM (in front of my house)
Cuffed and heading towards a cruiser
After receiving a tip about an erratic auto heading north via a driver using a cell phone, the responding officer only needed to follow the car in question for a few seconds and pulled him over for driving on the wrong side of the road--a busy travel road less than a mile from Amherst town center.Two other cruisers quickly arrived as back up. A senior officer administered a field sobriety test. The Perp failed. Now he's going to jail!
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According to APD logs:RP reports white Pontiac all over the road and almost struck several other vehicles. Granby police also advised APD of this vehicle as they took a report of erratic operation as well.
MV stop for marked lanes. Observed operator (Gallagher) to have slow motor skills and pin dot pupils. Gallagher admitted to nodding off as he was on several prescriptions to wean him off heroin. Gallagher given Field Sobriety Test and several indicators of impairment were present. Gallagher was placed under arrest for OUI drugs.
Arrest: Joseph Gallagher, 120 Mill Street, Wilkes Barre, PA, age 26
I'm sure some would say, just harmless college kid fun. Bullshit. He could have killed someone. You think he's not going to get out and be a repeat offender? Anyone who thinks that is VERY naive.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. My wife and two children returned home about 10 minutes after APD pulled him over via a route that could easily have resulted in a very bad interaction.
ReplyDeleteAfter taking the photos, I wanted to put down the camera and kick him in the head.
"I'm sure some would say, just harmless college kid fun"
ReplyDeleteC'mon. No one would say that. Get real.
You have not been paying attention.
ReplyDeleteThe target audience--college aged youth--have repeatedly said it, although maybe not that succinctly.
Good job, APD!
ReplyDeleteAnd I was astonished when reading the police blotter in the new Amherst Bulletin, that last week the police arrested an intoxicated driver who turned his car on to the railroad tracks and drove on the tracks for close to half to mile. Glad the police could intervene there too.
I'm with you Larry. I would have liked to have kicked him in the head. And the kid who was driving on the train tracks? Let him be. A train would have taken his genes out of the gene pool.
ReplyDeleteSo, you are saying there's a pro-drunk driving contingent that's promoting it as harmless fun? Baloney!
ReplyDeleteBecause we're a "college town", and if we don 't like it we can move.
ReplyDeleteI'm a student and I don't know anyone who would ever laugh off drunken driving. That's why we walk to parties. You can complain about us peeing in your yard, but don't claim that we think drunken driving is "harmless."
ReplyDeleteI just looked and there's a Springfield man who just got charged with his 7th DUI. He's the one that thinks it's harmless, and he's 54. My guess is that's closer to your age than mine.
Good guess.
ReplyDeleteWalking to parties is great, and I'm sure that happens a lot on-campus.
But it's the parties that occur off campus that worry me. Like the one Friday at 370 Pelham Road about a beer can throw away from the Pelham town line that attracted 60 guests.
I bet none of them walked.
Any DUI's from that one? You are citing it as an example.
ReplyDeleteTimely, ain't it?
ReplyDeleteThe average person arrested for DUI has driven drunk 200 times before getting nailed.
The kids at that party probably still have a few to go...
I think we ought to get a Designated Driver program going. Oh wait. We have those ...
ReplyDeleteThere were no DUIs? But the cops were all over that party. They obviously would have been on the lookout.
ReplyDeleteThere were no arrests for DUI. Big difference.
ReplyDeletePolice can't simply pull over a car because it's leaving a party house and perform a field sobriety test.
Do you honestly believe all 60 of the youngsters had a blood alcohol level under 0.08% when they left the party?
So, everyone at all your grownup parties is sober? Not from what I see them buying down at Liquors 44.
ReplyDeleteI've been doing Party House of the Weekend for 15 months now, and not a single winner has been from what you describe as "grown up" parties.
ReplyDelete(By grown up I assume you mean over the age of 30 and not drinking keystone light cans from a 30 pack.)
As a college kid, nobody would think driving under the influence of heroin as no big deal; if they did they were as serious as your statement about kicking the dolt in the head (though he needs it).
ReplyDeleteThe rest of your argument is quite flawed against college students. You self-cite material, which judging by your past articles (all well written) is a weak justification on your part, house parties do not directly cause DUI's. Grown up parties do not happen as frequently, and the abundance of collegiate students means that before you write this off as another "college kid" (which the article does not describe him as) you should show us some facts and statistics showing the proportion of DUI's stemming from college students drinking and driving is as bad as you claim. Not to mention the Amherst town police are likely targeting kids in my age group. I do not necessarily disagree with this, but the mathematical proof is likely biased and thus its a weak argument. Nobody in their right mind would agree driving under heroin is okay, unless they needed help themselves.
The accusation is not just that they drive drunk but that they think it's harmless fun. No proof offered for that. Apparently he's a mind reader as well as blogger.
ReplyDeleteActually I am (it came with the Black Belt).
ReplyDeleteWould you kick any dui offender in the head or just the college kids?
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm glad you're not a cop. By the way their job is not to mete out justice, which I'm guessing is why you want to kick people.
And for a karate champion to vocalize kicking people in the head is the same as the rest of us using a gun isn't it? Essentially, a karate champ could kill someone with a kick to the head.
Be careful of the threats you make. You may find yourself in legal trouble, champ.
Yes, our system of justice takes the whiny complaints of Cowardly Anon Nitwits soooooo seriously.
ReplyDelete(And sarcasm requires its own font/)
As a literary aficionado I assume you realize the irony of you calling those who do comment as "whiny"... considering that is the sole purpose of this blog (though I prefer the term voicing of concerns). Let's also stop pretending as if a free Google account name gives you academic backing and the right to accuse others of being cowardly.
ReplyDeleteI am also sorely mistaken, I thought martial arts was to teach discipline and self-defense, not to threaten people with drop kicks because we assume they hold certain beliefs since they attend a certain institutes or are of a certain demographic. If being in college means you enjoy heroin-fueled joy-rides being a black belt must be automatically be equivalent to Rambo on a murderous rampage. Neither are simply true.
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
ReplyDeleteAge 24. Not a college student. End of story.
ReplyDelete"You might, from your appearance, be the blogger of Lucifer. Nevertheless, you shall not get the better of me. I am educated."
ReplyDeleteLarry's tail is a costume, the horns however are real.
ReplyDelete