A FINE KETTLE OF FISH

This is One Man’s Opinion, back for another try at pretending to be wise.

Jimmie Cavin publishes an article that is factual and fair, and gets push back from some group that believes if an elected official is carrying water for you he can do no wrong. My BS meter pegged well past 100% on that one. All you have to do is look at any legislator or senator and you will find someone who receives preferential treatment, and who expects they will be treated, as Yogi said, “better than the average bear.” I call BS on that as well.

Last I looked, the US Constitution guarantees all of us the same rights and privileges, says we’re to be treated the same in all circumstances, and requires we’re all subject to the same treatment under law. The Arkansas Constitution agrees in all circumstances with the Federal Constitution. Politicians are not a special class. They deserve no special treatment when they interact with law enforcement or anyone else.

Per Cavin’s article Senator Gary Stubblefield was stopped by a Fayetteville police officer, reasons being a license plate not matching the vehicle, driving with windshield wipers on, improper lane usage, and driving 10 mph under the speed limit.

Law enforcement “spidey sense” in a situation like that screams impairment of some kind. You can read Cavin’s article for additional information on the traffic stop and the subsequent actions of the Fayetteville Police. I’ll bet their process and procedures manual does not condone the actions they took.

In a case where the subject, Senator Stubblefield, fails the field sobriety tests – in other words is definitely impaired – it is my understanding that there are two possible outcomes. If there is no evidence of alcohol, EMS should be called for a possible medical event. If alcohol is present, the individual should be transported to jail.

I don’t know of any situation in recent history where a subject known to be impaired was transported to a hotel to sleep it off. If medical help was not called for, then Stubblefield should have remained in police custody to protect him until his wife showed up.

Who would be responsible if Stubblefield had experienced a cardiac event or some other life-threatening incident while at the hotel waiting for his wife? The police had already ascertained he was impaired. If the police didn’t believe his impairment was a result of an illegal act (drugs or alcohol), did they not have the responsibility to protect him, either by bringing in EMS or by monitoring his condition until his spouse arrived?

Please understand, the officers probably acted as a result of some outside prompt, maybe the phone calls Sergeant Anderson made and received. It makes no difference why the police took the actions they took. They were wrong on at least two counts.

The police would not have treated Joe Citizen the same way. If “All signs point to intoxicated” and the citizen failed the field sobriety test, he would be at a police facility, not taken to a hotel and abandoned.

Although the police engaged in a “dual justice” scenario in this case, I believe the more important action was abandoning Senator Stubblefield at a hotel. They had already determined he was not capable of driving or communicating adequately. By abandoning him they determined that his condition did not require additional assistance or monitoring. What ended up being a case of supposedly missed medication could have been something much more serious. No one with the knowledge to know was asked or engaged.

I’m happy Senator Stubblefield is seemingly okay. I’m really upset at the police for the blatant disregard of Stubblefield’s safety and their own procedures. Again, this seems to be a recurring scenario, where law enforcement finds an elected official or a close relative of an elected official doing something wrong and finds a way to pretty much ignore the law to insure they’re not angering the elected officials in the state.

The police’s actions are wrong in any case, and doubly wrong because a common citizen wouldn’t get the same treatment.

I agree with Arkansas 1^st in their treatment of this situation as news, because it is.

I agree with the article Jimmie Cavin wrote because it is factual, and does not indict Senator Stubblefield in any way.

I believe Arkansas 1^st readers have the right to respond to all our articles, whether news or opinion.

What I don’t believe is that anyone can piggyback their own political quest on a critique of one of our articles and expect the critique to be published when the author is anonymous.

You are entitled to your own opinion, and I reply to every comment, so don’t be shy if you don’t agree.

You can find more of my articles at Jack’s Substack, One Man’s Opinion

Jack Sotallaro

Continuity planning, civilian and military