Elam, etc.: What's With GPD???

[DRU2012]

OK. This is starting to get old. While we'd all like to see our players laying low now and doing their best to stay out of trouble, I've got to wonder about this latest "big time bust"...more to the point, "What's going on at GPD? What kind of mofos-with-marshall-complexes are they hiring over there?"
He's a college kid in the summer, a first-string football player having a little fun just before bust-your-ass-time begins in ernest. He was drinking an otherwise legal beverage in a state where the over/under age-line has been moved up and down over the last few decades, depending on politics and the varied versions of what is considered "politically correct", as much as "legal". Even the cop's version has him dumping it out when he saw the officer, so he showed the necessary "respect for the badge" these types are always so self-righteous about. Cop KNEW he was a Gator player, too (can't really miss it with Matt Elam, even if you didn't specifically recognize him), and he STILL goes out of his way to bust him? These young men give their ALL, and among the beneficiaries of the success of the team they are a part of is the whole town in general--and that not-so-indirectly includes the police department, too. Everything about this screamed "Leave it be", maybe at MOST stop him and give him a little "talk", and (long as he's not sloppy and/or belligerent) send him on his way.
Maybe it's time for some of these "powerful boosters" to reassert themselves into certain aspects of "local life", as they once did. They can't buy players the way they used to (and I wouldn't want 'em to even try--leave those sorts of sloppily sordid goings on to Auburn, LSU and the like), but you can't tell me they can't bring some pressure to bear behind-the-scenes in order that self-important and intransigent young officers not go over a "certain line" if they wish to remain employed with that particular Police Department. Hell, the Department should "police" itself on this kind of extreme pettiness. I know Gainesville isn't the sleepy little southern town it once was, but I also know (for a fact) THAT much could still be arranged. There are non-events that should STAY non-events, for ALL students--and especially for THESE students, damnit. And I don't want to hear about "important life lessons that they need to learn" here either. Enough is enough.

 

[robdog]

Is there a link to the story you are talking about?

 

[DRU2012]

The first version I read was the one that came over the APINTL online feed; the New York Times online version is virtually the same...the cop saw him with "a plastic cup with a dark liquid in it", and Elam "poured it out when he saw me". The Gainesville Sun story has it a bit different, but either way, it is claimed that the contents were "Hennesey and cola", though how and when that was determined is not explained--only that the police contend it to be so. He isn't charged (nor has it been claimed in any way or at any time) with public consumption (ie.that he was anywhere he wasn't supposed to be) OR drunkenness (he was, by all signs, composed, respectful and cooperative)...I just wonder if there aren't better uses for this officer's time, and (even among those ne'er-do-well misbehaving young student whippersnappers) individuals performing public acts more deserving of his apparently obsessive attention. (For example, maybe there are some filthy public washrooms he should be assigned to stake out, on the look-out for potential anti-social "perps" who may at some time frequent such venues--sounds like the perfect assignment for this officer--just in case!)

 

[robdog]

Wow this story just sounds shady and extremely close to racial profiling. I really hope this does not have any impact on his play or playing time.

 

[CaliZona_Gator]

It's Elam's fault. He shouldn't have poured it out when he saw the cop, that's pretty much just telling the cop that he shouldn't have the drink. Many times if you just act casual the police will have no reason to approach you. And it sounds like all he did was get a write-up and court date.

Plus the dude is a college athlete, so he probably shouldn't drink, and if he does, not a few weeks before the season starts.

Hopefully he learns his lesson and plays it cool from now on. Unlike Janoris Jenkins who got busted for pot more than once.

 

[DRU2012]

I'm not saying there's no "fault" on Elam's part, I'm saying straight out: "It's petty and they should lay off!"
As for "how he played it" or what he "should have" done, you just know that's a no-win situation once a cop focuses his attention on you. They'll say "Just be straight with me and I'll work with you...", or "I'm gonna give you a chance here...", that sort of thing, but somehow whatever the person does is the wrong thing--once they see you as a potential bust-for-that-night kind of thing, these kind of ambitiously self-important types (among police officers themselves it's called a "marshal complex", and most decent, practical cops scorn and avoid such individuals, once they show themselves) use such reasonable-sounding statements and veiled warnings manipulatively to back you into a corner with no intention of letting you off--never mind how small the transgression or how friendly or sincere their demeanor, these are exactly the kind of people that cause attorneys to constantly repeat the refrain, "When approached by the police for ANY potential offense, SAY NOTHING!".
My point all along here has been that when it comes to something THIS minor, our players shouldn't HAVE to think like that. How about a little more "friendly even-handedness"? And when an ambitiously over-eager young officer self-righteously goes "Wyatt Earp" on one of them this way, how about quietly making a bit of an example of HIM?

 

[ShortBus]

in most other big time college cities, if a college football player is driving like a drunk maniac the cop takes him home and tells him not to do it again, slap on the wrist, yadda yadda yadda. in gainesville if you give the cop a wrong look you get arrested... and people wonder why Urban Meyer had so many arrests. it wasn't that the kids are any worse in Gainesville than anywhere else, it's the just the cops are complete pricks.

 

[DRU2012]

That sure seems more and more to be the case; even if it's just a faction within the Dept., you just know these "pricks" are PROUD of any such general accusations. This is how a few bad people with power and attitude can corrupt a whole system.
Such an entrenched situation can be broken up, but it takes the determination and cooperation of well-intentioned individuals on the scene who are willing to risk upsetting their otherwise peaceful lives using their own civic stature and accrued clout dealing with a group of aggressively venal local storm-troopers, known bullies used to getting away with whatever they choose to do out on the streets. Quietly cut off their support system, their feeling of swaggering omnipotency, and they'll either move on voluntarily or get themselves into the kind of trouble that precludes any further work in public law-enforcement.
(I've seen it done elsewhere. It is not impossible, and hardly unprecedented.)