Chapter 1565 Are you still going to investigate?
Drunk driving checks aren't uncommon in Texas: after all, how many Texans can live without beer? While the threshold for driving under the influence is quite low here, with just one beer considered a "drunk driving" offense, few people are caught doing so. Unless a patrol officer catches someone in the act of violating traffic rules or engaging in dangerous driving, driving with a few beers in hand is generally ignored.
Again, it’s not a crime here as long as you don’t get caught.
It is not common for the police to set up checkpoints and check vehicles here. Usually, such checkpoints are only set up when there is a serious crime.
This kind of checkpoint is very troublesome - they are investigating 'DUI driving' rather than just 'DWI driving' - the so-called DWI driving is drunk driving, and DUI driving refers to various dangerous driving, such as 'drunk driving', 'drug driving', etc. If it is determined that there is DUI driving behavior, the driver can be detained and the car can be searched and seized.
Moreover, checkpoints are usually equipped with alcohol testers.
If Xiao Peng's car had been stopped by a regular patrol officer, it would have been a relatively simple matter: patrol officers here don't carry breathalyzers while on patrol. Instead, they use a series of behavioral tests to determine if the driver is impaired, such as walking in a straight line, counting numbers, reciting the alphabet backwards, and performing dance moves. If a driver passes these tests, even if they reek of alcohol, they're usually deemed safe to drive. The regulations are quite lax, so even if you've had a few beers and are stopped by the police, there's usually no need to be too nervous.
There are historical reasons why the drunk driving inspections here are so lax.
The Los Angeles riots in 1992, which resulted in 53 deaths, over 2,000 injuries, and over a billion dollars in economic losses, were caused by a drunk driving check.
In fact, it is not accurate to simply say that the riot was caused by a drunk driving inspection.
In 1991, a 15-year-old black girl... well, calling her a girl is a bit of an exaggeration, the girl was as strong as a calf...
Anyway, this 15-year-old girl named Latasha Harlins ran into a small supermarket in Korea City, Los Angeles, took a bottle of orange juice and left without paying. The owner chased her out to ask for money and then Harlins knocked her down with three punches! The Korean owner got up from the ground and went back to get a gun and shot Harlins in the head from behind.
The incident ultimately resulted in the supermarket owner being fined $500 and ordered to serve 400 days of community service, and the matter was dropped. However, rapper Ice Cube, the actor from the Hollywood blockbuster "xXx: Return of Xander Cage," wrote a song specifically promoting the incident, fueling widespread hatred.
And what follows is the trigger:
The incident started with a black man named Rodriguez King—and he was definitely a strong man, standing 188cm tall and weighing 250 pounds, his body completely muscled. How impressive is that? NBA superstar Karl Malone, known for his impressive physique, stood 208cm tall and weighed only 260 pounds. So, you can imagine how strong he was.
On the evening of March 2, 1991, Rodriguez was pulled over by police for speeding while driving under the influence. Since he was on parole at the time, he simply drove away. Over 20 police cars gave chase, and after a car chase straight out of a movie, the police stopped his car.
Four police officers tried to arrest him, but Rodriguez King put up a fight. They were practically killing him with one punch! They even tasered him twice, but couldn't subdue him. Those officers were kind enough to hit him 56 times with batons before they could arrest him. If it were today, they'd have shot him dead. There's a reason American police keep shooting people for no reason these days!
In fact, a policeman pulled out a gun at the time, but was stopped by Sheriff Cone of the Los Angeles Police Department - this was probably the decision Cone regretted the most afterwards.
Someone at the scene filmed the incident and gave it to the TV station. In order to increase ratings, the TV station cut off the beginning and end of the video and only broadcast the scene where four policemen beat Rodriguez King, without broadcasting all the scenes that were unfavorable to him.
The immediate key to the bombing was the court's verdict: the Los Angeles court found the four police officers not guilty. After all, the video footage the jury viewed differed from what the public saw on the news. After reviewing the events, the jury unanimously declared: "Not guilty."
As soon as this verdict came out, the black people in the United States were outraged and gathered together to riot, burning, killing, looting and committing all kinds of atrocities, triggering a riot that shocked the whole world. In just a few dozen hours, 54 people died, 2,328 people were injured, and more than a thousand buildings were destroyed. Los Angeles at that time was basically the same as the Baghdad attacked by war on TV news today.
Afterward, King and his lawyers filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles police and the four officers involved, seeking $56 million in damages—$1 million per officer—and jail time for the four officers involved. Ultimately, Chief Constable Kuhn and Powell, who had stopped the shooting, received 30-month prison sentences, while the other two officers were acquitted. King also received $3.8 million in damages.
What was the concept of $3.8 million in 1993? He had everything: a mansion, a luxury car, and beautiful women. He was a convicted criminal on parole for assaulting a police officer, but he transformed himself into a true winner in life.
This incident has two consequences: First, Americans don't care if you're drunk or armed when you're attacked. If you dare, they'll just pull out their guns and do it! Thousands of people die at the hands of police every year. Second, the crackdown on drunk driving has become much more lax—no police officer wants to be the next Officer Kong. Who knows if they'll run into a "Rodriguez King"?
However, not all inspections are lax. Checkpoints like this become very troublesome. Such inspections are usually only carried out after a major case occurs, and such inspections are often very thorough.
A policeman used a handheld parking light to signal Xiao Peng to stop the three cars on the side of the road and wait for inspection: there was also a Corolla that the girls drove when they arrived.
Xiao Peng was really conscious. Before the police arrived, he rolled down the window and put his hands on the steering wheel. In the United States, if you are stopped by the police while driving, this is the first thing to do: put your hands in a conspicuous place to prove that you have no weapons.
The two policemen walked to Xiao Peng's car, looked at Xiao Peng's hands and the hands of the girl in the passenger seat, and then took their hands down from the holsters at their waists.
Don't be nervous at this time. Xiao Peng smiled and asked, "Officer, what's going on?"
The police officer said directly: "Please get out of the car and accept..."
However, before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by a loud noise: a car crashed head-on into a police car that was blocking the road right in front of them.
The two policemen hurriedly left Xiao Peng and the others behind and went to check the situation.
This really confused Xiao Peng: Are you guys going to investigate us or not? Just give me some straight answers!
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