So I got to spend most of my night in jail last night for the first time. But the whole thing doesn't seem right to me. I was charged with public intoxication. I was out last night with two ex-JW friends and there was a festival going on. The street with most of the bars, clubs and live bands was closed off to traffic, so people were eating, drinking, dancing, watching the bands, and generally having a good time. Later on I ran into some girls that I'd gone to high school with and I was talking to them and my friends told me that they were going to go to a different bar a few buildings over, so I said ok and that I'd meet up with them in a bit. I eventually wandered over to the bar that they said they were going to be, but I didn't see them. So I tried to call them on the cell phone, but no one picked up, so I was wondering if they were still here, so I thought I walk over to the parking lot that they had parked at to see if their vehicle was still there.
As I was walking, I saw a few police cars close to the parking lot and a married couple, about 50 years old or so sitting in the grass handcuffed. The police said "hi" as I walked by and I said "hi", and walked on to where my friend's vehicle was. One of the policemen followed me and I didn't think to much of it, I reached into my pocket and pulled my keys out because they were sitting on my phone and then I pulled my phone out and started dialing my friend's number to see if they'd pick up. About that time, the policemen said to close my phone and said that he could see that I was going to drive because I had my keys out. I said, hey I just took em out because they were in the way of my phone, besides this isn't even my vehicle. And he said, uh huh, well follow my finger with your eyes.
It was about 11pm at the time and I'd been there since 3pm that afternoon, I'd drinken about 10 killians drafts since I'd gotten there. The policemen told me that I'd failed his follow the finger test and he was going to cut me a break and just arrest me for public intoxication. I asked how that was cutting me a break, and he said well you have your keys out of your pocket, so obviously you were going to drive. I said, I already told you that I just took my keys out to get my phone and besides this isn't even my vehicle, my vehicle is parked in a completely different lot. Then he seemed to get a little mad and told me that I was contradicting myself because he said I'd already told him that this was my vehicle, I told him that I'd never said anything of the sort and he proceeded to handcuff me and throw me in the back of the police car with the older married couple who told me that they had been sitting in their car with the doors open talking when the police had come up and taken them both out and given them the follow the figer test and arrested them for public intox.
When I got to jail there were three people already there for public intoxication in a little cell and when I left at 4am in the morning, there were 25 people in the little cell, packed in there like match sticks. 22 had been charged with public intox, 2 had been charged with disorderly conduct for fighting, and 1 was in for a DUI. Most of the public intox folks had been pulled directly off the sidewalk or in between clubs and they all said that they were only given the follow the finger test and none of us were read any rights before, during, or after we were handcuffed. So, the whole thing seemed a bit wierd to me. Of course I've never been to jail, and now I have a court date next month. As far as how drunk I was, by the time I had sat in jail for an hour, I felt perfectly fine, and I had no headache or hang over. I mean I'd been drinking less than two beers an hour for the time that I was there, there were plenty of people that were a lot worse off than I was.
Anyway, that was an experience. What I learned is to steer clear of the police when there is a festival in town because they go on the war path. One guy that, I guess, is a frequent visitor for public intox said that this was his eighth time in and he'd never seen it so crowded before. Most of the time, they go by the book when pulling people in, last night I guess they were playing enie meenie minie mo and arresting whoever their finger landed on when the rhyme was over or maybe they were flipping coins as people walked by and if it was heads they got to pass and if it was tails they get arrested. Seemed that way at least.