Noah Bust - Just Plain Wrong
by Seth Pollack on May 27, 2008 3:50 PM MDT
in Phoenix Suns Commentary
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PrintBy now dedicated NBA and drug culture fans who frequent this blog have 
already heard about Joakim Noah's arrest for marijuana possession.
I am going to forgo any of the obvious jokes about Cuban, JHo or hair and just share my reaction to this "bust".
It may be worth noting that in a previous life I spent four years carrying a badge and gun and my undergrad degree is in Criminal Justice. I know a bit of law and standards for a probable cause arrest and I also know a bit about how things are done in the real world. This case has some smelly issues on both fronts.
When I first heard this news on the radio I assumed it was standard possession bust scenario. Cop pulls over car for running a light or speeding and either smells pot or sees something. Probable cause is established and the arrest is made.
But that's not what happened here. In this case we have a very tall goofy man with Side-Show Bob hair walking down the sidewalk in Gainsville, FL. This tall goofy man happened to be carrying a clear plastic cup with a dark liquid.
At this point the story takes a wrong turn.
A police officer upon seeing said tall goofy man with the dark liquid in a clear plastic cup makes the not so obvious assumption that a crime is taking place and approaches this man.
What made the cop suspicious? Why not assume that Mr. Noah was drinking iced tea at 2am in the morning? I don't think we really know the answer yet and certainly there are some circumstances that could reasonably have caused suspicion. Maybe Noah was obviously drunk. Maybe the cop asked for an autograph and smelled the booze. Or maybe the cop just saw a tall goofy guy and assumed a crime was taking place.
The story doesn't provide the details of what caused the initial reasonable suspicion but I would certainly want an answer to that question.
Regardless of what lead the officer to approach Noah and discover this heinous open container policy violation the next part is where things really get ugly.
Instead of issuing a citation and dumping the booze, the cop decides that a trip down town is in order. I have a hard time believing that every 22 year old that is caught with an open container in a college town ends up being arrested. What was different about this case that warranted an arrest which lead to finding the single joint tucked neatly away in a pack of cigarettes? And what is a professional athlete doing with a pack of cigarettes anyway?
I haven't heard any explanation for this other then the obvious assumption. The cop saw the opportunity to harass this young man because of who he is (famous) and made a very poor decision in how he handled the situation. Noah should never have been arrested at least under the circumstances as they currently have been reported.
Having tasted the power a badge and gun provides to those who carry them, I have become very suspicious of incidents like these. All the policies and procedures in the world aren't enough to prevent over zealous cops from abusing their awesome power. When such abuses take place it undermines the legitimate role law enforcement plays in our society especially in the eyes of historically repressed members of the community.
In this case a young famous star got the short end of the power that we trust to armed members of our government. Anytime that power is being abused or even potentially being abused it is the responsibility of the government to justify its actions. In this case we haven't yet heard that explained and I for one would like some answers.
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Thanks for the insight
I was wondering about this a bit. Your experience in law enforcement certainly sheds some light on this for me. nice post.
Excellent post
I really appreciated this posting. I’m in Canada where getting busted for pot possession is about as frequent as being accused of witchcraft, and it stuns me that an overzealous police officer has the ability to have such a devastating impact on a promising young athlete’s career.
I’m not a pot smoker (nickname is in reference to the toronto maple leafs) but this prohibition is frankly ridiculous.
I hope Noah gets through this unfortunate incident with his sense of humour intact and we see him in the league soon!
Thanks
for this post. Very interesting and informative. You can be funny, you can be serious. You can do it all PStan!
by RealTangiblesGuy on May 27, 2008 5:55 PM MDT reply actions
just for fun
I’m going to play devil’s advocate.
Read this description from the Chicago Trib:
Summer Hallett, public information officer for the Gainesville Police Department, confirmed that Gainesville police stopped Noah, 23, about 1:50 a.m. Sunday for carrying a clear plastic cup with an “iced, amber-colored beverage” inside.
Hallett said Noah put down the liquid when confronted by police, who were enforcing the city’s law prohibiting drinking from open containers on public sidewalks.
Hallett said subsequent inspection revealed Noah’s drink to be alcoholic, at which point officers arrested Noah and took him to the department’s downtown annex. A source said Noah was drinking cognac.
Now, consider this added detail, reported by the Chicago Sun Times: “Noah put the cup down when he saw officers heading his way.” This suggests that he put down the drink BEFORE he was confronted by police. And then consider this, from the Miami Herald: “Upon his sighting of law enforcement officers he set the drink down and walked away from it.” If correct, that confirms the Sun Times report.
So, he sees the cops, he puts the drink down, he walks away. He obviously knows he’s doing something he shouldn’t be doing.
If you were a cop observing this, what would you do?
No doubt
putting the drink down then they came towards him was suspicious but they were already coming towards him which means they had already decided to approach him right? Or maybe they were coming to talk to him about the Bulls and then he did something suspicious like putting his drink down.
Regardless, they should NEVER had arrested him for a cup of booze. Silly fame seeking at best.
Again though, my point is that they – the police – need to explain themselves here and until they do based on the info so far, I think they over reacted….
Btw – funny story. When I was about 18 I was hanging out at UC Santa Barbara with some friends. There were blocks and blocks of parties and I was out w/ some friends w/ open beers. Underage.
Cops appeared out of nowhere on bikes and horses and confronted us about our (obviously) open containers. We pleaded ignorance (not being students there) and where let go with a warning (and without our beer). An arrest at that point in my life would have been much more impactful then this will be to Mr. Noah. Those cops choses to let some young white boys go that night and I am glad they did. I wish this cop in FL would have had the same sense.
Blogging Suns Basketball
by Seth Pollack on May 27, 2008 10:20 PM MDT up reply actions
still devil's advocate
Doesn’t it depend on how Noah responded to the cops, and/or what standard procedure is in cases like Noah’s? And we don’t really know either of those things, do we?
agreed.
This was a cite and release case. Even if he was smoking pot on the sidewalk it would have been a cite and release case.
To go through the arrest process, taking a cop or two off the streets, cleaning the cop car going through all of that business is not worth it unless there was a threat to the public, and clearly there wasn’t. Even catching him with a joint, I question this use of taxpayer dollars. That’s where the real crime is.
I’ve been stopped a few times, and everytime I expect to go to jail. They want to talk to me out on the street, I say no thanks, just arrest me and they back off everytime because they just know it’s not worth it.
Wondering what the skip-2-my-loo to do next with my empty summer
This is the problem I have with your story.
I agree with everything that you said. The thing is, MOST of the time celebrities get too much of an advantage. You hear people say that celebrities are often treated ABOVE the law. It’s true, you hear stories and it makes you sick because if it was a regular Joe, he’d be punished much much worse (not in this case).
One thing I have noticed is that all the petty crimes that happen (like this one), you have celebrities get hit harder just so cops can make a name for themselves. When you have really serious crimes, I think that’s when celebrities have it a lot better.
In the end, I believe Noah got shafted. Overall in the celebrities community, they’re still leaps and bounds above the average person and get away with a lot more.
Bottom line
Forget the enforcement procedures, what has been done in the past to who, you come up with the bottom line:
Violation of at least two statutes – the open container, and the joint. As long as the laws are on the books, you risk this scenario if you violate them. I have been stopped too many times, all for traffic related infractions, and at tleast half of which I thought were fishy. I knew whose fault it was that I was in inconvenient situations, and I didn’t blame anyone but myself.
I blam Noah for knowingly violating the law. Sure there are inconsistencies. There always will be. Noah failed to control what he could control, and he left himself open to what was out of his control.
April 29, 2008 Total Eclipse of the Sun. Is the sky falling?
No - US rights are about PROCESS not OUTCOMES
Otherwise would you like to allow free search and seizure as long as 25% of the time it comes up with a misdemeanor violation.
We’re talking about misdemeanors here, not felonies.
Wondering what the skip-2-my-loo to do next with my empty summer
Those rights
are even more important in cases of felonies where the stakes are higher…
But to Hawk’s point – yes, of course Noah has responsibility and he will be punished.
But consider the relative severity of his initial offense. He was outside with a cup of booze. Compare that to the guy driving his 3 ton SUV 80 MPH on the same freeway where I am driving with my kids. Which “criminal” has the potential to harm more people?
But we don’t expect cops to arrest speeders but somehow its ok to arrest this young man?
The reality is our laws are not applied equally and when the state through it’s armed police choses to yield it’s considerable power in such an arbitrary way that is something that concerns me far more then how many of his brain cells Noah decides to kill.
Blogging Suns Basketball
by Seth Pollack on May 28, 2008 5:04 PM MDT up reply actions
The Law
Is not arbitrary. I agree (obviously) that police officers can be. But the law deals with facts.
Fact 1. Noah committed a crime. Police were within their legal limits to bring him downtown.
Fact 2. When he was detained they found pot. Further crime. No illegal search and seizure.
Everyone can wax poetic about the racism or prejudice inherent in law enforcement. but the man committed a crime. The police did not. If he is a citizen in this country, he has the responsability to uphold the law, and if he doesn’t, he (or anyone) should expect to answer to it fully- thank God our laws are not subject to what we think is periodically “fair” or “nice” at the moment
Agreed
I am not defending Noah but I hold the state to a much higher (no pun intended) standard.
The police acted in an arbitrary manner and that simply is unacceptable. At least that’s how the facts currently seem and until the police demonstrate that arresting citizens for open container violations is routine then the burden is on them.
Arbitrary enforcement of the law undermines the law more then individuals who break it.
Blogging Suns Basketball
by Seth Pollack on May 28, 2008 8:17 PM MDT up reply actions
The problem is that there's a law prohibiting open containers in the first place.
Too many ticky-tack type laws on the books, because someone decided “there should be a law against that”, because there’s an audience for “Law Enforcement Theater”, and because there’s pressure for law enforcement to become a revenue generation service.
If the guy wasn’t bothering anyone, he shouldn’t even have been cited.
"True glory consists of doing what deserves to be written, and writing what deserves to be read".
by Pliny the Elder on May 28, 2008 11:05 PM MDT up reply actions
Yeah, I preferred living outside the US for this reason.
My favorite place outside the US is Japan. It’s so casual there, no problems with cops (or other peeps).
But the ongoing criminalization of America is another topic for another blog, perhaps.
Wondering what the skip-2-my-loo to do next with my empty summer
It's the original reason Clint Eastwood became mayor of Carmel, CA
A bunch of old people in Carmel decided it should be illegal to eat an ice-cream cone while walking in the street, so they passed an ordnance prohibiting such an act.
Clint decided they had abandoned common sense and gone too far, and that it would harm his business interests (the Hog’s Breath Inn), so he ran for and became mayor of Carmel, CA.
Now I’m all for keeping a place like Carmel clean and litter-free, but it was all too easy for the geezers to pass the ordnance (and the associated fines and punishment) in the first place. And most of the time, the average person living in or visiting that town wouldn’t even know.
"True glory consists of doing what deserves to be written, and writing what deserves to be read".
by Pliny the Elder on May 29, 2008 12:50 PM MDT up reply actions
US rights are about responsibility
I am not talking about law enforcement or the abuse of same. I am talking about character, responsibility, and common sense. What do we have laws for, to create an obstacle course, or to encourage better people who make better choices? It seems like most people these days think the former. Whatever happened to just not doing something simply because it is against the law? What a concept. But nobody wants to talk about that, so we call people that do preachy and annoying. Instead we want to blame the enforcement side of things and call ourselves the victim.
It is funny. We are all basketball fans, and we want all of the violations and infractions called. But if they called them all, say 3 seconds, traveling, and palming the ball (not to mention fouls), the game would be radically changed. Teams would have to figure out how to play within the rules. And of course, if the call cancels behavior by the other team that is detrimental to our team, we WANT it called.
I’m not saying this happened, but what if you are a parent who has a son who is a fan of Joakim Noah. That son is thinking of smoking pot and going to drinking parties. Then this incident happens. You want Noah to pay the consequences, because you know it will influence your son to make better choices. If all of this is true (not farfetched), then you WANT the officer to make the call.
And you’re right. We don’t want things to get to the point where random searches happen. But this is the road we are going down if we continue to put more and more pressure on the law enforcement system. This system only works if most people simply obey the law. It will break down if it is required to be effective in an environment where, say, half or more of the people are trying to get away with breaking the law. If we let our society degenerate into a bunch of people who see it that way, then we may as well make everything legal. I think we’re well on our way there. I mean, what if overnight, burgularies tripled? We couldn’t incarcerate them all. I can hear it now, Noah committed a harmless offense. Everyone that uses illegal drugs costs the taxpayers money and indirectly funds all kinds of illegal activities. I suppose you could argue he grows his own and doesn’t sell to anyone. You still have to factor in the responsibility angle with young kids looking up to these athletes.
April 29, 2008 Total Eclipse of the Sun. Is the sky falling?
Oh, geez, legal stuff
Thing is, cops can pretty much pull you over for anything. If a cop comes near you and you run away, there is now a “reasonable suspicion” for a pursuit. It’s true. Yeah, “he wouldn’t run if he wasn’t doing something wrong,” but if I was a black guy in a white neighborhood and saw a couple of white cops, I might run to get to a public parking lot just in case somebody there had a camera phone that could take photos.
I’m pretty much a law-and-order guy, don’t get me wrong, but there was little to no reason to stop Noah. I do not, however, think it was something about him being a celebrity. I bet it was a rookie cop who was bored and not yet addicted to Dunkin’ Donuts. Dude was having a slow night and figured he’d give it a shot.
For all the high-falutin’ stuff about personal rights, you really are at the mercy of the cop, except in extreme cases. Kind of scary stuff, really. Thank God my experience is that most cops really do try to do the right thing. Here, though, the cop went too far, probably thinking he was doing the right thing.
Whatever, I think Noah has the money to pay the fine.
Mmmmm ... Guinness
What the Matrix says...
Agent Smith: I killed you, Mr. Anderson. I watched you die… with a certain satisfaction, I might add. Then something happened. something that I knew was impossible, but it happened anyway. You destroyed me, Mr. Anderson. After that, I understood the rules, I knew what I was supposed to do, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. I was compelled to stay, compelled to disobey. And now, here I stand because of you, Mr. Anderson. Because of you, I’m no longer an Agent of this system. Because of you, I’ve changed. I’m unplugged. A new man, so to speak. Like you, apparently, free.
Neo: Congratulations.
Agent Smith: Thank you. But, as you well know, appearances can be deceiving, which brings me back to the reason why we’re here. We’re not here because we’re free. We’re here because we’re not free.
"True glory consists of doing what deserves to be written, and writing what deserves to be read".
by Pliny the Elder on May 28, 2008 11:44 PM MDT up reply actions
Thoroughly Confused
Mainly because I can’t stand Keanu Reeves. He was typecast as Ted and barely pulled that one off. Matrix was a cool FX movie but sucked as sci-fi. So, I don’t get the quote.
You know what would’ve been cool (as I randomly change subjects)? If Tom Cruise was put into stasis and Minority Report ended. See, that would’ve been a good sci-fi ending. I’ve gone out of my way to watch Andromeda Strain and try, beyond all good sense, to actually figure out a coherent point to 2001 and 2010.
Anyway, the Matrix symbolism was so over-the-top without any archetype-stuff going on that I just couldn’t watch.
So, having said that, I don’t get the reference. Please explain.
Mmmmm ... Guinness
The last line.
I just wanted to set up Smith’s last line. Let me put on my Tin Foil hat….
We think we live in a free country, but we don’t. Because of all the small laws, there’s nothing to stop “the man” from screwing with you. In fact, you can probably break the law 20 times during the commute to work, and not even know it.
Freedom is an illusion we’ve chosen to accept, but ultimately we’re not free, we’re shackled.
Now, that’s not to say any other country is better. I moved away from the UK, which probably has more cameras than any other country, and a bigger proportion of people under surveillance than China or Singapore.
And it’s all security theater, btw, i.e the show of security rather than the actuality.
"True glory consists of doing what deserves to be written, and writing what deserves to be read".
by Pliny the Elder on May 29, 2008 12:53 AM MDT reply actions
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