Normally I see these reports of pro athletes and their run-ins with the law and tend to think..."you can take the thug out of the ghetto but you can't take the ghetto out of the thug."
But this issue with Cedric Benson made me raise an eyebrow. I guess my own personal experience has given me some prejudice toward the whole situation.
I've been stopped so many times by "boat fuzz" on the water and all of them, every single experience has been a negative experience. I've been pulled over on a Jet Ski (not really pulled over....it was beached and the prick just wanted to harrass me and see all the bells/whistles...hoping he could write a ticket for no fire extinguisher or no audio device or bad registration). I've been pulled over on a pontoon boat (with 10 people on board), much like the situation in Benson's case. The prick cop insisted on making me do a field sobriety test (which I completely passed) and only after I threatened him with a formal complaint and all the witnesses on the boat did he drop the issue of dragging me back to shore to do a BAC.
I've been pulled over on a ski boat....you name it. All of those run ins, the cops were neither courteous or polite and to be honest, they were looking more for some reason to issue a citation than I think they were actually concerned with safety.
I've partied in Lake of the Ozarks, where you have 10,000 examples of unsafe activities in the water (people operating boats around swimmers in the water, etc) and the cops are more interested in issuing citations for not enough life jackets, then they are about truly "policing" the environment and keeping it safe.
The details of the Benson case are starting to come out now and it makes me laugh to no end that cops are dumb enough to do this crap in front of 15 witnesses. Apparently, there's pictures that are going to surface of the cops "struggle" with Benson. One witness also stated that she's been boating with Benson 6 times now in TX and they've been stopped every single time. (the term improper search/seizure is eventually going to find it's way into boating police discussions).
I totally respect law enforcment (individuals) but for the life of me, I find that 9/10 encounters with law enforcement tend to be negative, because they're always forced to execute the law based on citations or tickets, rather than any sort of effective or pragmatic measures to keep people safe or keep good order.