Sometimes, there could be addicts everywhere–so you’re not sure who is and who isn’t.
Under watch:
Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson, 25, charged with operating a 30-foot boat on Lake Travis, near Austin, Texas with 15 passengers aboard while allegedly intoxicated and for resisting arrest after being stopped for a “random”safety check. He was pepper sprayed when according to police reports he refused to come ashore for additional sobriety tests, after allegedly failing tests applied on the police cruiser. Once in custody, he refused a breath test. Benson invited scrutiny by choosing to park his boat inside the lake’s most popular cove for drinking and partying and putting himself in the middle of an ongoing police crackdown on drunken boaters in the area. Misdemeanor “drug and alcohol”charges against Benson were dropped in 2002 and he was sentenced to eight days in jail in 2003 for a misdemeanor trespassing charge after forcing his way into an apartment to look for a reportedly stolen TV.
You may wonder why Benson isn’t in the “Runners Up” section…it’s because there are still too many unanswered questions.
According to a (white) witness from another boat, Tony Patch, Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) officer Sgt. Leonard Snyder (white) manhandled, hog-carried and pepper-sprayed Cedric Benson (black) without provocation. A friend on Benson’s boat, Elizabeth Cartwright, 22 (white), who is willing to present her account of events along with photographs of the incident, said he did not seem intoxicated and was not resisting arrest when he was pepper-sprayed. There are multiple problems and it’s probable there are multiple alcoholics. None of the others in the party of 15 on Benson’s boat has come forward, yet this was reportedly the sixth time in as many outings this year that Benson’s boat was boarded for “random”safety checks. What are the odds when we’ve got strong evidence that 20-50% of law enforcers (depending on the agency) are alcoholics and that alcoholism can take form in hatred and racism? On the other hand, according to the Chicago Tribune, “several boaters randomly interviewed Tuesday evening on Lake Travis said the LCRA officers generally are respected as responsible law enforcement officials who prefer to issue warnings rather than citations when they see violations to avoid spoiling recreational experiences for people.”Further, no racial-profiling complaints have been made in recent years about the LCRA, according to the Texas ACLU and other civil rights watchdog groups. Out of “457 total arrests made by LCRA police between 2004 and 2008, 94 percent of those arrested were white, 2.2 percent black, 2 percent Asian and the rest were unclassified.â€
Enabler of the Month:
In case you missed it from the “runners-up”section above: Latrell Sprewell’s agent, Bob Gist, who told Sports Illustrated his client would rather retire than take a drop in salary from $7 million to $1 million, referring to the offer as a “slap in the face.â€