So last night i'm standing out in the sidewalk with a cup of beer with some friends when a cop car rolls up and calls me over. he starts writing me up a ticket for an open container, but when asking me my information he asks about my religious preference. i told him, but is he allowed to ask about religious preference? what should i tell the judge in court? can i use this to help get me out of the open container?
and yes, i come to letsrun for all my legal advice
1) Why did you tell him your real name?
2) Why didn't you run?
the religious questioning wont get you out of anything because the questions did not lead to any further penalty.
-themack
damn you got lucky. I was arrested last weekend for walking across the street from one friends house to the other with an open container.
Are you over 21? Because I thought the only places where having an open container was illegal was in a car, school, or park.
boomerang wrote:
I thought the only places where having an open container was illegal was in a car, school, or park.
Varies from one locale to another. In NYC, taking an open container (e.g. a bottle of beer) one step outside a bar can get you an automatic writeup.
cup of beer is alot different than a bottle or can
you should of not gotten a ticket unless you live in the bible belt
boomerang wrote:
Are you over 21? Because I thought the only places where having an open container was illegal was in a car, school, or park.
or a public way, like a sidewalk. as noted, it can vary from place to place but all towns i know of have laws against basically being out in public with an open container. there's a reason liquor stores sell alcohol in those brown paper bags.
That is a strange story. How, exactly, did the cop "ask" about your "religious preference"?
A cop, of course, should not ask about a person's religion unless it is directly relevant to an investigation. Even if the cop did ask and you were able to make him admit it in court, the matter is unlikely to have an effect on your guilt with respect to the "open container" ticket. In theory, you could puruse a separate action against the police department for a civil rights violation, but I would recommend against doing so.
sgsfgdfvsv wrote:
cup of beer is alot different than a bottle or can
how so? certainly not in any meaningful way. if you could get around an open container law by simply pouring a can of beer into a glass, wouldn't that be sort of ridiculous and defeat the purpose of such laws?
chuck d wrote:
or a public way, like a sidewalk. as noted, it can vary from place to place
So does that mean that if I'm 21 or over and have an open container on my front yard, then I can't get a ticket for that? Because it's on my property, not on a public way.
I am over 21 and was walking with the open beer in the six pack holder, not drinking out of it. I also live in one of the most liberal areas of the country.
But yeah open container laws very by town. I miss being down in GA and being able to walk down the street with a beer in my hand...
no, if you're on private residential property it's very, very unlikely you'd get a ticket (obviously check your local laws to be sure). if you live in some sort of swanky neighborhood you could find yourself running afoul of some kind of zoning-covenant type of rules, though.
Dude, you want to move to the UK. You could drink from an oil barrel and the Police would just drive by...!!! Say you only had it open to put an isotonic solution in as you were dehydrated from a long run and they happen to drive by at the same time....
Review the chain of events again:
Were you actually on the sidewalk when you were beckoned over by the ossifurr?
Did you leave a bar?
1) If you were not on the sidewalk and you were called over you may have left private property and entered public property and got ticketed. The cop preyed on a dumbass. Entrapment, fight it. Gather your witnesses.
2) If you left a bar they should not have let you walk out with the beer.
sgsfgdfvsv wrote:
cup of beer is alot different than a bottle or can
you should of not gotten a ticket unless you live in the bible belt
if it was actually in a cup and not a bottle most places will allow that, and you may be able to fight it, but not likely.
about the bible belt, had a friend arrested for similar situation in the south and while in custody the cop also gave him a public drunk charge. in his report the cop wrote down that my friend was already in custody and being cooperative before he wrote that he was cuffed and noticed him being belligerant. he wasnt able to get the container charge dropped but got the public drunk dropped. i hate cops that try to do stuff like that.
...the US is a strange strange place....
drinking in public is a crime...still...after 150 years...amazing.
A husband still owns his wife's hair, correct?