Pierce in the news for "driving erratically"

[campybatman]

I think the police let Pierce go because he flashed his trademark smile. No, that's odd since it became more about the illegal lane change than Pierce failing the Breathalyzer test.

You have the story wrong, he didn't fail the breathalyzer test. They pulled him over for driving erratically, tested him, he came in under .08 (the legal limit), so they let him go.

Okay, I'd misread it. Still, Pierce wouldn't have been pulled over had he not changed lanes illegally. Only then did the Vegas police determine that they'd smelt alcohol coming from his car. That's how you get caught for more than what the police initially noticed you for to begin with. Some offenders will claim that stuff can be planted on them but you can't plant a smell coming from a car. Anyways, I'm glad that Pierce was alright and the handcuffs were soon removed and he didn't embarrass himself once he'd calmed down and thought about his situation rationally. Personally, I wouldn't compare this incident with the previous incident he was involved in some years ago. Because this situation was completely in Pierce's control and the attack on his life in the night club may or may not have been provoked by him. Still, star athletes such as Pierce need to remember who they are and understand that all of this that helps to define their celebrity status can easily be taken away as easy as losing their own life as he himself has shown.

But, yeah... Pierce needs to reel himself in or at least turn down his life's radio. He seemingly has had it cranked up all summer. Damn. You aren't a rock star, Pierce. Keep that good image that you'd before this. I mean that's what sets Boston's professional teams apart from others. The squeaky clean images usually said of all the top names for the local teams. No one's perfect... But, stars like Pierce, Brady and so forth aren't usually in the news for too many negative things. Maybe, I'm wrong... But, I would file this latest incident involving Pierce under the same folder that contains previous boneheaded incidents in Boston sports such as Bledsoe's infamous stage dive.

[Celtsfan1980]

I was worried when I first read about this, but it looks to be a minor issue. I wish he'd stay away from alcohol altogether, but that's none of my business, I guess.

[DelMonte West]

wow, no cevap, montana, bitter parade of LA fans saying this isnt the way the best player would act?? im shocked.

(coughdon'tlookattthegeneralforumcough)

This really shouldn't be on wiretap. Weak.

[sh00n]

Obviously Paul wasn't in the wrong.

[bruno sundov]

No one cares that for the same money he could be driving a S600 mercedes instead of that 760, BMW?

[Bleeding Green]

No. Chris Bangle for life, son.

[MoBSTa]

I sure hope he hasn't become a Avid Alcoholic, Narcisistic, Egosyntonic problem to the Celtic's.

Alcoholism has done nothing for anyone, Alcohol has no Answers.

[greenbeans]

Alcoholism has done nothing for anyone, Alcohol has no Answers.

haha, my junk begs to differ

[bruno sundov]

I thought the saying was, beer making fat chicks pretty since day one.

[ParticleMan]

This is just another sad case of DWB: Driving While Black. Even the MVP is profiled...

bingo.

i mean, a freakin illegal lane change?? at 3:30 am when i'm sure traffic wasn't exactly buzzing????

this is worth stopping someone and putting them in handcuffs????

unreal.

i'm pretty sure if it's some white tourist family in a minivan, this does not happen.

[Collinto]

I
Alcoholism has done nothing for anyone, Alcohol has no Answers.

You are correct, alcohol has no answers, the answer is at the bottom of the bottle.

It makes you wonder though, if alcohol is such an evil, why would Jesus turn water into wine instead of the other way around? Of course, JC and the boys were walking pretty much everywhere so they didn't have to worry about DUI's.

[Big Baby]

No one cares that for the same money he could be driving a S600 mercedes instead of that 760, BMW?

Don't they make'em (mercedes) in Alabama now? Nothing against Alabama, but I prefer German engineering when it comes to buying a car.

Personally, if I had 150K to blow on a car, I'd buy a pimped-out M6 convertible and a Harley Cross Bones.

http://www.harley-davidson.com/wcm/Content/Pages/2009_Motorcycles/2009_Motorcycles.jsp?locale=en_US#/model/flstsb

[Big Baby]

All those who say Pierce's race had anything to do with this incident is really frickin' kidding themselves. If this happened in Indianapolis or Utah or Texas, fine. But Vegas? Cops don't just handcuff you for no reason at 3am in Vegas because, well, it's effin' Vegas! I've done much, much worse than switch lanes illegally at 3-5am in Vegas and the cops just passed me by on their way to IHOP. And I've been to Vegas at least two dozen times already. Gimme a break. Do you guys know who else works out and hangs in Vegas during summer? Guys like Darius Miles, Sebastian Telfair and even Zach fricking Randolph. How come they never get handcuffed at 3am in Vegas?

Stop coddling Paul Pierce. The man obviously did something really stupid at 3am and did something even stupider when he got pulled over. Paul Pierce has always been my favorite player for the past ten years, but this was really stupid of him. He needs to grow up. Or maybe he never will. He is 30 for crying out loud.

[ryaningf]

All those who say Pierce's race had anything to do with this incident is really frickin' kidding themselves. If this happened in Indianapolis or Utah or Texas, fine. But Vegas? Cops don't just handcuff you for no reason at 3am in Vegas because, well, it's effin' Vegas! I've done much, much worse than switch lanes illegally at 3-5am in Vegas and the cops just passed me by on their way to IHOP. And I've been to Vegas at least two dozen times already. Gimme a break. Do you guys know who else works out and hangs in Vegas during summer? Guys like Darius Miles, Sebastian Telfair and even Zach fricking Randolph. How come they never get handcuffed at 3am in Vegas?

Stop coddling Paul Pierce. The man obviously did something really stupid at 3am and did something even stupider when he got pulled over. Paul Pierce has always been my favorite player for the past ten years, but this was really stupid of him. He needs to grow up. Or maybe he never will. He is 30 for crying out loud.

You're basically proving my point for me: Pierce was only guilty of DWB and nothing else. In a city notorious for its lax police force, Paul is 'randomly' pulled over for an 'illegal lane change.' Give me a break. Sounds like racial profiling to me--the unwritten department policy where big black guys in expensive cars are pulled over and messed with (under the pretext of 'probable cause') on the off chance that they'll do something stupid or that a bag of drugs will magically fall out of their pockets.

Save it with the morality rant. Pierce did nothing wrong or stupid, and police version of events basically backs that up, as well pointing to the probability that the police had no real cause to pull him over and waste his time. 2 road side sobriety tests at 3 a.m.? He passes them both and then they pull out the breathalizer? Give me a break! The police were looking something, anything, to book him on and when they couldn't find it, they finally let him go. Just another case of being Black in America.

[Spin Move]

I am a criminal defense attorney and I do DUI's cops pull people over for no reason every single night, the fact that he was a black man driving a fancy car likely did not help the situation. Officers will pull people over late at night almost randomly making up excuses for it (this is called a pretextual stop, the stop is merley a pretext for investigation of a larger crime) and if they don't find anything they often just let the people go.

I myself have been stoped like this, me and my friends rotate who is the deisgnated driver and one night I was driving everyone home and an officer claimed my car tire momentarily went into the bike lane while turning (the 4 witneses in my car did not think so) which actually on its own is not enough to pull someone over in many places (not saying it is or is not where you are its really a case by case thing) but after they took my license and registration and did a quick HGN test (thats the thing with the light where they watch your eyes) he let me go with no ticket. I am white, so I am not saying whether race played a part in this or not, but anyone who doesn't think cops use racial profiling has not spent any time in the criminal justice industry, they do, they might not do it in the ways you expect, but in subtle ways they do.


Paul was below the legal limit, he commited no crime. Lay off you have no idea what the cops motivation was or how sober or not sober he was that night.

[Big Baby]

All those who say Pierce's race had anything to do with this incident is really frickin' kidding themselves. If this happened in Indianapolis or Utah or Texas, fine. But Vegas? Cops don't just handcuff you for no reason at 3am in Vegas because, well, it's effin' Vegas! I've done much, much worse than switch lanes illegally at 3-5am in Vegas and the cops just passed me by on their way to IHOP. And I've been to Vegas at least two dozen times already. Gimme a break. Do you guys know who else works out and hangs in Vegas during summer? Guys like Darius Miles, Sebastian Telfair and even Zach fricking Randolph. How come they never get handcuffed at 3am in Vegas?

Stop coddling Paul Pierce. The man obviously did something really stupid at 3am and did something even stupider when he got pulled over. Paul Pierce has always been my favorite player for the past ten years, but this was really stupid of him. He needs to grow up. Or maybe he never will. He is 30 for crying out loud.

You're basically proving my point for me: Pierce was only guilty of DWB and nothing else. In a city notorious for its lax police force, Paul is 'randomly' pulled over for an 'illegal lane change.' Give me a break. Sounds like racial profiling to me--the unwritten department policy where big black guys in expensive cars are pulled over and messed with (under the pretext of 'probable cause') on the off chance that they'll do something stupid or that a bag of drugs will magically fall out of their pockets.

Save it with the morality rant. Pierce did nothing wrong or stupid, and police version of events basically backs that up, as well pointing to the probability that the police had no real cause to pull him over and waste his time. 2 road side sobriety tests at 3 a.m.? He passes them both and then they pull out the breathalizer? Give me a break! The police were looking something, anything, to book him on and when they couldn't find it, they finally let him go. Just another case of being Black in America.

This didn't happen in Compton or Malibu. It happened in Vegas. When was the last time you heard about racial tensions coming out of Las Vegas? On any given day or night, there are hundreds and thousands of snobby-ass looking whites, blacks, Asians, Muslims, Latinos and what-have-yous cruising around town in their exotic German or Italians cars. You walk around Vegas and you see more interracial couples in one afternoon than you would all year long if you lived Texas or any other place not named New York, San Francisco or LA. In Vegas, the only color anyone cares about is green = $$$.

Do you know how many black celebrities and athletes live, hang out and/or work in Las Vegas all year long? How come we've never heard about any of them getting stopped at 3am and handcuffed for being black and rich all these years? Is it because all rich black people go back to their homes/hotels before midnight and they all drive Hondas except for Paul Pierce? Gimme a fricking break.

[bruno sundov]

No one cares that for the same money he could be driving a S600 mercedes instead of that 760, BMW?

Don't they make'em (mercedes) in Alabama now? Nothing against Alabama, but I prefer German engineering when it comes to buying a car.

Personally, if I had 150K to blow on a car, I'd buy a pimped-out M6 convertible and a Harley Cross Bones.

http://www.harley-davidson.com/wcm/Content/Pages/2009_Motorcycles/2009_Motorcycles.jsp?locale=en_US#/model/flstsb

In AL they just take the parts from GER and put them together. The M6 is a cool car. I love the SMGIII tranny. It really is like driving a formula one race car.

F1 is the only type racing I can watch. Nascar just sucks. People driving in circles for 5 hours turning left doesn't excite me.

[cisco]

All those who say Pierce's race had anything to do with this incident is really frickin' kidding themselves. If this happened in Indianapolis or Utah or Texas, fine. But Vegas? Cops don't just handcuff you for no reason at 3am in Vegas because, well, it's effin' Vegas! I've done much, much worse than switch lanes illegally at 3-5am in Vegas and the cops just passed me by on their way to IHOP. And I've been to Vegas at least two dozen times already. Gimme a break. Do you guys know who else works out and hangs in Vegas during summer? Guys like Darius Miles, Sebastian Telfair and even Zach fricking Randolph. How come they never get handcuffed at 3am in Vegas?

Stop coddling Paul Pierce. The man obviously did something really stupid at 3am and did something even stupider when he got pulled over. Paul Pierce has always been my favorite player for the past ten years, but this was really stupid of him. He needs to grow up. Or maybe he never will. He is 30 for crying out loud.

You're basically proving my point for me: Pierce was only guilty of DWB and nothing else. In a city notorious for its lax police force, Paul is 'randomly' pulled over for an 'illegal lane change.' Give me a break. Sounds like racial profiling to me--the unwritten department policy where big black guys in expensive cars are pulled over and messed with (under the pretext of 'probable cause') on the off chance that they'll do something stupid or that a bag of drugs will magically fall out of their pockets.

Save it with the morality rant. Pierce did nothing wrong or stupid, and police version of events basically backs that up, as well pointing to the probability that the police had no real cause to pull him over and waste his time. 2 road side sobriety tests at 3 a.m.? He passes them both and then they pull out the breathalizer? Give me a break! The police were looking something, anything, to book him on and when they couldn't find it, they finally let him go. Just another case of being Black in America.

This didn't happen in Compton or Malibu. It happened in Vegas. When was the last time you heard about racial tensions coming out of Las Vegas? On any given day or night, there are hundreds and thousands of snobby-ass looking whites, blacks, Asians, Muslims, Latinos and what-have-yous cruising around town in their exotic German or Italians cars. You walk around Vegas and you see more interracial couples in one afternoon than you would all year long if you lived Texas or any other place not named New York, San Francisco or LA. In Vegas, the only color anyone cares about is green = $$$.

Do you know how many black celebrities and athletes live, hang out and/or work in Las Vegas all year long? How come we've never heard about any of them getting stopped at 3am and handcuffed for being black and rich all these years? Is it because all rich black people go back to their homes/hotels before midnight and they all drive Hondas except for Paul Pierce? Gimme a fricking break.

Wow. Racial profiling happens everywhere dude.

[Rondo_Fan]

Without knowing what did or didn't happen, I think that it's pretty lame to assume that he was profiled racially, or at least that that was all that happened.

According to the reports, he got mouthy with the cops, was handcuffed, and then let go 15 minutes later.

Anyone remember the last time that they got mouthy with the cops after a few beers, and then they let you go 15 minutes later with a "Have a good night, sir"?

And if you're driving erratically, alcohol is not the only potential problem. You can blow an 0.6 and still be arrested for driving after smoking marijuana, etc., and it's for damn sure that they would have followed up on that with an ordinary Joe Sixpack who was mouthing off to them.

It sounds to me a lot more like a story of preferential treatment, rather than being racially profiled.

Or maybe PP was racially profiled, and then after the cops realized who he was, they switched into star treatment mode? Maybe both things happened.

Anyway, if substances are causing problems for you, then you have a problem with substances.

[Cyclical]

Pierce in the news for driving erratically?

Since when is TMZ the "news"? It's as much "news" as internet blogs are literature.

Who cares? The man did something we all do every day, got caught and let go minutes later. Done deal. Is this news or just something that happened throughout the day? Call me when he's in jail. How about when he ordered a steak medium rare and got it medium well, then argued with the waiter about it? Oh, that wasn't caught on a crappy cell phone camera -- not news I guess. Give me a break...