64-year-old Jessie Thornton from Surpirse, Arizona said that police officers claimed that they knew he was drunk just by “looking at him.”
Mr. Thornton claims that he tried to explain to the officers that he had been running errands in the evening before going to his local LA Fitness gym to swim laps. The police weren’t mollified though, claiming his blood-shot eyes gave him away.
“I take my glasses off and he says, ‘You’ve got bloodshot eyes.’ I said, ‘I’ve been swimming at LA Fitness,’ and he says, ‘I think you’re DUI,'” Thornton is quoted by news.com.au as saying.
If the officer’s treatment of Mr. Thornton wasn’t shoddy enough, things only got worse for the 64-year-old.
“He (the officer) goes, ‘Well we’re going to do a sobriety test.’ I said, ‘OK, but I got bad knees and a bad hip with surgery in two days.'” A claim that Thornton’s medical records back up.
Officers then made Mr. Thornton sit in the gutter hand-cuffed, an uncomfortable position to be in for anyone, let alone a 64-year-old man with bad knees and hips.
The final straw for Mr. Thornton came when the officers did finally breathalyse him back at the station. Thornton’s breath test returned a reading of 0.000, which in layman’s terms means that he hadn’t had a drop. You’d have more alcohol in your system if you’d just eaten a fun size Cherry Ripe.
Mr. Thornton, an African-American, has now surmised that his arrest had less to do with drink driving and more to do with something rather sinister.
“It was driving while black,” said Thornton.
More power to the old fella for standing up and doing something about it!
Image: digitalspy.com
