Allan West Sounds Off On His Wife's Recent DUI Arrest

[toddnjoyce]

As a husband, I can understand his outrage

I used to be that way. Then I thought about it like this: if I came home and found my wife in bed with a strange man, should I be outraged at him or her? She’s the one that knows she’s married.

Given the reported medical conditions, I’d certainly he concerned over an ability to drive safely, which then leads to things like this happening. I also wouldn’t be throwing a multi-day, very public don’t-you-know-who-she’s-married-to tantrum if I was seeking a run for office.

Kinda seems impulsive and entitled to me. But then again, he does have a history of that kind of behavior.

 

[TheDan]

System worked. Doesn’t change a thing about her husband’s response.

Well now he sounds vindicated instead of petulant.

 

[rotor]

Sounded to me like the DA said the cop screwed up. As I said earlier it looked like cop was a rookie but I go with real cops to tell us if the arrest looked kosher and apparently it did. West isn’t getting my vote anyhow but a man standing up for his wife is a good thing.

 

[Vaquero]

Her driving was still erratic and dangerous.

 

[Axxe55]

I used to be that way. Then I thought about it like this: if I came home and found my wife in bed with a strange man, should I be outraged at him or her? She’s the one that knows she’s married.

Given the reported medical conditions, I’d certainly he concerned over an ability to drive safely, which then leads to things like this happening. I also wouldn’t be throwing a multi-day, very public don’t-you-know-who-she’s-married-to tantrum if I was seeking a run for office.

Kinda seems impulsive and entitled to me. But then again, he does have a history of that kind of behavior.

I don't totally disagree with what you are saying, but as I said, I can understand his outrage in defense of his wife. As a public figure, I do think he should have kept some of his comments to himself. Exactly for the reason you stated.

If you or I as husbands had the same degree of outrage over perceived treatment of our wives, it would never be on the front page or in the media.

Understanding his outrage, and even having done it myself in the past, doesn't mean that was the best course of action, or that I condone his actions. My final judgement of Allan West will be determined in how he deals with this issue going forward.

 

[Axxe55]

Well now he sounds vindicated instead of petulant.

As others have said, maybe he should have waited until the evidence showed that.

 

[Axxe55]

Her driving was still erratic and dangerous.

Exactly. Alcohol may not have been involved, but impaired driving is what led to her being stopped in the first place.

 

[toddnjoyce]

Well now he sounds vindicated instead of petulant.

Eye of the beholder.

 

[AZ Refugee]

If someone is not competent to operate a motor vehicle because of age, medical condition... they should not. I am tired of getting behind that one person the appears to be too scared to go the speed limit on a 2 lane road. If she was not in the right frame of mind to drive she should not have been driving. Having a medical condition is not an excuse. Her husband should have kept his pie hole shut to some extent, but then again politically, he is definitely getting free press out of it.

 

[TheDan]

Her driving was still erratic and dangerous.

I bet she was yelling at them kids

 

[candcallen]

Never did the job of street cop. Only in prisons but I did work the search team and since dogs are nationally certified our dogs and search teams responded to dozens upon dozens of calls from police needing dogs.

Several times they smelled marijuana or meth or heroin and so did I and the handler but the dog said no. Other times the dog said yes and we tore apart cars only to find nothing but empty spaces that reeked of the drugs.

Same goes for alcohol, mixed drinks and spills can trick the nose. Its subjective. Several types of specialty tobacco smell more like marijuana than marijuana. Remember it's still illegal to drive impaired so that's a consideration even where legal.

Totality of circumstances and judging situations individually. It keeps your biases in check.

I'm the first to say many cops they hire today are pussies who are trained to be afraid of everyone and that added to the pussy aspect leads to shootings that happen too quick or needlessly and wouldnt have happened 25 years ago. They arent properly trained to mitigate the threats and have less lethal tools and options taken away by ignorant politicians and public.

Still I try to judge every shooting or use of force or interaction individually. All cops are just cops to me. Not all dirty or all heros, just people asked to do a difficult job. They own it if they phuck up.

As an officer or supervisor I've been involved in thousands of drug seizures, hundreds of use of force incidents several riots. I've had to shoot a couple dozen people during riots with less lethal munitions and been in 3 legit deadly force instances, one where I was staging the trigger on my revolver and I thank god I didnt end up shooting those people. One was a kid, one was mentally I'll and one just an asshole. So many of these instances turn on one small thing. To sit back and say the cop was lying or dirty or a murderer with absolutely zero personal knowledge is the most ignorant phucking thing you can do. Especially if you say your a former cop and you know the rules of how these things go.

Check your bias at the door or you're irrelevant to the conversation IMHO. Misidentification of drugs and alcohol odors occure all the time. That's why it's called a system. To err is human as they say. If you can do better get off your ass and try.

Col West's crowing would have been more effective if handled properly. Now it just looks bad even though correct.

 

[candcallen]

Well now he sounds vindicated instead of petulant.

Still sounds petulant. He attacked the wrong thing. It's called a knee jerk reaction.

 

[cycleguy2300]

Sounded to me like the DA said the cop screwed up. As I said earlier it looked like cop was a rookie but I go with real cops to tell us if the arrest looked kosher and apparently it did. West isn’t getting my vote anyhow but a man standing up for his wife is a good thing.

I didnt get the feeling of what you relate in the first sentence from the link I read, but I agree or understand everything else I just wish he had tempered his response to something productive, you have to use the right tool for the job...

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[Hoji]

I didnt get the feeling of what you relate in the first sentence from the link I read, but I agree or understand everything else I just wish he had tempered his response to something productive, you have to use the right tool for the job...

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Very few problems that can’t be fixed with a sledge hammer. If he knew this happened on the same night

Conservatives Question Abbott's Potential Involvement In Arrest Of Allen West's Wife

Both Lt. Col West's wife and a senior staffer for West were pulled over and interrogated by police last Friday night, within the space of the same hour

nationalfile.com

why wouldn’t he come out swinging?

 

[rotor]

I didnt get the feeling of what you relate in the first sentence from the link I read, but I agree or understand everything else I just wish he had tempered his response to something productive, you have to use the right tool for the job...

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You are right. I was quoting Mrs. West's lawyer and thought it was the DA.

 

[andre3k]

Sounded to me like the DA said the cop screwed up. As I said earlier it looked like cop was a rookie but I go with real cops to tell us if the arrest looked kosher and apparently it did. West isn’t getting my vote anyhow but a man standing up for his wife is a good thing.

Based on what I saw in the video, I probably would have ultimately made the same arrest decision. There are lots of rookies on the streets now, old heads are retiring and knowledge isn't getting passed down. The majority of our field trainers are rookies with 2- 3 years on.

The department backing her says a lot to me. They certainly had an opportunity to throw her under the bus.

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[Hoji]

Based on what I saw in the video, I probably would have ultimately made the same arrest decision. There are lots of rookies on the streets now, old heads are retiring and knowledge isn't getting passed down. The majority of our field trainers are rookies with 2- 3 years on.

The department backing her says a lot to me. They certainly had an opportunity to throw her under the bus.

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If she had arrested Shelia Jackson Lee under the same circumstances do you think they would still be backing her?

 

[pronstar]

There is a reason FD and EMS stage and await our arrival on probably 25% of calls...

Fire/EMS have a different focus. If we approached calls with their methods cops and others would get needlessly hurt because Fire/EMS focuses on the patient and do not generally consider tactics and don't take into consideration a number of the what ifs cops think about. FIRE and EMS opperate of a totally diferent set of what-ifs. I know of several calls where Fire got surprised by weapons on a passed out or crash subject. Thankfully they were OK.

You'll notice I am neither accusing your friend of doing anything wrong, nor cheerleading the cops. Every call is different. Different parts of town, different officers with different experience, different callers providing different information, different times of day etc. I won't pass judgment on the officer's actions other than to say that there are times when the described force *could* be justified and from what I know about what happened I cannot say it wasn't. But even assuming it was justified, it doesn't mean it was the best course of action. Just because you can doesn't mean you should, and like wise just because there were other options doesn't mean either the more or less assertive approach was unjustified.

An ER trauma surgeon and a facial plastic surgeon will approach patients with a different focus, one may a bit brutal, course and curt, the other may be a bit more patient, thoughtful and considerate of the wants of the patient. But one has a goal almost solely of keeping people from dying, while the other wants people to be happy with the superficial after product. Neither are wrong.

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Interestingly, my buddy is a Fort Worth Police Officer / Paramedic.

I didn’t even know that was a thing before I met him.


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[rotor]

Based on what I saw in the video, I probably would have ultimately made the same arrest decision. There are lots of rookies on the streets now, old heads are retiring and knowledge isn't getting passed down. The majority of our field trainers are rookies with 2- 3 years on.

The department backing her says a lot to me. They certainly had an opportunity to throw her under the bus.

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I bow to the superior knowledge of LEO on this site. Was just my impression from the video with no knowledge of standard operating procedures.

 

[andre3k]

If she had arrested Shelia Jackson Lee under the same circumstances do you think they would still be backing her?

I'm not going to speculate on that. I don't know and really don't care to play what ifs.

All I know is that departments are out to hammer officers for any little thing if given the chance. So when a department actually comes out and states their officer did the right thing in an arrest that became politicized, that carries some weight with me.

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