CT attorney claims breathalysers "racist"

[Sister Fracas 5]

The Paul-Aficionado show is back on the road!

can I get refund on the ticket I bought to see it?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

What double standards are these?

I think its a stupid, desperate legal defense - you won't get any argument from me about that.

Beyond that - what point do you take from this?

The point is the same point I have made since day one in this forum. Where in the United States it is okay to talk utter rubbish if you are black but the same comments from a non-black male would have Jesse Jackson and co demanding an apology or probably a public execution. Which you clearly believe is not the case.

I don't know what reality you live in but these sort of incidents are hardly as "isolated" as you make them out to be and reflect an underlying attitude with various people. It is one thing when some uneducated rural person is racist, because the don't know any better and another when a lawyer from Connecticut drivels ####### like that.

Unfortunately you cannot use the "lack of education" or even "poor circumstances" cards in this case. So we'll leave it at the "It's isolated and he is just an idiot card". Oh wait he is a lawyer so he cannot be that dumb.

Again - where does it say that the lawyer is black?

Go on... take a look at his website...

[Heracles 417]

BTW - where in the article does it say that the lawyer (James O. Ruane) is black?

Ruane represents Tyrone Brown. The lawyer is using the race card to get his client off.

You know of any Caucasian with a name like "Tyrone"

Again - where does it say that the lawyer is black?

Go on... take a look at his website...

Refer above.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

BTW - where in the article does it say that the lawyer (James O. Ruane) is black?

Ruane represents Tyrone Brown. The lawyer is using the race card to get his client off.

You know of any Caucasian with a name like "Tyrone"

The comments you are so outraged about were made by a white man (i.e. the lawyer).

[Sister Fracas 5]

Go on... take a look at his website...

looks kinda pink to me... he's on the right I believe

[Heracles 417]

The comments you are so outraged about were made by a white man (i.e. the lawyer).

I am not outraged. Just not a fan of the double standards in this country. For a lawyer to use the race card, he is smart enough to know it works. Abroad he would probably be disbarred.

Maybe we put the "druuugs in the KKK machine!".

These sort of cases are both head shakers and funny.

Edited November 21, 2008 by Aficionado

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The comments you are so outraged about were made by a white man (i.e. the lawyer).

I am not outraged. Just not a fan of the double standards in this country. For a lawyer to use the race card, he is smart enough to know it works. Abroad he would probably be disbarred.

Maybe we put the "druuugs in the KKK machine!".

These sort of cases are both head shakers and funny.

You honestly think the guy will get off with that defense?

[Heracles 417]

You honestly think the guy will get off with that defense?

Not the point really. Someone using these sort of defenses is as stupid as a KKK member. Actually much dumber because the KKK at least have an excuse since they are uneducated. I don't blame the person that the lawyer is defending but the fact that someone could say that sort of ####### in 2008 is eye raising. It would be like a lawyer claiming the courts should dismiss a charge on a white guy because the police are unfairly able to catch white guys easier since they don't run away as fast.

Edited November 21, 2008 by Aficionado

[Saddle Bronc 124]

BTW - where in the article does it say that the lawyer (James O. Ruane) is black?

Ruane represents Tyrone Brown. The lawyer is using the race card to get his client off.

You know of any Caucasian with a name like "Tyrone"

The comments you are so outraged about were made by a white man (i.e. the lawyer).

Note that the article also doesn't mention the lawyer being caucasian.

However, it's rare to see any American*** caucasian using a strategy so similar to Al Sharpton, especially an attorney attempting to get a very-obviously-guilty client off.

But...Aficionado should check up on Hollywood actor Tyrone Power, who had a rather strange mixture of ancestors: English, Irish, Québecois and Huguenots--almost cent-percent caucasian.

***While Francophone Québecois have been long-known for such a strategy, especially when making claims of "anti-Francophone" discrimination, their claims are made exclusively in Canada (and the Québecois strategy long-predates Sharpton; I have no idea if Sharpton copied it from them, or developped it coincidentally, so I'll presume the latter).

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

You honestly think the guy will get off with that defense?

Not the point really. Someone using these sort of defenses is as stupid as a KKK member. Actually much dumber because the KKK at least have an excuse since they are uneducated. I don't blame the person that the lawyer is defending but the fact that someone could say that sort of ####### in 2008. It would be like a lawyer claiming the courts should dismiss a charge on a white guy because the police are unfairly able to catch white guys easier since they don't run away as fast.

Of course its the point - because in a previous post you suggested that the guy made the argument because "he is smart enough to know that it works".

Stupid legal defenses are not new and they're certainly not exclusive to the US. Have you ever done jury duty?

I have - In the UK I heard a guy's lawyer explain to the court that really he had no choice but to drive drunk on a suspended license (suspended because of several previous DUIs).

BTW - where in the article does it say that the lawyer (James O. Ruane) is black?

Ruane represents Tyrone Brown. The lawyer is using the race card to get his client off.

You know of any Caucasian with a name like "Tyrone"

The comments you are so outraged about were made by a white man (i.e. the lawyer).

Note that the article also doesn't mention the lawyer being caucasian.

It doesn't - which is why I looked at the website...

Edited November 21, 2008 by Paul Daniels

[Heracles 417]

Have you ever done jury duty?

Refuse to. Not a fan of the legal system.

[Sister Fracas 5]

BTW - where in the article does it say that the lawyer (James O. Ruane) is black?

Ruane represents Tyrone Brown. The lawyer is using the race card to get his client off.

You know of any Caucasian with a name like "Tyrone"

The comments you are so outraged about were made by a white man (i.e. the lawyer).

Note that the article also doesn't mention the lawyer being caucasian.

However, it's rare to see any American*** caucasian using a strategy so similar to Al Sharpton, especially an attorney attempting to get a very-obviously-guilty client off.

But...Aficionado should check up on Hollywood actor Tyrone Power, who had a rather strange mixture of ancestors: English, Irish, Québecois and Huguenots--almost cent-percent caucasian.

***While Francophone Québecois have been long-known for such a strategy, especially when making claims of "anti-Francophone" discrimination, their claims are made exclusively in Canada (and the Québecois strategy long-predates Sharpton; I have no idea if Sharpton copied it from them, or developped it coincidentally, so I'll presume the latter).

quit makin' my heart go a-flutter...

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Have you ever done jury duty?

Refuse to. Not a fan of the legal system.

This stuff is common the world over - take my word for it.

That said - the fact that someone can make a dumb defense doesn't mean they have a snowball's chance in hell of convincing a jury or a magistrate.

[Oosie 1]

http://www.connpost.com/ci_11021578?source=most_viewed

Lawyer: Alcohol testing device is racist

By DANIEL TEPFER

Staff writer

Updated: 11/20/2008 12:17:25 AM EST

A lawyer representing a man arrested in Fairfield for drunken driving says the state's breathalyzers discriminate against black people.

"They are KKK in a box," said lawyer James O. Ruane of Shelton. "We really have some racist machines here."

Ruane represents Tyrone Brown, 40, of Burritt Avenue, Norwalk, who was arrested April 9 by the state police on Interstate 95 in Fairfield and charged with drunken driving.

A breath analysis administered at state police Troop G in Bridgeport found Brown had a blood-alcohol content of 0.188. The legal limit is 0.08.

In a motion filed Tuesday in Superior Court, Ruane asked a judge to suppress his client's breathalyzer test results, contending the device used by the state police, and most other local police departments, the Intoxilyzer 5000, discriminates against blacks. Brown is an African-American.

Assistant State's Attorney Mark Durso declined comment on the motion.

Ruane claims the lung capacity of a black man is 3 percent smaller than a white man and, therefore, black men's test results vary from the sobriety standard set by the device.

He said Dr. Michael Hlastala, a lung physiologist at the University of Washington, examined research of other lung physiologists and, based on his studies, has determined the Intoxilyzer 5000 does not effectively test the blood-alcohol content of black men.

"He looked at all the research and came up with the bigger picture and found the common thread," he said.

Ruane said he intends to have Hlastala testify on Brown's behalf.

"The data is very clear," he said.

Based on the data here, Ruane is a chopf##k--even if the lower capacity is accepted as fact, there is no way it's going to inflate a reading of 0.079 (just below legal limit) by 137%!

This would make breathalyzers sexist too as women tend to have lower lung capacities than men.

If I ever start drinking that will be my excuse when I get caught behind the wheel.

[Ban Hammer 14,573]

Have you ever done jury duty?

Refuse to. Not a fan of the legal system.

i'm not aware of anyone being able to get out of jury duty due to their thoughts on the legal system.