have you ever been arrested?

[The Ghost of RubangB]

I was arrested once, for being a minor in possession of alcohol. It's not on my record. I did my time! (4 hours in the big house, 20 hours community service, and 2 AA meetings.) What really pisses me off is that AA is a fucking religious institution that wants me to believe that Jesus is the only thing that can get me off booze. I don't see how the government can make me go to AA when there are easily non-religious groups out there trying to get people out of addictions. Not to mention that I was 18 and um, not addicted to anything, and sober when they caught me stuffing the booze into my backpack. I didn't even get to walk home and drink it all.

Here's the fun part of the story. They charged me with being a minor in possession of alcohol, which was the community service, AA, etc., AND they charged me with forging a government document, which could've been thousands of dollars and years in jail. I just borrowed a friend's ID. It was real. It was expired. Not forged at all. They gave me a month to find a lawyer. Too expensive. I came back without one. I filled out all this paperwork that said I was representing myself in court. Then when I was about to go up to the stand after waiting for hours, the public prosecutor dude tries to make a bargain with me! They pull me to the side, and tell me they've gone over their data, and they're willing to drop the forging a government document charge if I'm willing to plead guilty to the minor in possession of alcohol charge. I accepted, filled out some more papework, and got me a nice little volunteer job at a needle exchange passing out needles to junkies in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Haven't been arrested in the 7 years since, but I did get a speeding ticket for going 102 about 2 years ago, and the cop handcuffed me while he did my background czech because he thought the only reason I'd be driving that fast was if I was trying to make some daring escape. Then he realized I had a flawless record, uncuffed me, gave me some long speech about how he was just about to call a helicopter or set up some road blocks or some other crap, and then he let me go home. $400 fine, and my insurance went up the roof. Luckily for me, my car died a few months later and I stopped paying for insurance and let my license expire and became a bus and train type of guy. Saving lots of money.