Hey, so I've got a story...
About ten years ago I went to a Clemson football game and was walking around as the game was letting out. I've grown up going to those games - several a year for 30 years now. Our stadium holds 83k or so, then another several thousand that stay outside tailgating - 100,000 people out drinking and partying. But anyway, I was walking across the street and a cop yelled for me to pour my beer out. I heard her, but kept on walking. Got across the street and noticing that she was still looking at me, but I couldn't figure out why me, or what I'd done. I took another sip of my beer, threw it in the trash and kept on walking.
I get 3-4 blocks down the road and this cop walks up in front of me and tells me to stop. He asks me my name and if he could see my ID. Thinking that maybe they thought I was underage, I told him "hey, sorry - I'm 25 and old eno...". The cop gets this attitude and goes "I didn't ask how old you are, I asked for your ID. Did you hear what that cop told you down the street?" I told him yes, that I heard her. He asks me what she told me and I said she told me to pour out my beer. "And what'd you do?" he asked. "And I poured out my beer." He goes "no you didn't, you drank it in front of her and then threw it away." At this point I'm confused as hell. I've spent countless Saturday's drinking in that same spot - there's cops everywhere and nobody has ever cared. Literally everyone is drinking - as long as you're not wasted and out of control, they seriously don't care. I'm still trying to figure out what I'd done when he grabs my arms, pins them behind my back and handcuffs me. I honestly thought it was a joke - I'm sober and getting arrested for God knows what, and meanwhile a crowd of people are standing around watching this, all with beers in hand. I'd never been arrested before, never really broke any laws, and now I'm getting arrested and have no idea why.
They take me, put me in this little mobile truck jail thing and I stayed there while they run everything. The whole situation was just surreal - they charged me with Open Container - the same thing everyone else was standing around doing.
At this point in my life I live in a different part of the state, but come court date I drove back and attend. The court is full of college students and the cases were moving really quickly. It didn't seem to matter what the person said when the judge would ask if they were guilty or innocent. Guilty, you paid the fine. If you said innocent, he'd listen for a second, then say "Guilty. Next". Now, I knew I was wronged here, but i didn't think I'd even get a chance to defend myself, but anyway it gets to my turn. "Innocent or Guilty?" He asks. I told him that I wasn't sure, and he asked me what that meant. "Yea, I had an open container, but I was at a football game." "They arrested you at a game?" He says, then looks over at my stuff. He asked the cops what the deal was and they tell him the whole spiel - "we told him to pour out his beer". "And?" the judge asked them. "And he chugged it and then threw the can away." they tell him. He asks me if I "chugged" my beer, while holding his fingers in those little quotation marks. I told him no, didn't chug my beer. I admitted I took a sip, but it was an almost full beer and I didn't know why I was supposed to throw it away in the first place. The judge goes "yea, why did you tell him to throw it out?". They tell him because I was crossing the street. The judge asks them what that has to do with anything. At this point I'm starting to smile, because it seems like the judge was the only one that got it and he's obviously on my side. They kind of "ummed and uhhhed" and he asks them how many other people that were of age did they ticket for open container that day. "None" They told him. He asks all the people in court still waiting for trial "are any of y'all here over 21 and were ticketed for open container on Saturday, September whatever date... Nobody says anything. The judge again goes over the whole story, making sure he had it right - which we all agreed was true. And then he went the hell off on those cops. He told them they'd better never single out one person to ticket for open container, "or if you do, go ahead and haul all hundred thousand of them in here for the same thing". The judge apologized to me for the whole deal, asked if I needed some note for my work or anything and then told me to go home, and that he was sorry so much of my time was already wasted. It was awesome. And then I got the absolute hell out of dodge.