There was an interesting case of a young women who blew through a stop sign at 60 mph and when she was stopped by police and questioned, volunteered an interesting defense.
A woman seen speeding through a stop sign at 60 mph (97 kph) told officers they shouldn’t arrest her because she’s a “very clean, thoroughbred, white girl,” police said.
Her eyes glassy and bloodshot, Lauren Elizabeth Cutshaw was slurring her words and a Breathalyzer showed her blood-alcohol level at 0.18 percent, according to police in Bluffton, South Carolina.
Cutshaw, 32, told the arresting officer she shouldn’t be jailed because she was a cheerleader, a dancer and a sorority girl who graduated from a “high accredited university.”
Taken to the police station in handcuffs, she described herself as a white “thoroughbred” and “went on to say ‘I’m a white, clean girl,'” the officer wrote in his report.
“I asked what that had to do with anything?” wrote the officer, who also is white.
She replied, “You’re a cop, you should know what that means,” and, “You’re a cop, you should know based on the people that come in this room.”
There is a lot to unpack in this story in trying to understand what she meant but I am going to give it a shot.
Her being intoxicated may have caused her to be confused in her choice of words. The police found marijuana in her car, which suggests that when she said she graduated from a “high accredited university”, what she really meant to say was that she graduated from an accredited university while high.
It is possible that when she said that she was “very clean”, it did not mean that she had just showered but that she meant to say “pure”. That combined with her saying she was a ‘thoroughbred’ likely means that she was conceived as part of a careful breeding program that selected her parents for certain qualities. That would make sense since those in the racing world do speak of ‘pure thoroughbred’ racing horses, and it looks like she also was bred for speed.
When we speak of white privilege, it is usually that white people are entitled to certain privileges and assumptions about them that enable them to go through life without encountering the many hassles that people of color routinely face. Many white people are oblivious to the fact that people of color are subject to constraints that do not apply to them and that sense of entitlement is taken for granted and does not have to be made explicit. It is rare that someone has to actually tell police officers that they should know that being white entitles them to these privileges.
Driving under the influence of affluenza isn’t a crime!
“Free, white, and twenty one!”,
“bred for speed” ohhh you scamp
It may not be pertinent, but I have on occasion heard people use “thoroughbred” as a synonym for “pedigreed”.
Not that her saying that she has a pedigree is all that much better.
The stench of privilege is strong on people who claim pedigree.
Ah kids.
I am reminded of a time when one of our students was stopped
while riding a stolen horse down the median of a four-lane highway. He, the student, did not claim to be thoroughbred but the horse did.
“a white thoroughbred”
She’s probably right. Malfunctioning brains, resulting in stupidities like hers are a well known side effect of taking breeding too far.
@2 antaresrichard
““Free, white, and twenty one!”
Are you as old as me? That was mom’s line.
“
Interesting that a US outlet (Fox News of all people) reporting on a US story reports the speed in kph as well as miles. Is this common now? Is the US finally starting to use metric measurements?
They shoot horses, don’t they?
Not so young, she. Thirty two is well past the age of old enough to goddamn know better and do better.
I suspect the the mention of her being a “thoroughbred” might relate to her sexual desirability as a way of deniably offering that she might be willing to trade her favor, details (phone number to whatever) to be worked out later, as a bribe to avoid a ticket. Perhaps not. But I have had friends who bragged about avoiding tickets with just a smile, wiggle, and phone number. Many men’s willingness to pay to just be around attractive women is pretty well documented.
If so, good on the officer for doing his duty.
This also highlights the desirability of a diverse police force. A monolithic force of aggressively heterosexual officers might tent to be more tolerant of trades involving favors for leniency. Just the presence on the force of a few trusted and respected gay, or female, officers could make a huge difference in the perception that you could brag about it and be met with unanimous acclaim and high-fives.
@Art:
Nothing the drunk is quoted as saying sounds remotely to me like a pass or offer for sexual favors. Not everything women do is sexual, you know, and that includes driving while completely blotto then making statements which sound as if she assumes the white officer who pulled her over is just as racist as she is and willing to conspire with her to let her avoid consequences for her dangerous behavior on the basis of shared whiteness.
Nothing she said to the officer were sexual statements, it’s all declaration of her self-perceived racial superiority.