It comes of no surprise to me that it was the Irving Police Department that arrested Mavs player DeShawn Stevenson for public intoxication, an offense just below low bochery on the criminal offense scale. After all, Irving leads the DFW metroplex in arrests for riding a bicycle on the sidewalk (not joking). 
Stevenson is no saint. But he obviously did not give the cops a hard time or the Irving PD would have piled on resisting arrest, disorderly conduct or at least wearing his pants on the ground.
Stevenson told Dallas TV station KDFW he was in the parking lot looking for his phone after doing some celebrating at a friend’s apartment.
“A couple cops came up to me, asked me was I drunk,” Stevenson said. “I said no but I had a couple drinks. I guess he talked to somebody else and then he just put me in handcuffs for no reason.”
He was arrested without incident on a Class C misdemeanor charge, based on the results of a sobriety test, an officer’s observations and his statements.
“They felt he was a danger to himself and others,” Irving public information officer John Argumaniz said. “Basically, he was intoxicated to a point where [police] didn’t feel comfortable letting him walk away or leave. They didn’t have any other options at that point.”
I throw the BULL SHIT flag on Irving PD’s explanation. Seriously, no other options? That’s lame. Cops regularly call wreckers, cabs, friends, family etc. for citizens in similar circumstances.
Now before all you “back the blue” types start calling me out and blindly backing the cops, keep in mind that I was a law enforcement officer for over 32 years. I spent two of those years as a patrol officer in a city about the size of Irving. Even as a raw rookie in 1976, I would have been embarrassed to make a “public intoxication” arrest under the circumstances that are being reported in the Irving Police report and by the local media.
Here’s a news flash, there are assholes in every profession. Who hasn’t worked with them? I’m not calling out the arresting officer or even his Sargent. I would be very surprised if this incident was not run much higher up the chain of command since it involved a high profile professional player from a Dallas Championship team.
I’ll give Irving PD the benefit of the doubt that the officers made the arrest because IPD has a philosophy that police officers are hired to make as much money for the city as possible. Though I must point out that more than one minority organization has a differing opinion when it comes to being black or brown on the streets of Irving. Make no mistake about it, Bonzer Wolf is NOT playing the race card. I’m playing the MONEY card.
Note to Irving taxpayers: If your PD has nothing better to do than arrest an NBA player who doesn’t even “fail the attitude test”, you’ve got too many police officers on the payroll. Stevenson shouldn’t be given special treatment but he shouldn’t be treated more harshly because of where he works either. Cops have discretion and the better officers use it more prudently everyday. If the police didn’t, the booking area at the city jail would be overwhelmed with school teachers, preachers and nurses going 3 mph over the speed limit.
I don’t want to hear that Stevenson broke the law and therefore should have been arrested. Just about everyone reading this breaks some city ordinance or traffic violation regularly. Virtually every call that a patrol officer responds to could lead to an arrest for some minor infraction. It takes a minimum of a couple of hours to handle a call that results in an arrest, even one for a minor violation. Is this good use of precious police resources? Irving is a city that has more than one neighborhood that I wouldn’t want to travel through after dark (including Irving Mall) unless I was armed with an Uzi and had a Secret Service backup. Believe me, Irving ain’t all “Los Colinas”.
Stevenson is an unrestricted free agent. There are already rumors that now he won’t be resigned by the Dallas Mavericks. I hope Mark Cuban is smart enough to do the right thing. Stevenson helped win the Championship this year. This team is better with him than without him.
I don’t give a rat’s ass if he’s guilty of public intoxication in Irving, Texas. Believe me, I worked with more than one federal agent who was arrested at least once (and one twice) for driving under the influence and none of them lost their jobs.
Not re-signing Stevenson over a chicken shit arrest like this, would be almost as big a mistake as not giving the Mavs Championship rings.
FULL DISCLOSURE: My federal office was located in the Las Colinas area of Irving when I retired. After the Cowboys left Irving and I retired, I couldn’t think of a single reason to go back to Irving. Irving is not the last city on my list of the best places to live or visit in the DFW metroplex, but it’s definitely in the bottom 5%. I advise folks to go out of their way to avoid driving or SPENDING MONEY in the Irving city limits!
Bonzer Wolf has been accused at least once on the Internet of being “Mark Cuban”. I’m not Mark Cuban. I’d never be dumb enough to say I was considering NOT giving the Mav’s players and coaches “CHAMPIONSHIP RINGS”.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 9:03PM by 
;)
