Jim Irsay, the billionaire owner of an NFL football team, was arrested in 2014 for driving while impaired. In a recent news conference, he claimed that he was discriminated against because he is a white billionaire.
The longtime NFL owner spoke about the circumstances of his arrest in an interview with the HBO show Real Sports that aired on Tuesday. Irsay later pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of operating a vehicle while impaired after initially facing four additional counts of possession of a controlled substance.
“I am prejudiced against because I’m a rich, white billionaire,” Irsay told HBO’s Andrea Kremer. “If I’m just the average guy down the block, they’re not pulling me in, of course not.”
…Police in the Indianapolis suburb of Carmel pulled Irsay over after observing a man in a Toyota Highlander driving slowly, stopping in the roadway and failing to use a turn signal. Authorities discovered various prescription drugs in Irsay’s vehicle along with more than $29,000 in cash.
A toxicology report showed Irsay had the painkillers oxycodone and hydrocodone as well as alprazolam, which is used to treat anxiety, in his system at the time of his arrest. Officers on the scene said he had trouble reciting the alphabet and failed other field sobriety tests.
Of course he’s right. The US is highly biased in favor of poor and people of color who get all manner of preferential treatment, especially from the criminal justice system. Kudos to Irsay for having the guts to point this out, even though he will suffer all manner of consequences for doing so, such as (oh, the horror!) being criticized by the media.
Meanwhile a group associated with Stephen Miller , serial sex abuser Donald Trump’s close advisor, has filed a lawsuit against the department store chain Macy’s charging that it “perpetuate[s] illegal racial discrimination — denying career advancement to white straight men.”
It is about time that we stood in solidarity with straight white men who have suffered for so long in silence as gays and people of color and women have been given preference over them.
Carmel, Indiana is not exactly a poor neighborhood. It’s where the more well off people around Indianapolis live.
He is right of course about being treated differently. Had this been me getting pulled over in that state with a bunch of drugs (prescription or not) and over $29,000 in the car with me the reporting wouldn’t be that I had over $29,000 in the car with me. The reporting would be that police had siezed over $29,000 from me while searching my car because of suspected involvment with drug sales. I would never walk away with that money and I certainly would never get it back even if I was never charged with anything.
When I read this story I figured somebody on Freethought Blogs would weigh in on it. That he didn’t have somebody to drive him around while he was drunk is a bit of a tip off that he was up to something illegal with that $29K. He can certainly afford a chauffeur to ferry him around in a Bentley or Maybach leaving him free to do some shady business deals in the back. So, why take the risk of getting caught if he didn’t have to? Of course, $29K is a lot more than Robert Kraft was caught paying sex workers with, I guess he doesn’t share RKs preference for low end “rub and tugs”. But, it doesn’t really matter what he was up to because he got caught before doing it, so I guess he can go to his grave with that secret.
As for being targeted? He wasn’t really driving a fancy automobile (Highlanders are pretty pricey, but nothing your typical mid to high end doctor or lawyer can’t afford, if he was driving a Maybach or Bentley maybe). However, driving too slow is the most common way for drunk drivers to get caught, so he probably would have been pulled over anyway. I’m going to assume he never uses his turn signals anyway, so he can’t blame the drink for that.
There are millions of lawyers lined up eager to speak up for billionaires of any color if the price is right,
Heck, I will.
They are people, too.
—
PS Taylor Swift is a white billionaire, too.
But not a man, so outside the scope of this post.
(Never ever heard one of her songs, but I know she’s popular, and the true test of fame is if I’ve heard of whoever)
@ 4 Morales
Yes. That is the point of the post, Juan Ramón.
Relevance?
Has Mano been claiming Swift is unfairly oppressed? Anything to save this from being the usual total non sequitur?
Ah, the SlimeBall returns.
A bit slack, but at least you turned up for your spanking.
Relevance? That it’s outside the scope of this post, that’s its relevance.
Obviously, the problem is not the billionaireness or the whiteness, is it?
It must be the maleness.
(I’m cool, but. Not a billionaire)
Because only men who are white and billionaires are the ones being featured.
SmegmaBubble, why do you keep misnyming me?
Ah well. You keep doing that, SuppuratingBum.
Can you tell what the consequences of your attempted sniping are, StinkyGut?
But hey, at least you inadvertently concede my comment is to the point.
Of course it is, unlike you, I am always to the point.
(heh heh heh
In fairness, they ARE a minority….
Of course he has a point. Others, after all, end up dead on the pavement, and I bet you won’t find one white billionaire among them.
Has Mano been claiming Swift is unfairly oppressed?
I certainly haven’t Swift herself claiming she’s unfairly oppressed. So why is anyone mentioning her here?
It’s all very mysterious, Bee.
(Well, it’s not so mysterious from the SpewGargler, who is ostensibly befuddled by my UltraSupraLiteralistTrickiness. That particular specimen is someone, obs)
I see you’re a Swiftie (Jonathan, not Taylor).
ahcuah, I take it you refer to the post itself.
Only GigaLiteralists see any distinction between
“Will no one speak up for white billionaire men?”
and
“Will no one speak up for this white billionaire man?”
Of course, had there been two specific examples rather than only one, it would not have been quite as hasty a generalisation.
(Or, as the anti-Higlander said, “there can not be only one”)