A 33-year-old white woman from South Carolina has gone viral for her attempts to use her whiteness as an attempt to get out of a DUI.
Lauren Cutshaw was caught by a police officer traveling 60 miles per hour in a 30 mph zone and blowing through a stop sign without slowing down. Lauren was clearly intoxicated, though she said she’d only had two glasses of wine at dinner.
Pretty standard stuff here. Not the most noble thing in the world, but plenty of people have DUIs.
It’s what she said next to try and get out of the DUI that has people talking. According to the police report, Lauren told the officer she should not be arrested because “I’m a very clean, thoroughbred, white girl.”
Wait, what?
Yeah, after again saying “I’m a clean white girl” the officer asked what that had to do with anything, and she replied “you should know what that means.”
Yikes.
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She kept persisting that she shouldn’t be arrested because, among other things she was a cheerleader, she was a dancer, she was a sorority girl, and had perfect grades her whole life. Which means, you know, cool to break the law and seriously endanger anyone unlucky enough to be out on the road at the same time as you!
Arresting officer Baker Odom wasn’t having any of it. He included all these statements, not to mock Lauren, but because, in his own words, “Making statements such as these as a means to justify not being arrested are unusual in my experience as a law enforcement officer and I believe further demonstrate the suspect’s level of intoxication.”
That’s actually pretty generous of him, attributing that stuff to her being drunk instead of, you know, just being shitty.
Now, she wasn’t lying to the cop about her achievements. According to her LinkedIn page, she graduated from LSU with a degree in Business Administration and was a member of the Delta Zeta sorority. The question is – what does any of that have to do with you having a blood alcohol level of point-18, more than double the legal limit.
According to the police report, Lauren said she was trying to get to her boyfriend’s house, who is also, she said, a cop. All of those comments and excuses have turned a bad night for Lauren into a viral nightmare.
The Root has dubbed her Plastered Peggy, Drunk Debbie and Sauced Susan, and the New York Post called her “the picture of entitlement.”
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Look, anyone who gets arrested for drunk driving and realized they’ve screwed up is expected to be upset, but claiming that your whiteness and “thoroughbred” genes should get you out of a jam? That’s gonna strike a chord.
She’s a realtor and real estate advisor in Bluffton, South Carolina, though it’s unclear what ramifications the arrest will have on her employment. Neither of her employers, Engel and Volkers, or Keller Williams, have made any public statement up to this point. Her Facebook, wisely on her part, has also been set to private.
Her mugshot confirms that she was charged with speeding, disregarding a stop sign, marijuana possession, driving under the influence, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
It also confirms her birthday is today, August 9, the day this video and article comes out.
Do you think Lauren actually expected those excuses to work? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter at @WhatsTrending.
