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Harvard Law School: You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy

So this probably won’t come as a huge shock to you, but celebrities get treated pretty well in our country. They’re pretty much the national royalty - as soon as one is spotted, many people and establishments go out of their way to appease and placate said spotted celebrity. And the celebrities who “deserve” such treatment don’t have to announce their presence or make a declaration of self. However, there are many other folks who think they’re celebrities worthy of such royal treatment even though folks don’t know who they are. When they’re not given immediate access to such lavish extravagance, they invariably pull out the “don’t you know who I am” bit. The answer to which is generally, “no, although now I know you’re an asshole.”

“Don’t you know who I am” has always been my favorite self-declaration made by the truly pompous, but I now have a close number two on that list.

Last Thursday, some Boston cops pulled over a car being driven by 25-year old Roger DePina. DePina initially caught the cops’ eye, according to the police blotter, because he and his passenger “were yelling and gesturing at [the] officers as they passed and continued driving while committing several violations.” The cops chased DePina, who initially refused to pull over. However, he finally stopped on the middle of an entrance ramp to one of the local highways. When the cops asked DePina for his license and registration, he pulled out this great line:

“You have no…right to pull us over, regular police can’t stop us on the highway, I know my rights, I’m in Harvard Law School!”

I’m. In. Harvard. Law. School.

That’s bloody brilliant.

Needless to say, DePina doesn’t exactly know his rights so well, as the cops can absolutely pull him over. As a former state trooper explains:

[I]n Massachusetts a police with chapter 90 authority (authority to enforce motor vehicle law) can stop you on any public road in his jurisdiction. If you try to get away, he can keep trying to stop you, even outside his jurisdiction. And a state police officer can stop you anywhere and enforce any state law - even the ones that don’t have anything to do with motor vehicles.

So DePina was arrested and has been charged with refusal to stop for police and reckless operation of a motor vehicle. His passenger, who is probably his younger brother (based on the info in the blotter), was also arrested because, get this, he refused to get off of the on-ramp when instructed to do so by the cops, and he then assaulted the officers when they tried to move him out of the way of traffic. No word if, while being arrested, he said, “don’t you know who I am?”

(Hat Tip to Universal Hub)

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