Any good lipreaders? What is Liston saying? "You damn right/well..."

So basically, he said “Sonny want a cracker…NOW!”

Along with their guns, batons etc., Ritz crackers were a must inclusion on the utility belts of any policemen assigned to arresting Liston.

If they had them back then, good chance Liston would be one of those guys immune to tasers. BUT Ritz crackers? They were the ticket.

 

Great number I haven’t heard for eons. I was the youngest of 5 - I remember an elder sibling had the album - Crime of the Century.

 

Excellent info.

We also know that Liston was often targeted and persecuted by the police in general, as detailed in various literature and specifically in the book The Champ Nobody Wanted.

A telling statistic is that, in most cases, most of the time, charges weren’t even laid - and, if they were, they were ultimately dropped anyway.

 

If they were carrying Ritz crackers, it was just more evidence that Denver police were corrupt.

Like they don’t have donut shops in Colorado … SMFH.

 

Did you have brothers named Michael, Tito and Jermaine, perhaps?

Regardless, I bet as the youngest at family dinners you just hoped there was still some food on the dish when it finally got passed your way.

 

After futher evaluation..
Liston might be saying
" ill go peacefully but your not putting cuffs on me. No cuffs! " and thats why he wasent cuffed when he got in the patty wagon.

 

It’s all well and good to highlight the misdeeds of James “Buster” Snider.

Everyone seems to conveniently forget all about the infamous, perfectly rotund beat cop - Brian “Crumbs” Molloy whose tactical belt bore no gun, baton etc - his belt pouches were all taken up by packets of Ritz crackers instead, tracking the considerable circumference of his proudly vast waistline.

Brian’s favourite saying was - “You never take a knife to a gun fight - you take Ritz crackers.”

Goes without saying really but theres, I said it.

 

I’m the only talented one in the bunch. i already had the Moon Walk down at just 5 yo. I asked for Chimp on every birthday but never got one.

Yes, dinner was survival of the fittest and fastest. People had a habit of pinching chips that were already on your plate - when they did that, it was on for young and old.

 

Hed probably quit if you danced a bit and jabbed him a few times.

 

Hollywood (and Mount Pilot) basically stole Crumbs’ life story to make an episode of The Andy Griffith Show. The plot was built around an article in Law and Order magazine titled, “Sheriff Without a Gun.”

https://mayberry.fandom.com/wiki/Sheriff_Without_a_Gun

Crumbs, of course, filed a lawsuit over this appropriation of his life without compensation, but the studo settled out of court in fear that a huge judgment in Crumbs’ favor would set legal precedent that would invite other civil legal action that could send all of Hollywood into bankruptcy. Crumbs settled for a lifetime supply of peanut butter for his beloved Ritz crackers and, some say, a secret stash of Saltines.

Thus Crumbs vs. Aunt Bee was dropped rather than going down in legal annals as a groundbreaking case.

 

Sonny Liston looks pretty wasted in that shot where he's pointing his finger. His eyes are really glassy.

It's difficult to say you're being "persecuted" if you're actually ****-faced drunk when they do pull you over for driving under the influence.

(Then Liston moved to Vegas and overdosed.)

Ron Lyle lived in a Denver suburb, too. Lyle even got arrested on New Year's Day in 1978 for shooting and killing a guy in his home. But Lyle had a good relationship with the police, even though he'd done hard time.

Each situation is different.

 

Even though justice wasn’t officially served via the courts, it’s good to know that Crumbs was at least served his life time supply of peanut butter. The big lug.

 

Lip reading AI exists, but I don't think it's fee on the internet yet.

 

Well if you’re over the limit, yeah you’re guilty but the cops can still be seen as persecuting if they’re targeting one individual above all others for no real good reason.

I agree, Sonny’s eyes did appear glassy - and perhaps he was more vocal than usual - though he was angry also of course. Otherwise no hard signs of inebriation or heavy inebriation.

At any rate, when this happened, what was the actual DUI limit? - which of course would’ve varied from state to state.

Just on a quick search I saw one DUI limit that was a whopping .15 - I also read something about some states, in the early 1970s, agreeing to “lower” their limits to .12 and .10.

It seems at one time you were allowed to drive ****ed, but the line was drawn if you were super ****ed or near comatose.

 

Lots of variables so now way for us to know.

Let’s say hypothetically this high-profile athlete lives in Denver and he gets pulled over 2-3 times drunk driving and the police let him off but finally give him a warning that if it happens again they are going to have to arrest him just like anybody else.

Drunk driving puts everyone’s life at risk, literally. So if the cops — or maybe a single cop who happened to be on a beat in Liston’s neighborhood — started looking out for him because he’s known to be a danger and pulls in behind him and sees him start swerving … that to me is good policing. They aren’t just there to wait until someone happens to break a law when they are randomly in the vicinity of a cop — keeping an eye on a known drunk driver (some people pile up more of those than you can count) is serving the public. Better for Sonny to get pulled over and arrested than to wait for him to kill some innocent person in a drunken driving accident.

It’s entirely possible that the police, or a singular policeman, had it in for Sonny. It’s also entirely possible he had a drinking problem and often got behind the wheel. To convince me that it was some cop with a mad-on for Sonny, I’d have to know (a) how many times Liston was arrested in Denver, (b) over what period of time, (c) the circumstances around and outcome of those cases and (d) was it always the same arresting officer.

This is a guy who did hard time for assaulting a police officer, so I doubt they felt like throwing a parade for him. And he had other criminal activity in his past. So yeah, he probably did have a spotlight on him to some degree. Knowing that, you’d think he wouldn’t get behind the wheel after drinking.