A note: don’t do this.
The “this” in question? Approaching strangers in a bar to buy blow. Maybe we didn’t have to lecture you on that particular point, but then again, maybe you’re a rather brash young state legislator from Indiana and you were planning on going out tonight. Of course, if that was the case, you probably already know about what happened to Rep. Dan Forestal of Indianapolis a few weekends ago.
On an August Saturday, Marion County Sheriff’s Office received 911 reports that a man was pretending to be a police officer. More precisely, this man was visibly drunk at a bar, brandishing a badge on a silver chain, and interrogating innocent bargoers about the location of the “people selling drugs,” ostensibly so he could go bust them. He had previously made a round inquiring after “party favors.” Neither tactic worked for him.
Little did the cops know they were dealing with an elected state official. In an announcement last Thursday, they said that they found out as soon as they could get Forestal out of his car where he had holed up, apparently to clutch the steering wheel and try to avoid arrest for a brief period of time. Once he exited the vehicle, the 36-year-old correctly identified himself to the police officers as “a firefighter, a state representative, and the nephew of the Marion County Sheriff,” according to The Hill. Forestal has been an active firefighter with the Indianapolis Fire Department for 12 years.
Forestal was eventually charged with impersonating a public servant, resisting law enforcement, and operating a vehicle while intoxicated—a low-level felony and two misdemeanors. The Fire Department says he’s been suspended without pay for 240 working hours, after which a