5 Things The Louisville Police Officer Could Have Done Instead of Charging Scottie Scheffler With a Felony

In case you've been living under a rock beneath the earth's outer core, Scottie Scheffler was arrested this morning on his way to Valhalla for the 2nd round of the PGA Championship. There was a tragic bus accident which resulted in the death of a vendor, causing major traffic in front of the course. You know the story. Scottie tried to get around the traffic, cop told him to stop, cop grabbed onto his car and started banging on his window, Scottie kept driving for 10-20 yards before stopping, Scottie was taken away in handcuffs, the internet went nuts about it.

The whole thing was blown way out of proportion. Scottie says he had no idea the man was a cop, which kinda checks out when you see the pictures.

What seems like a simple misunderstanding has resulted in Scottie Scheffler being charged with, second-degree assault of a police officer, third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving and disregarding traffic signals from an officer directing traffic. His mug shot will live on forever.

Personally, I think charging him with a felony is excessive. The Louisville police got a bit carried away with this one. I really feel like at some point during this whole thing, at least one member of the Louisville Metro Police Department would have stepped in and said, "Hey guys, I know we shouldn't give preferential treatment to famous athletes and all. But like… if we just let him go right now… we could really save ourselves a whole lot of trouble. Do we really want to go down this road?"

I know that's not protocol. But at the same time I have to think the LMPD, and in particular the officer who made the arrest, are currently wishing that they weren't in the position they were in right now. Just off the top of my head, here are 5 things I bet that particular Louisville Police officer would have done instead of taking Scottie Scheffler to jail and charging him with a felony.

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1. Ignored Him/Nothing

Cops ignore things all the time. Ignoring things is half the job. I'd argue cops ignore more things than not. I passed a cop going 63 in a 55 just the other day and he ignored the shit out of me. If cops never ignored things they would end up with so much bullshit like this on their plate that it would be impossible for them to do their jobs and focus on things that are actually deserving of their attention. I can't think of a better "turn the other cheek" opportunity for a cop than Scottie Scheffler bypassing 2 vehicles at the entrance of major championship. 

2. Yelled at Him/Charged with Misdemeanor 

I think Scottie Scheffler would have responded to a stern talking to. Instead of grabbing onto the side of a moving vehicle, which I can't imagine is a tactic they teach at the academy, they could have simply followed Scheffler's car to the entrance of the course which was literally right there, wait for him to stop his car, then give him nice, firm "Hey, don't do that!". Just give the man a ticket. Hit him with a disregarding traffic signals fine and send him on his way. The world wouldn't even have known it happened. 

3. Thrown Down a Spike Strip

They would have had to been really on top of their game to pull this off, but based on the videos I've seen it looks like cops can whip those babies out pretty quickly.

If only the cop had a spike strip on hand. The second he saw Scottie Scheffler veer into the shoulder, he could have throw the spikes in front of his car and popped all four of Scottie's tires. The general public still wouldn't be happy with the cop, but it would have caused less problems than taking him to jail. More than anything it would have been a hilarious headline. "Scottie Scheffler Spike Stripped On Way to PGA Championship". Scottie can afford new tires just fine. We'd have all had a laugh about it in the end. 

4. Warning Shot

Classic crowd control maneuver. People do it in movies all the time. It stops people dead in their tracks. I bet it would have stopped Scottie dead in his tracks too. Either that, or he would have started driving even faster. I suppose a warning shot could have resulted in cars taking off in every direction, people fleeing their vehicles, the streets devolving into chaos, etc. But I feel like golf fans are a meek crowd who would have merely coward in their cars until a cop came over the megaphone and announced it was simply a run of the mill, by the books warning shot to prevent PGA Tour Superstar, Scottie Scheffler (-4) from skipping 2 cars ahead in the line of traffic.

5. Skipped Work Entirely

Instead of going to bed at a reasonable hour, and waking up before the crack of dawn to direct traffic outside of the PGA Championship, the charging officer could have opted to go out with the boys, swiped an 8-ball of coke from the evidence, drink a handle of whisky, order a hooker to a cheap motel room, slept through his alarm, and then taken whatever slap on the wrist punishment he would have gotten for skipping a shift. Bet he'd be feeling a lot better right now had he gone that route.