🤯 Internal Strife on the Street: A Traffic Stop Becomes a Police Showdown
On April 21, 2024, a routine traffic stop in Ren’s City, Georgia, spiraled into a heated on-street confrontation between three police officers. The interaction culminated in the initiating officer abandoning the scene in frustration, leaving his partners to clean up the legal and emotional mess.
The incident began when Officer Joey Lamberth of the Ren’s City Police Department responded to a call about a driver allegedly “swerving all over the roadway.” After observing the erratic driving himself, Officer Lamberth pulled the vehicle over. Officer Quincy Cannon and Sergeant Brown soon arrived as backup, setting the stage for the dramatic conflict that followed.
🍺 The DUI Debate: Less Safe vs. One Beer
The core of the dispute revolved around the legal justification for a Driving Under the Influence (DUI) investigation, specifically the request for an Alco sensor breath test.
The driver quickly admitted to having consumed “one beer” that day. Based on this admission and the initial erratic driving, Officer Lamberth felt justified in pursuing a DUI investigation and requested the breath test.
However, Officer Cannon immediately interjected, arguing that it is “not against the law to drink a beer and drive.”
This is where the nuances of Georgia law come into play. Section 40-6-391 of the Georgia Code prohibits driving while under the influence of alcohol “to the extent that it is less safe for the person to drive.” The courts, in cases like Shahed v. State (2004), have clarified that while merely smelling alcohol isn’t enough, evidence of impaired driving ability—such as erratic driving behavior—is sufficient to sustain a conviction under the “less safe” standard.
Therefore, while Officer Cannon was technically right that one beer is not automatically illegal, Officer Lamberth had Reasonable Suspicion based on the reported swerving to believe the driver was impaired “to the extent that it was less safe,” legally justifying the request for a breath test.
⚖️ A Contradictory Defense: Fifth Amendment vs. Georgia’s Constitution
The disagreement intensified when Officer Cannon attempted to defend the citizen’s right to refuse the breath test, citing the Constitution.
Officer Cannon loudly claimed that compelling the driver to blow into the Alco sensor would violate his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
Here, Officer Cannon was largely mistaken regarding the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled applies only to testimonial or communicative evidence, not to physical evidence like a breath test.
However, Cannon’s point held water under Georgia’s state constitution. The Supreme Court of Georgia, in Ammons v. State (2022), held that the state’s privilege against compelled self-incrimination does apply to the preliminary Alco sensor test because it requires a suspect to “affirmatively blow into a device for a sustained period of time,” generating incriminating evidence. Consequently, a suspect has the right to refuse this test, and their refusal cannot be used against them in court.
Despite this state-level protection, the request itself was legally sound, and Officer Cannon’s aggressive, condescending tone toward his colleague was highly unprofessional.
🤬 “I’m Not Arresting Nobody”: The Unprofessional Walk-Off
Unable to gain compliance from his partner and sensing the shift in procedure being handled by Sergeant Brown, Officer Lamberth delivered a stunning display of unprofessionalism.
Lamberth declared that he wasn’t going to “work it” and dramatically stated: “I’m going to have somebody come pick them up… I’m not arresting nobody because I’m not doing anything.” He then proceeded to abandon the scene of the traffic stop he initiated, leaving Officer Cannon and Sergeant Brown to manage the situation and deal with the driver.
This behavior, described as a “temper tantrum,” earned Officer Lamberth a low grade for maintaining an unprofessional demeanor and driving off in the middle of an active investigation. While he may have been frustrated by Officer Cannon’s misinformed but vocal stance on citizen rights, his failure to control his temper and perform his duty professionally was a clear violation of protocol.
📉 Aftermath and Officer Cannon’s Controversial Past
In the end, the driver was released to a friend and no charges were filed. However, the officers involved faced scrutiny.
While not independently verified in the source material, the original video description indicated that Officer Cannon has since been terminated from the Ren’s City Police Department. This incident adds to a deeply controversial career history for the officer:
- Prior Arrest: Before joining Ren’s PD, Cannon was a deputy with the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office until he was arrested in December 2022 and charged with battery and violation of oath of office for allegedly striking a handcuffed man in an elevator.
- Resignation: He resigned from the Sheriff’s Office shortly after his arrest. Although a grand jury later failed to indict him, the incident remains a significant mark on his record.
- Racial Discrimination Lawsuit: In April 2024, Officer Cannon filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.
In an overall assessment of the stop:
- Officer Lamberth received a C- for his unprofessional conduct, unprofessional demeanor, and abandoning the stop, despite having the necessary Reasonable Suspicion to request the test.
- Officer Cannon received a C+. He was commended for his willingness to stand up for citizen rights but was criticized for mistakenly citing the Fifth Amendment and for behaving unprofessionally by arguing with his supervisor and colleague in a condescending nature in front of the citizen.
- The Driver received an A- for complying respectfully and calmly exercising his right to refuse the Alco sensor test, despite the chaos created by the officers.
