Thread: National Guard Busted at the Kentucky Derby

Busted at the Kentucky Derby

May 3, 8:15 PM


Thomas McAdam

Louisville City Hall Examiner


Riding in the back seat of a Louisville Metro Police squad car, your intrepid and busted City Hall Examiner looked longingly out the window at Churchill Downs’ fabled twin spires, as we were physically and unceremoniously removed from the track premises by an LMPD officer. But more on that later.

Louisville police were among the 1000 or so law-enforcement officers providing security at the Downs Friday and Saturday, for the Oaks and the Derby. They were joined by significant contingents of MPs and soldiers from the Army Reserves and Kentucky National Guard. Handling a crowd of more than 150,000 horse-lovers takes an appreciable amount of police work.

Louisville wants everyone to have a good time at the Derby. Visitors uniformly comment upon the high level of gracious hospitality they experience in Derby City, and locals know to anticipate gentle treatment from the long arm of the law during the Derby Festival. Not that the cops ever turn a blind eye to serious law violations during the Festival; it’s just that there’s a traditional level of tolerance practiced by our gendarmerie at Derby time.


After the Derby, lots of folks are drunk out of their minds because they hit the Exacta and are rolling in dough (there were 23 Derby Superfecta payouts at $278,503.20 each for $1 bets). Lots more are drunk out of their minds because they bet the paycheck on a bevy of slow nags. Thirteen races, thirteen mint-juleps: you figure it out. Cops won’t let you drive home drunk. Not on Derby day; not ever. But most revelers are leaving on busses, in cabs and limos, or in carpools with designated drivers. So, a staggering gait on Central Avenue will hardly be noticed at 7 p.m. on Derby day. And many people are dressed in attire which would certainly get them arrested at 4th and Broadway on any other day of the year.

Louisville’s finest busted only 44 people at Churchill Downs on Derby day, out of 153,563 visitors to the track. These were mostly Drunk & Disorderlies; along with 6 ticket scalpers and one moron who took a poke at a police horse (he was probably blotto, and mistook the horse for the bum he lost money on in the 12th race). To put this in context, this is approximately the same number of charges LMPD filed against partiers at yesterday’s Screaming Eagles Motorcycle Club bash, down on 28th street (3 dozen traffic violations, 10 misdemeanors, 7 felonies).

LMPD spokeslady Alicia Smiley told the Courier-Journal that Kentucky Oaks day at the Downs on Friday netted 12 busts: 5 for ticket scalping, 2 for outstanding warrants, 1 for drunk, 1 for drunk & disorderly, 1 for menacing & disorderly, 1 for drunk driving, and 1 for drunk, drunk driving, running from the cops, and resisting arrest.

Back in the day, we used to join the young lawyers at the courthouse on Derby morning, hustling the out-of-towners who had been busted at Derby eve bacchanalia. At a couple of hundred bucks a pop, an enterprising barrister could make a couple of grand pretty quick, and still be able to make post time for the first race (where the two grand would usually find its way back into the economic stream). But no more.

Just think of it: 153,563 happily intoxicated gamblers. But no fighting, no gunplay, no pickpockets, and nary a sexual assault to speak of. What’s going on?

It’s the cops. They are there, on the job, to make sure you and your out-of-town guests can have a good time and be pretty much free of concern for your safety. The cops and soldiers are standing guard, sometimes in the rain, to protect your right to have a good time. They don’t get to drink mint juleps, bet on the ponies, or otherwise enjoy the Sport of Kings. They’re on the job. 153,563 patrons are expeditiously moved into and out of Churchill Downs with less of a traffic jam than Bardstown Road on a Saturday night. Churchill Downs has an arrangement with local law enforcement agencies, in which most of the additional expense of law enforcement pay and overtime is covered by the track. Many of these Policemen, Deputy Sheriffs, Troopers, and soldiers would rather be doing something else other than working double shifts, but they’re on guard so that you don’t have to be.

Compare all of this to our sister tracks in the Triple Crown. The Preakness and the Belmont Stakes usually get crowds of around 45,000; but the level of crime and mayhem at those tracks is legendary. Blogger Dan Rodricks calls the Preakness “a time bomb.â€

Nice to know that the crowd for the most part was so civil.

Little by little, inch by inch............Hypnotized yet?

Perhaps a Mint Julep Sir?