Jake Lloyd was arrested last week after being charged with reckless driving over a police chase in South Carolina last week. Under the alias 'Jake Broadbent,' the 26 year-old former child actor was being pulled over when he sped up, started passing cars along a double-line, and charged from pursuing police at speeds over 100 mph, according to CNN. The car eventually went off the road, through a fence, and crashed into a clump of small trees. After the photo was released, it was confirmed through Lloyd's talent agent, that indeed it was the child-actor in who played young Anikan Skywalker in Star Wars Episode 1.
Here's what we can all learn from this situation:
1. Running from police typically ends badly: Think about it, do you really want to be pursued by police? What's your plan--drive like crazy and pray you don't hit someone, or get killed driving 100 mph into an oak tree? The police, by virtue of numbers and technology (such as helicopters) have the advantage anyway: outrun one, there'll be more; and they'll be coming at you from all directions--conversely, there's only one of you, and you can only move one direction at a time. As well, when you're caught--hopefully that rather than being killed--you'll just have more charges against you. Best to just take the heat, pull over, and be done with it.
2. Running from police is a criminal offence: According to Canadian Law: Every one commits an offence who, operating a motor vehicle while being pursued by a peace officer operating a motor vehicle, fails, without reasonable excuse and in order to evade the peace officer, to stop the vehicle as soon as is reasonable in the circumstances. And this offence is an indictable one liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5-years.
3. If being pulled over, simply do the following: 1) pull over as far to the right as possible, and as quickly as possible--you'll be showing courtesy, while being closer to the place where the infraction supposedly took place, 2) roll your window down all the way, and place your hands on the steering wheel--don't fumble around your pockets or glove compartment, for that might make the officer anxious. 3) Let the officer speak, and answer curtly--don't make long statements that could give the officer leverage for further penalty. If you're charged, accept it, and go to court if you believe you're innocent. 4) keep it all as short and smooth as possible. Don't argue, don't try to make sweet talk--just accept what's happening and plan your next moves when the heat goes away.
4. Be merciful: This is a bit out of left field, but it's easy for us all to be judgemental when we see the roughed-up face plastered all over the news of a former child-actor arrested for doing something foolish--but we all have bad days, and do foolish things; the difference between someone like Jake Lloyd and us is we're unknown to the larger public, and thus our infractions are much less profile, and not divvied up among voracious paparazzi and scavenging news services for cheap thrilling stories. Lloyd retired from acting at the age of 21 after years of being bullied at school and unable to "fit in"--not to mention the 60 interviews a day as a child. We don't understand the stress of being a childhood movie star, especially for something as stellar as a George Lucas film--too big, too fast--but it's something we should weigh against Lloyd's reckless driving offence and have some empathy for. According to Wikipedia, Lloyd studied psychology and film at Columbia College in Chicago, and at one point was working on a documentary of Tibetan refugees in India seeking refuge from malevolent Chinese. Hopefully he can get all this past him, learn from it, and move on into some good work.
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