[Ads-l] "You can beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride."

[Jonathan Lighter]

I heard this a day or two ago on Deadline White House. The speaker, I
think, was Norm Eisen.  Anyway:

1968 Dick Edwards in _N.Y. Amsterdam News_ (July 27) 12
[Newspapers.com]: The arresting officer [in Houston years earlier]
laughed at me and said: "Boy, you may beat the rap - but you can't
beat the ride."

1972 _L.A. Times_ (Jan. 22) 1:  HOUSTON...His motto is, "You may beat
the rap, but you can't beat the ride." This refers to...time-consuming
and costly litigation.

1973 [U.S. Congress, House Select Committee on Crime] _Street Crime in
America (Prosecution and Court Innovations)_ (Washington, D.C.:
U.S.G.P.O] 1084: There used to be a saying, "you can beat the rap but
not the ride." I don't really subscribe to that theory myself. It is
perfectly acceptable for a police officer to go out and bring someone
in for questioning without having a completed case. That is one thing.
That is proper. But I don't think you ought to file an actual
charge...unless you have sufficient evidence to warrant prosecution of
that case.

2005   https://www.emerald.com/books/edited-volume/12714/Research-in-Social-Movements-Conflicts-and-Change
 :   “You Can Beat the Rap, But You Can’t Beat the Ride:” Bringing
Arrests Back into Research on Repression

2010    https://sumptergonzalez.com/2010/08/20/you-can-beat-the-rap-but-you-cant-beat-the-rape/
 :  Down here in Texas, the police have an old saying — “You can beat
the rap, but you can’t beat the ride.” Means that, guilty or innocent,
those hours you spend in jail are going to suck, and it’s at the cop’s
discretion whether or not you’re going to endure them. The “ride” in
question is the ride in the police car.

2026   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/you_can_beat_the_rap,_but_you_can%27t_beat_the_ride#English
 :
"You can beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride." ... You can't
escape the inconvenience and/or cost of the legal process even if you
are innocent and the charges are ultimately dropped or you get
acquitted.

Wiktionary defines it pretty much like  the L.A. Times but in the
context of malicious prosecution.

JL

-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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