Drunk Driving Arrests
Drunk Driving Laws Invoke Prohibition Again Author: Thomas Ajava Prohibition was the great golden effort to eradicate the immorality associated with drinking alcohol in its many forms. The movement was an utter failure as history shows, but modern drunk driving laws seek to pursue the same les...
Drunk Driving Laws Invoke Prohibition Again
Author: Thomas Ajava
Prohibition was the great golden effort to eradicate the immorality associated with drinking alcohol in its many forms. The movement was an utter failure as history shows, but modern drunk driving laws seek to pursue the same lessons in many ways.
Drunk driving laws are discussed in such ways that the public is often misled. Are you for anyone going out, getting smashed and killing anyone in their car? Of course, not. Neither am I and neither is any politician. Under this simple guise, however, laws are passed that are simply so vicious that they act as an effective form of prohibition on alcohol consumption.
What is the magic number in drunk driving cases? Everyone knows it. The magic number is a .08 blood alcohol content level. If you are found to have a aBACa over this level, you are considered a drunk driver and in a lot of trouble. The truth, of course, is .08 is a fairly low level which equates to three or four drinks depending on what you are having. There are many people that can consume this and not be impaired at all. Still, a level must be set so let's just say submit that .08 is a good level.
You go to a wine party and you have two glasses of wine and some appetizers. You drive home with your wife after the party and are pulled over. The breathalyzer shows you have a blood alcohol content level of .04. You're home free, right? Well, the officer doesn't agree. He or she takes a look at you and says you are impaired. Off to jail you go.
How can this be considering you blew .04? In most states, the police officers can charge you with driving while impaired. This simply means that in the subjective opinion of the police officer, you had consumed enough alcohol that your driving was impaired. The testimony of the officer combined with the fact you had some alcohol in your system is enough to convict you.
This situation arises all the time across the country. It usually leads to a serious court battle. Sometimes the driver wins. Sometimes the driver loses. Even when he or she wins, they end up paying huge attorney fees and emotional costs. It is an empty and hollow win to say the least.
This driving while impaired standard is effectively a form of prohibition. While we all agree people that are drunk should not drive, a person who has had one or two glasses of wine in an evening shouldn't be included in this punitive movement across this country of ours.
Is there a free sight to look up drunk driving arrests?
Is there a site anywhere that you can see if someone has been arrested for drunk driving. Every site I go to you have to pay a fee.
The newspapers publish arrests and you can look up your newspaper on line.
If you google your states name plus criminal records you can find all kinds of arrests.
For example, if I google “Maryland Criminal Records” a website pops up where I enter the persons name and their record is right there.
does drunk driving arrests get published anywhere?
My car was hit last night by a drunk driver while it was parked. The driver was taken away after she failed a field sobriety test. I’m just curious is there somewhere I can read about the arrest I guess like a police blotter? Are there websites that publish that information? I live in Baltimore county MD.
Why don’t the police increase drunk driving arrests tenfold by staking out bars & test patrons who drive away?
An interesting question. Please ignore some of the answers (the “thumbs down” is a pretty good indication as of this moment).
There is nothing unethical about watching a bar to see if reasonable suspicion can be developed to support a traffic stop. If you want to find commercial burglars, you go to commercial areas. If you want to find drunk drivers, you go to a bar. Nothing unethical about that and to suggest otherwise is ignorant.
Equally ignorant would be to suggest that police watching a bar in an attempt to stop drunk drivers could possibly be a violation of anyone’s rights. There is no right to privacy when you are walking through a parking lot and getting into your car. None.
Those who would suggest the police can somehow divine that a person has been drinking simply because they are walking out of a bar are sadly misinformed.
Those who would suggest the police can tell someone walking out of a bar and towards (or into) a car is going to drive are equally mistaken.
Persons who drive while intoxicated don’t normally wear signs on their backs saying, “I’m impaired and I’m getting into my car so that I can drive. If the police are watching me, now is the time to come and stop me.” Since the crime of Driving While Intoxicated requires driving, there is no crime and no reason to prevent anyone from driving until such time as they do – and of course that’s what this is all about.
Alcohol devices on cars. Right. And no one would ever have their less-than-drunk friend blow for them.
Most of the answers here (mine included, to some extent) have assumed based on the wording of your question that you’re talking about simply stopping people who drive away from a bar and then testing those people. In the USA, that’s illegal. Traffic stops must be based on reasonable suspicion and walking out of a bar and driving away in a car does not form the basis for reasonable suspicion of a criminal act.
Could this end all drunk driving arrests?
Next time you are too drunk to drive, walk to the nearest pizza shop and place an order. When they go to deliver it, catch a ride home with ‘em.
Happy Beer Wednesday from the fine people at Miller Brewing Company!
Sounds like the Captain Morgan commercial….
If I have a occupational license due to drunk driving will I still be able to rent cars?
I will be getting a occupational license due to a drunk driving arrest incident and I was wondering if I will be able to rent cars at all with it? The renting would take place over many different states and different renting agencys.
They run your license thru their system before renting; you probably won’t be able