I have to say that I’ve never known anyone killed by a drunk driver. I don’t think I ever saw a drunk driver, at least that I can recall in my million miles. I did know a guy that killed someone but he was nuts as a kid. Its just interesting that everyone seems to have their pet offenders that should be locked up for life. For some its drunk drivers, others are drug users or pushers, others are domestic abusers, others are tax evaders, others fraudsters, others gun owners, and on and on. The quick answer is always more laws and send them to jail and ruin their lives and that of those close to them.
Yeah I’m for getting dangerous people off the street, but I have watched this for a number of years now, and the supply of ferrel youth and irresponsible adults just keeps growing. Maybe we should have a law against parenthood, but that was tried once too.
I believe prison should be reserved for people who present a danger to society. Murderers, rapists, robbers, arsonists, even Bernie Madoff and his ilk would qualify… A guy who insists on driving drunk after his license has been revoked for driving drunk would certainly qualify.
I also believe that if you are not a danger to society, you most emphatically do not belong in prison, and I believe the purpose of prison should be to wherever possible get people who are currently dangerous to society to a mindset where they are no longer dangerous to society.
In some cases that will be impossible. We will never reform Charles Manson, and considering he still has people falling in love with him and wanting to do whatever he tells them, he needs to be locked away from society before he orders some young idiot to kill more people.
In some cases the risk of a failed rehabilitation is too great; Rape kids? You’re gone for life. Maybe you’ll reform, but it would be inappropriate to risk having more kids become victims on the assumption that you might not do it again.
But most people who are in prison probably should not be there, or if they should be there, probably shouldn’t be there as long as they are.
The trouble is that when you introduce profit motives into the justice system, all of a sudden you start finding lots and lots of “criminals” to profit off of, which crowds the jails, and makes judges more reluctant to sentence people to prison for “lesser” crimes like “just” trying to weave your way home from the bar at 2am.
I lost a close friend I grew up with to drunk driver. His 3rd dui. My brother was hit by a drunk and injured. If the drunk hit his car 1 foot further toward front he probably would have been killed.
Some 25 years ago we had a drunk kill a 12 yo girl. 3rd time this drunk killed someone. Over 10 duo convictions. Helps when your dad is chief of police.
Quite a few years ago a friend of mine almost died after being hit by a drunk driver. He was on a motorcycle at night and was rammed by a driver who had 2 passengers with him in a black Lincoln, at speed, and no headlights on.
The guy spent about 2 months in the hospital after being hit head-on and thrown 125 feet through the air.
The drunk was a United States District Attorney who refused to surrender his drivers license and refused to submit to any breath or blood alcohol tests because he claimed to have “diplomatic immunity” and that a “Federal DA could not be prosecuted” for crimes like this. He told the cops to kiss off. The DA’s 2 passengers were brothers who owned the local newspaper and all had just left the country club where they all got wasted.
The DA was allowed to skate; no fines, no loss of license, no arrest, and no jail time.
Even worse, the newspaper brothers went on a daily editorial tear kind of blaming my friend for “riding a dangerous motorcycle at night” and lambasting the irate populace as being the"equivalent of a Wild West lynch mob" simply because people were demanding the DA get hammered legally just like anyone else would.
Its called “professional courtesy” in other words the elite does not have to abide by the same laws .as the proletariat.I would say ,professional courtesy cost a retired judge around here His life,He was a known drunk driver …
I get the impression that He was "impaired " when He crashed His SUV .
Back in the 70s the son of a wealthy oil man here was a real jet setter. Owned vintage aircraft, car dealerships, had his own F1 race team, and so on.
One time when he was out of town a friend of his wrecked the guy’s original Ford GT40 out on the edge of town. This happened about 10 at night on an 8 miles long arrow straight stretch of highway.
The jet setter had no idea the car was being used but balked at claiming it as stolen. The car went over a 1000 feet end over end down the ditch; taking out barbed wire fence and scrub trees. The driver walked out without a scratch.
The “thorough investigation” by the state troopers led to “no citations were going to be issued because the posted speed is 65 MPH and the estimated speed of the GT at the time of the crash was 35 MPH”. Ha ha…
A lot of people around here didn’t buy any of that BS for one second.
The mangled wreck changed hands several times over the years before ending up in England where it has been fully restored for Lord only knows how much money in reconstruction costs.
I have to ask, where in the heck do you live? The Northeast if I recall correctly.
Here in Indiana its not hard to find an impaired driver, its usually fairly obvious. Im not saying every time i go out I see a drunk, but sometimes it is every time. Its not always late at night either, although a lot of the times it is.
The only police in my county that enforce impaired driving laws is the Indiana State Police. They are truly the only real law enforcement we have here. Its sad.
Interesting. I feel anyone who commits a crime that injures or kills someone or had the possibility of injuring someone needs severe punishment.
What if someone gets into a fight in a crowd and fires their gun into the air, lets say no one gets hurt. Should that person be convicted of a crime? It was just like drunk driving, its a “victimless” crime after all.
What about the victims, are we not worried about them?
I do agree there are a lot of non violent offenders in prison that don’t need to be there. Many marijuana offenders are in the category. I don’t endorse weed, but if alcohol is legal I cant understand why weed isn’t. Alcohol is much worse of a drug than weed IMHO.
Nope, I’d suffocate in the Northeast. I’m in Minnesota and both local and state police enforce impaired driving and in fact there have been several police officers stopped and charged that made the news. I don’t know what’s going on in Indiana but I’d be more concerned about that silly 65 MPH truck limit. Seems to me that’s more dangerous. Every time I drive through there its back and forth changing lanes with the trucks not able to keep up with traffic.
I live in a rural county, Alcohol, Meth, and Heroin abuse is off the charts here. Its terrible. You can pretty much do whatever you want without the fear of getting caught,
To prove a point to my coworker and my wife the car i now drive to work has plates on it that expired a year ago. I have the new stickers in the glovebox, but I wont put them on to prove that cops don’t look at that around here. I have had a few cops behind me at some point and haven’t gotten pulled over yet, Its a joke. Unless I get a state boy behind me, then i figure i will get pulled over.
Well no, I don’t think you should be locked up. For whatever reason you never got caught or had an issue so more power to you. If you ever did it again and got caught or worse yet hurt somebody and find yourself locked up, take it like a man and don’t cry the blues.
Maybe I’m in a bad mood today, but the difference of a person with a felony conviction and one without, is really just getting caught and convicted. So one should not be smug if they did the same deed and got away with it while someone else didn’t. Its the same thing. So probably a goodly percentage of people on the road should not be if their past behavior indicated their current behavior. And we all know of the person in the news who has been guilty of multiple felonies and just not charged yet that would show also that some are just not rehabilitated. Just sayin’ past is not always and indicator of present behavior, and convictions is a matter of luck or privilege, not necessarily behavior.
If weed was legal i would probably take some and I would probably be a calmer person for it.
Who knows, If I could use it and not loose my job I might decide to get all messed up on weed and make a habit out of driving stoned out of my mind and be on here defending impaired driving with the rest of the pro-impaired driving apologists.
As a matter of fact, I’ve known quite a few people that have gotten in trouble, in regards to booze and driving
One guy hired a lawyer and got it busted down to “wet reckless” . . . it cost him about 10K and he got to keep his license. But he got points, and his insurance went through the roof and stayed there for several years. He claimed the cop that pulled him over was determined to “nab a white boy for dui” that evening.
Another guy was guzzling Boone’s Farm like crazy. We told him he’s going to regret it, because that stuff is deceptive. I seem to recall it doesn’t taste strongly of alcohol, which leads you to consume large quantities. Anyways, later that evening, he fell asleep at a traffic light, foot on the brake pedal, car idling and in drive. At some point, a patrol car came by and the officer tapped on his windshield . . .
A current colleague of mine still had a dui showing on his record, when we was hired. Sadly, this guy has apparently not gotten his act together. He comes to work, reeking, unshaved, bloodshot eyes, tired, etc. And an hour or so later, he’s in better shape. He misses many days of work, when he calls in “sick” . . . he has ALL the signs of an alcoholic. But he’s too stupid to change his behaviour. And he’s also too stupid to ask for help. Until he discloses his condition and says he needs help, he’s on his own. I know the supervisors . . . there have been a few . . . have ALL talked to him about his lousy attendance, he’s gotten verbal and written reprimands. His file really sucks. On paper, he looks like an unreliable employee, which he is
When I was a kid a friends dad was most certainly an alcoholic. They always had cases of beer in the basement and the guy would always have a bottle of beer with him. A bar was just two blocks away and most nights his car would be parked there until closing or some nights he’d just walk there. He was always to work on time though and never missed a day. Outside of staggering a little sometimes, you’d never know it. Of the three kids, one just sold his liquor store that he had for many years, but the oldest kid just now swore off drinking. He still goes to the bars all day but drinks root beer. They were all pretty successful, just drank a lot.
It has always amazed me that those who engage in these behaviors assume everyone else does too. I don’t know if they really believe that, or if they just tell themselves (and everyone else) this to justify their own behavior.
For the record, everyone does NOT engage in these behaviors. And those of us that don’t, those of us who learned to be responsible growing up, have a hard time understanding why those who do engage in extremely irresponsible and dangerous behaviors knowingly do so. I’ve known a smattering of people over the years that habitually drove impaired, but the overwhelming majority of the people I’ve known over the years did not. And remember that I went through all the “irresponsible behavior” ages too. But I did not endanger everybody else’s lives to express my youthful irresponsibility. I was brought up better than that.
I never believed that everybody else was also driving drunk
I’m not sure where you got the idea that people driving drunk assume everybody else is doing ti
When I was doing it, I never assumed everybody else was doing it
To put the record straight, I KNEW I was screwing up
You yourself said you also were engaging in “irresponsible behavior” . . . but you said you didn’t endanger everybody else’s lives
So you obviously weren’t driving drunk. You must have been doing something else. But I for one am not particularly interested in what that may have been
My dad was an alcoholic . . . so I was NOT “brought up better than that.”
But that’s not any kind of excuses
When I was driving drunk, it was SOLELY my fault
i wouldn’t dream of behaving that way now, though
Even though there weren’t any consequences to my actions, I DID eventually learn
