Some people just won't get it until it's their child under a police baton.

How many people in Australia are in jail or prison? In the US, we lock up more people than any other nation, including China. So when even the smallest, harmless seeming provocation can land you in jail, you learn to be wary of police overtures.

It's not a question of if, American police have indeed abused such checkpoints. They routinely arrest people for non DUI offenses, because the stop gets their foot in the door, so to speak. They can drum up probable cause, search the vehicle, and even impound it. In fact, in many checkpoints the people arrested or fined for non-DUI offenses dwarf the actual DUI offenses.

Here's a recent example of the revenue motive in checkpoint abuse in california:

The revenue comes in two ways. First, $30 million in federal funds pays for police overtime and operating costs at checkpoints like these. And then the impounded vehicles provide a profit. After fines are paid to the city along, with 30 days in storage fees, a vehicle typically produces $2,000 in revenue, sometimes more if it is not claimed and then auctioned.
........
An analysis of records obtained by the Investigative Reporting Program shows that, last year, impounds brought in over $40 million in revenue, shared by tow operators and municipal governments.

And documents reveal that, for every one DUI arrest at these sobriety checkpoints, there can be as many as 60 people cited for driving without a license, 60 vehicles seized.

I'm glad you Aussies don't have this problem.>> ^liverpoolfc:

Some people just won't get it until it's their child under the back wheel of a drunks car.
What's interesting about this conversation and random breath testing is that there is no argument in Australia against it, it's a non-issue. Aside from drink-drivers themselves you'd struggle to find anyone here that thinks random breath testing is a bad idea or that you should be allowed to refuse to take a breath test.
We accept that we have rights as well as responsibilites to other road users, the police are there to ensure we follow those rights and responsibilities and protect the rights and responsibilites of others. Appears to be a big culture difference between the way law enforcement is perceived here and in America.>> ^EMPIRE:
this guy is a fucking tool. And those cops were nothing but professional and corteous. In fact, if all the cops always acted like these did, they would just make morons like this guy look even worse.
They were just trying to keep the road clean of drunk drivers. As a living human being who walks around a city, and also drives, and as a husband of another living human being who does the same thing, and the father of an infant living human being who get driven and walked around the city, the least I expect from the police is to try and control if there aren't any worthless piece of shit drunk drivers on the roads endangering my family, myself, and my fellow citizens.
Yes, there's a lot of cases of cops abusing their power, but one can't simply think that all cops are in it to fuck people over and abuse power.

Some people just won't get it until it's their child under the back wheel of a drunks car.

What's interesting about this conversation and random breath testing is that there is no argument in Australia against it, it's a non-issue. Aside from drink-drivers themselves you'd struggle to find anyone here that thinks random breath testing is a bad idea or that you should be allowed to refuse to take a breath test.

We accept that we have rights as well as responsibilites to other road users, the police are there to ensure we follow those rights and responsibilities and protect the rights and responsibilites of others. Appears to be a big culture difference between the way law enforcement is perceived here and in America.>> ^EMPIRE:

this guy is a fucking tool. And those cops were nothing but professional and corteous. In fact, if all the cops always acted like these did, they would just make morons like this guy look even worse.
They were just trying to keep the road clean of drunk drivers. As a living human being who walks around a city, and also drives, and as a husband of another living human being who does the same thing, and the father of an infant living human being who get driven and walked around the city, the least I expect from the police is to try and control if there aren't any worthless piece of shit drunk drivers on the roads endangering my family, myself, and my fellow citizens.
Yes, there's a lot of cases of cops abusing their power, but one can't simply think that all cops are in it to fuck people over and abuse power.

this guy is a fucking tool. And those cops were nothing but professional and corteous. In fact, if all the cops always acted like these did, they would just make morons like this guy look even worse.

They were just trying to keep the road clean of drunk drivers. As a living human being who walks around a city, and also drives, and as a husband of another living human being who does the same thing, and the father of an infant living human being who get driven and walked around the city, the least I expect from the police is to try and control if there aren't any worthless piece of shit drunk drivers on the roads endangering my family, myself, and my fellow citizens.

Yes, there's a lot of cases of cops abusing their power, but one can't simply think that all cops are in it to fuck people over and abuse power.

>> ^liverpoolfc:

You claim Police stopping people for random breath testing will lead to all that paranoid crap i'm not going to bother repeating.
If you think police performing random traffic stops to catch drunk-drivers is a dangerous thing I feel sorry for you and the state America is in.
I'm not British but i'd put money on you being a Republican. I'm not afraid of my Government or police force - clearly you are.

You're desperate to paint me as illogical but to me it just looks like you have poor reading comprehension. I don't claim random stops will lead to those other things. I claim that if the government felt they could get away with it, they would do those things.

EDIT: Some people don't understand what liberty and freedom is. I'm not anti-cop or even anti-government. Again, not any more than Ben Franklin or anyone else who gives it a LOT of thought. Randomly stopping people who are just going about their lives to assert your authority by shining flashlights in their eyes and interrogating them, which puts some people into weeks long spirals of panic and paranoia completely unrelated to any actual criminal culpability, is not harmless or purely protective.

You don't have to be Republican to be afraid of the police force. The police have brought on this assholery by, if not directly abusing people's rights, harboring the members who do behind the blue wall.>> ^liverpoolfc:

You claim Police stopping people for random breath testing will lead to all that paranoid crap i'm not going to bother repeating.
If you think police performing random traffic stops to catch drunk-drivers is a dangerous thing I feel sorry for you and the state America is in.
I'm not British but i'd put money on you being a Republican. I'm not afraid of my Government or police force - clearly you are.
>> ^budzos:
It's not a strawman.. nowhere did I say that those things were equilvalent. In fact I was illustrating a vector of unreasonable search and seizure, from one plateau of disreason to another. I see from your handle that you could possibly be British, which would explain your comfort with the government's head up your arse.
Who's to say a drunk driver hasn't killed one, or more, of my friends at various times? Being against random stops is not being pro drunk driving.
>> ^liverpoolfc:
Bahahah nice straw men. Why not just eliminate the police force entirely, speed limits, laws etc. No one has any business telling you what you can or can't do right???
Wonder if you'd feel the same way if a drink driver killed your mother, father, brother, sister, husband, wife, son or daughter.
>> ^budzos:
I didn't watch the clip but I do not agree with random road-checks for any reason. I don't care if the premise is that you're making the roads safer... I think Benjamin Franklin has a quote about that.
If the government thought they could get away with it, they'd institute random house searches. Why wouldn't you want your house searched unless you have something to hide!?
What about forced screenings/vaccinations for various diseases? I'm sure that's in the public/economic interest?
Let's just give our whole bodies and souls over to the government daddy to tell us where we can go and what we can consume at all times. It's good for the economy.

You claim Police stopping people for random breath testing will lead to all that paranoid crap i'm not going to bother repeating.

If you think police performing random traffic stops to catch drunk-drivers is a dangerous thing I feel sorry for you and the state America is in.

I'm not British but i'd put money on you being a Republican. I'm not afraid of my Government or police force - clearly you are.

>> ^budzos:

It's not a strawman.. nowhere did I say that those things were equilvalent. In fact I was illustrating a vector of unreasonable search and seizure, from one plateau of disreason to another. I see from your handle that you could possibly be British, which would explain your comfort with the government's head up your arse.
Who's to say a drunk driver hasn't killed one, or more, of my friends at various times? Being against random stops is not being pro drunk driving.
>> ^liverpoolfc:
Bahahah nice straw men. Why not just eliminate the police force entirely, speed limits, laws etc. No one has any business telling you what you can or can't do right???
Wonder if you'd feel the same way if a drink driver killed your mother, father, brother, sister, husband, wife, son or daughter.
>> ^budzos:
I didn't watch the clip but I do not agree with random road-checks for any reason. I don't care if the premise is that you're making the roads safer... I think Benjamin Franklin has a quote about that.
If the government thought they could get away with it, they'd institute random house searches. Why wouldn't you want your house searched unless you have something to hide!?
What about forced screenings/vaccinations for various diseases? I'm sure that's in the public/economic interest?
Let's just give our whole bodies and souls over to the government daddy to tell us where we can go and what we can consume at all times. It's good for the economy.

It's not a strawman.. nowhere did I say that those things were equilvalent. In fact I was illustrating a vector of unreasonable search and seizure, from one plateau of disreason to another. I see from your handle that you could possibly be British, which would explain your comfort with the government's head up your arse.

Who's to say a drunk driver hasn't killed one, or more, of my friends at various times? Being against random stops is not being pro drunk driving.

>> ^liverpoolfc:

Bahahah nice straw men. Why not just eliminate the police force entirely, speed limits, laws etc. No one has any business telling you what you can or can't do right???
Wonder if you'd feel the same way if a drink driver killed your mother, father, brother, sister, husband, wife, son or daughter.
>> ^budzos:
I didn't watch the clip but I do not agree with random road-checks for any reason. I don't care if the premise is that you're making the roads safer... I think Benjamin Franklin has a quote about that.
If the government thought they could get away with it, they'd institute random house searches. Why wouldn't you want your house searched unless you have something to hide!?
What about forced screenings/vaccinations for various diseases? I'm sure that's in the public/economic interest?
Let's just give our whole bodies and souls over to the government daddy to tell us where we can go and what we can consume at all times. It's good for the economy.

Agreed, the guy is an arsehole. A condition of having a license should be you are prepared to submit to random drug and alcohol testing while operating a motor vehicle, don't want to do that then very simple, don't drive.

What if this tool was wasted, able to hide it well and kills a car load of people a kilometre down the road. The police would be crucified for it.

This guy is a selfish prick and giving a bad example for potential drunk drivers to follow.

Police are there to protect and serve and this dipshit decides to be uncooperative because he can.

>> ^Bruti79:

I think there are times and places to do this. A DUI check point is not one of them. They're just trying to make the road safer from drunk drivers.


Absolutely. This video doesn't show anything other than one asshole wasting the time of a couple genuinely good cops. Yes you were legally in the right. You were also a complete dick to some decent hardworking people.

I think there are times and places to do this. A DUI check point is not one of them. They're just trying to make the road safer from drunk drivers.

>> ^GenjiKilpatrick:

To the idiots thinking these guys were assholes for laughing: do you think people can read minds? Do you honestly think these guys looked at this and said "LMAO someone is diabetic shock and could potentially die, that's hilarious!"? It's easy to say they should've been more serious because hindsight is 20/20. If I saw this live I'd guess it was a drunk driver or someone on acid rather than someone being disoriented from a life threatening condition. Stop being dumb.
lololoololololoool 11 hours ago 74 [likes]

>> ^RadHazG:
need a little eia up in here. dunno whats so funny, that shit's terrifying, all those people in the oncoming lane. half wish that driver would make a wild right and side swipe these chuckles.

>> ^PoweredBySoy:
"lolol, this is great...." Oh, look, the drunk just took out a family of 5.



Stop being dumb? I declare today opposite day. "Stop being RIGHT" is more like it. Maybe it's just me, but the first thing I thought was, "Holy shit, is this person having a heart attack or something?" And then I wondered if they had called 911.

I'm pretty cynical but COME ON man, that's just bizarrely out of the ordinary, which suggests something is wrong. Even if what's wrong with them is that they're an idiot, they're going to possibly swerve into oncoming traffic and hurt/kill someone else or crash into a wall and kill themselves.

To the idiots thinking these guys were assholes for laughing: do you think people can read minds? Do you honestly think these guys looked at this and said "LMAO someone is diabetic shock and could potentially die, that's hilarious!"? It's easy to say they should've been more serious because hindsight is 20/20. If I saw this live I'd guess it was a drunk driver or someone on acid rather than someone being disoriented from a life threatening condition. Stop being dumb.

lololoololololoool 11 hours ago 74 [likes]


>> ^RadHazG:

need a little eia up in here. dunno whats so funny, that shit's terrifying, all those people in the oncoming lane. half wish that driver would make a wild right and side swipe these chuckles.


>> ^PoweredBySoy:

"lolol, this is great...." Oh, look, the drunk just took out a family of 5.

more on the accused, and victim:

POLICE: Siesta Key jogger killed by drunk driver (video report w/ arraignment)
http://www.cbs12.com/video/?videoId=1377234147001

Siesta Key woman, runner, killed by DUI driver
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20120108/ARTICLE/120109626/2416/NEWS?Title=Siesta-Key-woman-runner-killed-by-DUI-driver

She died on her husbands birthday, damn.

Ugh. Drunk Drivers. I hope he gets a fucking long sentence.

Future Breaking News: Iran hacked US Auto-automobiles... ?

I think the 2-5 person transport vehicle is bullshit and must be developed into an alternative transport system with focus on sustainability. Maybe this is the step in the right direction, maybe it's just a way to sell cars to everybody, including drunk drivers, drug addicts, psychopaths and children.