Haha exactly, no one wants a cop around until they need one.>> ^probie:

Why do I get the feeling this is the same type of asshole who sues the police department for not being on his doorstep in 15 seconds when he really needs them?

Do you mean driving unlicensed or that they just don't have their license on them. If it's the former then good. If they're driving without a license they shouldn't be on the road.
>> ^longde:

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.

Must be an American thing. Maybe we Australian's are fortunate in that the majority of us trust the checks and balances that are in place in this country. Doesn't mean police always act appropriately but I don't think Australian's share the same suspicion or fear of police and government that is apparent in America or on this forum.

From the comments here I take it that many of you think the police are there to make your lives difficult and abuse your rights.

At what point did they ask to search him or the car? They simply asked if he had been drinking and clearly the point of the exercise was to catch drink-drivers.
>> ^DrewNumberTwo:

Don't Talk to Cops, Part 1
Don't Talk to Cops, Part 2
Rights exist for a reason, and exercising them isn't just being an asshole. The driver, even if perfectly innocent, gains nothing by talking to the police. They are gathering information to convict people of a crime, not to prove their innocence. While those officers handled themselves very well and were almost certainly just trying to keep people safe, that doesn't mean that every checkpoint is legal or everything the police do is right.
I have a great amount of respect for the police. They have a damn tough job. But not talking to them, and not giving them permission to search your car or your house or your person is within your rights, and no more rude than having a lawyer sitting beside you and telling you to not answer questions or let them conduct a search without a warrant.

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.

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??? Yep I can get just as ridiculous as you.

Wonder if you'd feel the same way if a drink driver killed your mother, father, brother, sister, husband, wife, son or daughter.

In Australia it is an offence to refuse a breath analysis when directed to do so by police and operating a motor vehicle. Strangely enough we don't have random house searches over here or forced vaccinations...
>> ^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.

Give me a break QM. This is exactly what is wrong with America, your moral compass is all screwed up. It's not ok to have a (non)affair and one should resign for doing so but Palin who is almost too stupid to insult can be President of the United States?

I would argue the greater immorality is to support someone who is clearly too inept and out of their depth to hold the highest office in the country over someone who has the intellect and critical thought process to be a Congressman but sends some 'dirty' pictures/messages to someone.

Hell i'd take the intellectual and critical thinking Congressman even if he banged a few of these girls over a clearly inept but morally sound (and i'm not even saying Palin is morally sound) person when it comes to running the country. Everyone makes mistakes, we're humans and not infallible. I don't believe you can just someone on one mistake, no matter how stupid.

JFK and Clinton demonstrated that nailing a few women out of wedlock doesn't mean you're not capable of holding office. What he does in his private life is his business - Wiener made the mistake of flashing his on twitter. If he'd kept private between consenting adults who are we to call for his head???

Firemen and policemen don't lose their job for having an affair and they serve in a public position and are probably bigger role models than politicians.

If one can competently complete their job whilst banging hookers then what's the issue?

>> ^quantumushroom:
What do you call 8 years under Bush???
Better than this communist crap.
And please stop the charade that your rights were endangered by Bush, there is no draft, you're not at Gitmo, you've lost nothing, while 17% of Americans have now lost their jobs.


Again you miss the point, the job loses are not the result of Obama policies, he got handed a stuffed economy that was already falling apart.

And i'm not an American so you're correct, my rights were not endangered by Bush.

>> ^quantumushroom:
Obama's taking America forward...into tyranny.


What do you call 8 years under Bush??? Pissed all over the Constitution and tore up the Bill of Rights. Oh except he let you fools keep your automatic weapons so you could keep killing each other.

Oh snap!

What a joke, the Republican administration raped America for eight years. Whatever America stood for died with an illegal war, torture, the Patriot Act and deregulation of the banking system leading to an economic meltdown. I love how indignant people are getting about what Obama is trying in an attempt to fix the country the Republican's broke. It may not work but at least he's trying to take the country forward, not backward.

It's all pretty pathetic. To claim the country is falling apart because of Obama when he has inherited every single disaster the country is facing. I don't recall Obama starting two wars or deregulating the banking system.

Seems to be a complete lack of respect for the non-Muslim Swedish people based on comments from some the youths responsible. And by their own admission in those statements the youths don't see themselves as Swedish, thus excluding themselves from the community.

Personally I see it as a lack of basic respect for other people. And it's worse then simply not respecting another persons religion or culture, it feels like they believe they can behave how they like toward others because the people they target aren't their equals, that is to say they are not human beings.

And I know it's a cliche but where are the parents??? Discipline and respect for others is something which obviously hasn't been taught to these kids. These kids act like it's their god-given right to behave how they like, like the Swedish people somehow owe them something. It wreaks of double standard, they expect to be treated with respect without showing it to others. All these kids are doing is adding weight to arguments that Islam is violent, lacks respect for other cultures etc.

He's like those nutbag evangelicals from America we get here in Australia on TV at 3 and 4am in the morning. What is it about America or Americans that make them susceptible to this garbage???

>> ^nomino:
>> ^liverpoolfc:
Upvoting the cause, not the actions.

I hope that goes without saying. If that wasn't the case, we'd all be as guilty as the people who were in the room and did nothing.


Was responding to Januari who felt weird upvoting.