Are DUI Arrests Really News?
This is Janet Weaver.
This is Janet Weaver on booze.
Any questions?
We know this may sound politically incorrect, but we think it’s odd how people arrested for DUI are paraded in the public square like child molesters.
Latest example: Janet Weaver, executive editor of the Tampa Tribune.
Janet was so sure that her arrest would be front-page news that she called other editors from the paper around 2 a.m. — from jail, about 90 minutes after her arrest — to give them the scoop.
If it’s a first offense, it’s generally a misdemeanor. Do your probation, take your classes, learn from it, and move on. No public flogging required.
That bitch could have killed some one
End of proverbial story.
Drunk drivers can kill people, doesnt matter if its first time or third time. If your stupid enough to drink and drive, then you need to be paraded around
“During 2004, 16,694 people in the U.S. died in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes”
“Each year, alcohol-related crashes in the United States cost about $51 billion”
Those numbers are from the CDC.gov website. I’d say DUI arrests are relevant as news.
People make mistakes. They should have the opportunity to make amends and move on with their life. That doesn’t lessen the responsibility for their actions.
DUI is a “socially acceptable” crime that has victims. I’m one of those victims. I’ll never walk again. The guy that injured me wasn’t a bad guy when sober but while DUI he was deadly.
I’m not bitter but I am biased. As with any issue of importance, we have to keep it on the front burner. Otherwise, before you know it, DUI slips from people’s minds as we focus on new things.
Its a tough issue else we’d have solved it long ago.
I understand that DUI is serious. I guess the issue is that not every DUI’s picture appears in the paper — that would fill up pages every day. Only the pics of so-called “public figures.” So is humiliating people like this woman a deterrent to others? If so, I’m all for it. But I wonder.
> “During 2004, 16,694 people in the U.S. died in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes”
Who cares? Alcohol related crashes include everything where at least one participant had alcohol in their system. For instance, if you had a few beers and I drove you home, and we were rear ended on the way, that is one more alcohol related accident. If the guy in the other car died, that would be an alcohol related fatality.
The way BAC limits are today, .01 over the limit isn’t even worthy of mention. Lowering the limits and cracking down on people like this one will do nothing to stop the habitual DUI people that drive around with a .15 BAC with no insurance. Those people deserve life sentences (chronic danger to public safety).
The first offense can kill someone just as easily as the 5th offense.
I’d prefer not to parade people around on their first offense. I’d rather send them to prison for 20 years. That would give them about two chances–before they were too old to drive.
Please, millions of people have drank and then got behind the wheel and didn’t kill anyone. A few people ruined it for everybody!
You can screw up and kill someone sober - they should set the bar at the point where risk increases, not where some overly politicized lobbying group managed to put it.
My aunt was killed by a drunk driver before I even got to meet her (I was an infant at the time). I don’t care if it’s their first time or not, revoke their license and make them have special DUI tags on their cars.
With >6 billion people on the planet, we could use a few million more deaths per year. DUI is just another means of “thinning out the herd”. Those of you who want to take all risk out of life would gladly trade liberty for security: deserving neither. Thanks MADD and other hand wringing wusses for making our country the prison capital of the world. Sober drivers kill people too. Let’s lock up anyone with car keys “for their own good”.
DUI is very arbritrary. I know several people who are excellent drunk drivers. I would rather ride with them drunk, than sober senior citizens or teenage girls. And what about people talking on cell phones or eating a hamburger. I think we should punish people based on their driving behavior not on an arbritrary blood alcohol level. Not to mention that theres a big difference between a 300lb man w/ a .08 and a 100lb woman w/ the same.
Nathan - if you’re revoking their license, not much point putting the DUI tag on their cars.
Having said that - drinking and driving kills. I’m all for putting the names of every single DUI bust on the front page of the paper. Photos, if possible.
ANYONE who breaks the law should in fact be humiliated. I don’t care if you’re caught with a little weed, caught stealing a candy bar, or caught driving a 4000 pound machine while impaired.
If you’re a big enough degenerate to choose to break a law, then I’m sure you’re hard enough to accept the consequences. And one of those consequences to breaking the law in 2006 is being humiliated when it becomes public knowledge.
I’d rather share the road with drinkers (who are, at least, TRYING to drive) than with the self-absorbed idiots who are talking on their cell phones/messing with their laptop/ reading/applying makeup or just driving with no regard for the safety of others on the road.
Have none of you ever driven faster than the speed limit, ran a stop sign/light, used your cell phone (while driving, of course) or cut someone off? These things kill people too.
“He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
All throw a stone - I rear-ended someone when I was young and driving too fast, but the difference is that I learned from my mistake. It was youth and ignorance that impaired my driving. Two things that, sadly, took time to correct. Drinking and driving, however, is a WILLFUL error. I am also a victim of a drunk driver. His 5th charge. Would his behavior been any different had he gone to jail the first time. We’ll never know, but I believe so.
His name is Richard Ransier, in Austin TX. And it was Memorial Day 1991.
I agree that BAC has very little to do with how safely the person drives.
Who would you rather ride with?
A) Person who doesn’t know how to merge on highway, doesn’t look before proceeding thru stop sign, doesn’t check blind spot before changing lanes, BAC 0.000
B) Knows how to merge properly, looks both ways, checks blind spot, BAC 0.10, but is aware of their impairment and concentrates on the road.
I choose person B.
I think all of us should be able to go into the DMV and take driving tests at whatever BAC level we want, and if we pass, that becomes the BAC at which you can legally drive.
i had an aunt i’ll never see…she was dragged down the street for 2 block’s by some drunk whore who was to hammered to notice ppl honking and yelling at her , not to mention the little 8 year old attached to her bumber by her clothes . she went 2 blocks from her house with my dad and his brothers and sisters to the local Dairy Queen and never came back . so ,yeah , lump em in with molesters…but put them at the top , no offence or indifference , but atleast the child raper’s victims are usually left alive .
“theres a big difference between a 300lb man w/ a .08 and a 100lb woman w/ the same.”
Uh, no there isn’t. “.08″ is a percentage, doesn’t matter the body weight, blood volume or anything else. That’s why it’s used…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_alcohol_level
Not that I’m disagreeing with the article, I don’t see the point of gawking at DUI arrests in the press either — but at least let’s be accurate when we’re talking about it.
DUI and reckless driving both willfully endanger those around you, why is the penalty so much more severe for one?
You like to speed and weave, I like to drink. The crime is the same, its the neoprohibitionist queefs of MADD that create these unbalanced laws.
there are far more sober accidents from cellphones and lack of concentration than there will ever be drunk driving accidents in a single year……..not to mention that BAC affects everyone in differnt ways
instead of drinking, everyone should just take a bong rip.
Speeding can cause an accident, and kill people. Should we post a picture of every speeder? How about every one that runs a red light?
All in all, fewer people should be given drivers licenses. Anybody here want to support taking licenses away from people over 70 or 75? They’re much more dangerous than a drunk driver, yet they’re not arrested. How about those people (most people) who typically drive 10+ miles over the speed limit? Most of them don’t get caught, yet they’re just as dangerous as a drunk. Driving while tired, anyone? I’d much rather get on the road after a night of drinking than after only sleeping for a few hours and having to drive.
Focusing on drunk drivers is nice and popular politically, but the penalties for doing any and all of the above should be just as strict as the ones for drunk driving. Remember, kids; drunk drivers don’t kill people, BAD drivers kill people.
Of all of the righteous soap boxers here how many have never ever ever ever gotten behind the wheel after having a couple drinks? Even better how many of you have never used your cell phone while driving. Did you know driving performance while speaking on the cell phone is degraded to the same extent as driving at the legal BAC limit of .08? How many of you obey all posted speed limits? Ever rolled through a stop sign or accelerated through a yellow light? If you were to abide by your own rules then you should all be plastered all over the internet and newspaper, I know I’d be famous! Though I don’t drive drunk.
If your stupid enough to drink and drive, then you need to be paraded around
And if you’re stupid enough to lack basic literary skills, you shouldn’t subject the innocent readers of the internet to your inane opinions =D
Wow, there are a lot of stupid comments here. Drunk driving deaths are good because they thin out the herd? You are comfortable riding with friends because they are “good drunk drivers”? I hope these comments came from FARK and not your blogs’ regular readers.
If some random person gets a DUI, is it news? No. If a public figure gets a DUI, is it news? Yes.
sure drunk drivers kill people. so do pennies dropped from skyscrapers. i do beleive it should be against the law to drive intoxicated, because thats the only thing that makes drunk drivers drive with caution. 20 years for driving drunk though? i hope one of your grandchildren get a dui soon.then report back and tell us you wish they got 20 years for it. A .08 bac is nothing. i dont even drink much and i can drive better than most people with twice that amount of alcohol in my system. im not saying i do, but i could. i think the alcohol laws that are in place need to be changed. where a .08 driver gets a slap on the wrist, but a .20 driver gets a felony. the two drivers should not even be compared to each other. i can have 3 beers and not even notice that i have a buzz but still get a dui for it, while the guy next to me has to be helped into his car to drive it and we get the same charge. i almost got into a cell phone related accident earlier today.(she was on the cell phone by the way)but you dont hear me saying “cell phone users who cause accidents should go to jail for life” whether alcohol is involved or not , the circumstances leading to the crash should tell us who to blame. by the way approximately 17,000 people a year die in alcohol related crashes… right? now, someone please tell me how many in non-alcohol related crashes. im not saying driving intoxicated is ok, but .01 bac is an alcohol related crash and shouldnt even be counted in their statistics. oh yeah, and yes i beleive public figures are fair game for whatever they do in their freetime, hence the words….”PUBLIC FIGURES”
dui is a big business. its shocking how many generally responsible people have duis. another big big business is crime scene investigation. the cops love dui because they have easy evidence. bac of .7 is nothing and very few people can do a sidewalk ballet even if they are 100 percent sober. the dui lawyers like duis because they get big fees to defend these cases. 17,000 “alcohol related fatalities”? — let’s see the breakdown - how many totally innocent people were killed or seriously injured because someone was over the bac limit (totally innocent does not include the drunk driver)? The amount of total highway fatalities was 41,059 in 2007. how about getting rid of the handguns first?. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated 52,447 deliberate and 23,237 accidental non-fatal gunshot injuries in the United States during 2000.[4] The majority of gun-related deaths in the United States are suicides,[5] with firearms used in 16,907 suicides in the United States during 2004.[6] hospitals spend billions on handgun shootings. we need to get more of the drinkers to commit suicide instead of trying to drink their problems away.