Trip Report - DUI

[Bicycles_Biatch]

FOR THE RECORD- I realize I broke the law, my complaint is that the spirit of the law has been perverted.

I would support and incremental punishment system.

But charging someone like myself who blows a 0.09 with the same crime as someone who is swerving all over the road and blows a .18 is ABSOLUTELY ridiculous.

furthermore, I think cops should only be able to cite you for a DUI if it was their FIRST suspicion or their reason for pulling you over. If you get pulled over for a CA rolling stop, speeding (but not driving dangerously), and/or having a burnt out tail-light.... they shouldn't be able to up the ante if you've had a couple drinks.

[prana]

tug: I do know this. Just backs up my point of our rights as American citizens being violated. The police reports say nothing of any of these things. Just state that I pulled into a gas station where I took a crap and bought some stuff then tried to go to another gas station a few miles down the road and they initiated a stop a bit down the road. Apparently they were following me (I didn't ever see them) to try to see me doing something wrong and figured this would fly.

MitchL: I'm definitely not going to bet on my outcome nor would I ever just take your statement as 100% validity and just give up on this. Three lawyers I have talked to said it is b.s. and to definitely fight the incident with a motion to suppress. It's not going to kill me if I am convicted. I am more pissed off about my rights being violated in all honesty.

[Bicycles_Biatch]

BTW... for the record... I've gotten about a dozen PM's from people that support my line of thinking... and 2 that claim I'm a douche-bag that deserves to die.

The funny thing is that we are so scared to be "soft on DUI's"... even in the context of 2+2 as an annonymous poster, 12 different people were to scared to post comments in support of my issue.

This is HOW RIDICULOUSLY brain washed we are regarding booze in the country. Do you realize how worrisome it is to see smart people be so easily manipulated.

Honestly, I would feel better about the government growing some balls and just taking a 0 tolerance approach... at least that would be less ambiguous than us having to "guess" everytime we have a glass of wine with dinner.

[MitchL]

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tug: I do know this. Just backs up my point of our rights as American citizens being violated. The police reports say nothing of any of these things. Just state that I pulled into a gas station where I took a crap and bought some stuff then tried to go to another gas station a few miles down the road and they initiated a stop a bit down the road. Apparently they were following me (I didn't ever see them) to try to see me doing something wrong and figured this would fly.

MitchL: I'm definitely not going to bet on my outcome nor would I ever just take your statement as 100% validity and just give up on this. Three lawyers I have talked to said it is b.s. and to definitely fight the incident with a motion to suppress. It's not going to kill me if I am convicted. I am more pissed off about my rights being violated in all honesty.

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I absolutley think you should fight it. If I were lawyer I would tell you the same. I am pissed off for you. If nothing else you need a record for appeal. That may be your best bet. Its tough, bc judges are not supposed to be results oriented in their thinking on the 4th amendment. Unfortunately, the voters who elect them are very results oriented and letting drunk drivers off the hook is not good campaign fodder. Honestly, most laypeople dont understand the 4th amendment or care about it until they are accosted by an overzealous cop. I have done much researched in this area and as a law student and as an American the erosion of this amendment concerns me to no end, I am just trying to prepare you for what is the most likely scenario. I hope I am wrong and that you win. Let us know the results. Good luck!

[suzzer99]

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Honestly, I would feel better about the government growing some balls and just taking a 0 tolerance approach... at least that would be less ambiguous than us having to "guess" everytime we have a glass of wine with dinner.

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How about not going 20mph over the speed limit on the freeway after you have that glass of wine? Just throwing a wacky crazy idea. I really don't know whether to laugh or cry at your righteous indignation over all this. I've already made my points which you basically ignored and haven't addressed in this thread. I don't have a problem even with fighting the dui - but AT LEAST own up to yourself that you deserve what you got. Because you do.

I really hope for your sake someday you grow up and take responsibility for your actions and the fact that you were a danger going 85 that buzzed on the freeway. You should be grateful. Things could have turned out way way worse for you and the others around you.


Btw if you want to know why I feel so strongly about this. I rolled my car on the freeway driving drunk. Some kids were racing up behind me on the right lane. I didn't see them until too late, then I over-reacted and ended up rolling my 4runner in 1am friday night traffic on the 405 (IE - still lots of cars flying around). I skidded on my roof from the right lane to the carpool lane and somehow only dinged one car. I wasn't hurt at all.

I still shudder thinking about all the horrible things that could have happened--me dying being the least of them. I'm sure I would have made it home ok, like I always did, if those kids hadn't messed me up. But I also know I would have avoided wrecking if I was sober. As much as the whole DUI thing sucked, I never let myself forget how much worse it could have been - or denied to anyone that I was at fault. It was a huge wakeup call.

[Bicycles_Biatch]

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Honestly, I would feel better about the government growing some balls and just taking a 0 tolerance approach... at least that would be less ambiguous than us having to "guess" everytime we have a glass of wine with dinner.

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How about not going 20mph over the speed limit on the freeway after you have that glass of wine? Just throwing a wacky crazy idea. I really don't know whether to laugh or cry at your righteous indignation over all this. I've already made my points which you basically ignored and haven't addressed in this thread. I don't have a problem even with fighting the dui - but AT LEAST own up to yourself that you deserve what you got. Because you do.

I really hope for your sake someday you grow up and take responsibility for your actions and the fact that you were a danger going 85 that buzzed on the freeway. You should be grateful. Things could have turned out way way worse for you and the others around you.


Btw if you want to know why I feel so strongly about this. I rolled my car on the freeway driving drunk. Some kids were racing up behind me on the right lane. I didn't see them until too late, then I over-reacted and ended up rolling my 4runner in 1am friday night traffic on the 405 (IE - still lots of cars flying around). I skidded on my roof from the right lane to the carpool lane and somehow only dinged one car. I wasn't hurt at all.

I still shudder thinking about all the horrible things that could have happened--me dying being the least of them. I'm sure I would have made it home ok, like I always did, if those kids hadn't messed me up. But I also know I would have avoided wrecking if I was sober. As much as the whole DUI thing sucked, I never let myself forget how much worse it could have been - or denied to anyone that I was at fault. It was a huge wakeup call.

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No offense man... and I respect your realization... but because you couldn't handle your booze and were in the wrong place at the wrong time... the rest of the country should be working towards prohibition?

This reminds of the crazy born again Christians who, after their 3rd crack baby, found the lord, now want to make sure anyone with a dime bag of weed goes to jail for 5 years.

I'm thankful that you didn't kill anyone... that's great.

But are you honestly saying that there is a 0% chance you would have rolled your car had you not had a drink?

That's as a great a fallacy as me saying "well, I've been in two accidents when I was completely sober... but never after I had a few drinks.... so therefore I must drive better drunk"

That would be a ridiculous statement on my part.

Furthermore, I do accept what I did as being legally wrong. I blew over the legal limit, I deserve some type of punishment.

However, the root of my complaint, and my further arguments go to the fact that the laws have become to perverted and the special interest groups are getting law enforcement to attack socially-responsible drinkers.

If you don't feel you can accept your responsibility to have a couple drinks and drive safely, then that is great that you have enacted your own zero tolerance rule... that doesn't mean it should be enforced on me.

BTW... if you want to compare horror stories... two of my friends from the army were ejected from a jeep and crushed while drunk driving. Ironically this ocurred just 3 days after I had wrestled the driver of said car to the ground at a party to take his keys away from him.

[Edge34]

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furthermore, I think cops should only be able to cite you for a DUI if it was their FIRST suspicion or their reason for pulling you over. If you get pulled over for a CA rolling stop, speeding (but not driving dangerously), and/or having a burnt out tail-light.... they shouldn't be able to up the ante if you've had a couple drinks.

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Not to troll, but what if they find an AK in my trunk and only pulled me over because I had a burned out taillight? Or a body? Or a few kilos? Should they not be able to charge me for that just because it wasn't their main reason for the stop? Damn, OJ could've gotten off without even going to trial if he'd just packed Nicole and Ron in the trunk of his car and gotten hammered before hitting the 101.

EDIT: You've made a good number of points in this thread - more than prana for sure, despite your similarities in righteous indignation, just pointing out the HUGE gap in logic in this part of your post. Seriously dude, wtf. If you've committed a crime and they find out about it because you committed another crime, that's kinda on you.

[CalledDownLight]

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BTW... for the record... I've gotten about a dozen PM's from people that support my line of thinking... and 2 that claim I'm a douche-bag that deserves to die.

The funny thing is that we are so scared to be "soft on DUI's"... even in the context of 2+2 as an annonymous poster, 12 different people were to scared to post comments in support of my issue.

This is HOW RIDICULOUSLY brain washed we are regarding booze in the country. Do you realize how worrisome it is to see smart people be so easily manipulated.

Honestly, I would feel better about the government growing some balls and just taking a 0 tolerance approach... at least that would be less ambiguous than us having to "guess" everytime we have a glass of wine with dinner.

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I agree completely with your statement on people being brainwashed on this subject. I feel like what you did is a very minor offense.

[Brainwalter]

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Not to troll, but what if they find an AK in my trunk and only pulled me over because I had a burned out taillight?

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This is legal where I live [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[MuresanForMVP]

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Not to troll, but what if they find an AK in my trunk and only pulled me over because I had a burned out taillight?

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This is legal where I live [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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I thought this was America?!?