I've actually never been pulled after a gig and Virginia has the strictest DUI laws in the country. Either I'm lucky and someone is looking out for me or I'm a good driver.
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Cop Stop....Yet Again....
- Thread starter bryan gibson
- Start date
So YOU feel that YOU have the authority to dictate which of MY civil liberties should be violated? is that not your contention? The rest is just a rationalization for YOUR belief that MY liberties are subject to infringement or even revocation....
So is it fair if we turn this around? If you get to decide which of my liberties are revocable, then do I get to do the same for you? Is it my choice which of yours can be revoked, without your consent?
Consider this very very carefully. I could make a case that more people have died from religion then from drunk drivers.... I could also make a case that more arguments and subsequent murders have been caused by people exercising their freedom of speech then fatalities as a result of drunk drivers
Think very carefully about what liberties you value before deciding which liberties you wish to deny others.
I consider the inconvenience of being stopped at booze checkpoints to be preferable to giving drunks a free pass to drive about so long as they don't weave or speed. My civil liberty to not be smashed into by a drunk is more important than your perceived loss of liberty in being delayed 60 seconds.
+1 to that. Then again, cops here don't stop anyone for driving at after midnight, and DUI is strictly by breathalyzer / blood test. My gut feeling is I'm not being stopped nearly often enough. I've had one breathalyzer test in 26 years (clean).
In Montreal, the Mayor has openly said stopping more people will raise more money. (Most recently, ticketing homeless people.) With Montreal being one of the most fiscally incompetent districts on the continent, it would be hardly surprising that they see it as money raising.
GT
Major sub zero night in Minnesota, I get pulled over after a gig for my back up lights being on. The officer almost killed himeself trying to smell my breath. I looked at him and stated, I had not been drinking, he looked at me and said this truck was at the bar a long time. I laughed and said I was in the band. I recieved a "Fix it Ticket".
Twenty minutes later in Maplewood MN, I get pulled over agai, and explain to the officer that I know my back up lights are stuck on, and just recieved a ticket. The officer explains that a ticket is a form of arrest and that if I was a bank robber and the Lexington police had let me go, he would still have the right and responsability to arrest me in Maplewood. Bank Robbery = back up lights being on? Ok, I guees, and another ticket was issued.
On monday the temp was warmer and the transmission fluid flowed better, no more stuck switch.
Twenty minutes later in Maplewood MN, I get pulled over agai, and explain to the officer that I know my back up lights are stuck on, and just recieved a ticket. The officer explains that a ticket is a form of arrest and that if I was a bank robber and the Lexington police had let me go, he would still have the right and responsability to arrest me in Maplewood. Bank Robbery = back up lights being on? Ok, I guees, and another ticket was issued.
On monday the temp was warmer and the transmission fluid flowed better, no more stuck switch.
Lee H said:
All very good points.
In response: Yes, I've thought about it very carefully.
Last time I checked, the preamble to the US constitution was "we, the people", not "me, the people".
Democracy is a collaborative process. Over time, voters think deeply about difficult issues, and gradually, a consensus opinion evolves. Besides, every time they make a decision that limits freedom, they aren't just impacting you; they're subjecting themselves to the same limitations.
Life isn't black and white. At some point, a society has to decide whether or not your right to continued life, liberty and happiness is trumped by some drunk's "right" to commit vehicular homicide without interference.
Sometimes, freedom comes at a price. Given the rate that people are dying at the hands of drunk drivers, I choose to submit to random roadside checks, as part of the price of protecting the innocent. YMMV.
I'm not sure if I'm lucky or if the cops in my area are well trained on what to look for. With how many cops i see cleverly staked out in locations near bars and how many times I've never once been pulled over late at night after a gig I am either lucky or obviously not intoxicated which is always. I have been pulled over for bunk reasons during the day because I think they were hoping to smell reefer or something. No such luck for them and I get sent on my way. In those cases I'm certain that my vehicle, my long hair, and facial hair got me pulled over. It was a riot to see the confused faces when they saw my dress clothes and tie I wore for my job. "Well dressed hippie? Does. Not. Compute."
"Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" aren't in the Constitution but they are in the Declaration of Independence which is just as much a founding document and a statement of the principals that this country is supposed to stand for as the Constitution.
Drunks don't have a right to commit vehicular homicide, everyone can agree to that. That does not, however, give the state the right to stop me simply because I happen to be driving past a checkpoint or at a particular time of the night. You cannot continually erode the freedoms of the vast majority simply to control a misbehaving minority.
It shouldn't fly but it sounds like it does.
I got it from a cop in Florida. I was the victim of a vehicle
break-in where scuba gear was stolen from my vehicle. While
writing the report, we discussed the chances of apprehending
anybody. He was telling me that he essentially had an excuse
to pull any driver over simply by saying they were weaving in
the lane because everybody weaves to a certain degree.
I was floored. But I wasn't going to make a federal case out
of it right then and there.
I worked as a bar bouncer when not playing. Then I would drive my vette or ride my motorcycle
then my choice to limit your right to free speech or freedom of religion are equally valid?
it seems that every time someone is ready to give up unalienable rights, it is never the rights he values. Those are sacred, and revocation of those are not open to discussion.
Those who are opposed to guns want gun owners to give up rights, but never ever should the rights valued by these same people be infringed upon. Those in favor of police stopping people without reasonable cause do not care about that right, but if they were told that their own right to vote was revoked, they would scream "FOUL" and go crying on and on about how the voters should rise up and protect their rights...
It is all self serving, in the name of idealism... so long as they perceive idealism to be in their best interests. When it is no longer in their interests, they move on to another rationalization
They're trying to take that away as we speak...
As far as the police state and various nonsense directed at the driving public, it is what it is. It takes a certain level of vanity and self righteousness to go into law enforcement. There's also a level of militaristic dogma that comes with the job. Cops now wear army-like gear and sport the all too familiar captain buzzcut look. Someday I hope that cops can just be replaced by army guys with machine guns just so there's a level of honesty about the whole business.
On the other hand, I've never been busted so perhaps I should simply silence my disdain for cops and continue to go about doing whatever the frak I please while they're not looking...
