DUI for being a passenger in a car with a drunk driver?!?!

[beats me]

Probably nobody (but me) will say this shit is getting out of hand but this shit is getting out of hand. Some counties in the Bay Area are starting to give DUIs to passengers in a car of somebody who gets a DUI if that passenger already got a DUI because they should have known better. WTF???

If you've never gotten a DUI you probably assume that means the person was flying off the road mowing down pedestrians and property and all extreme punishment is justified, but those circumstances are rare situations. I'm not going to go the other extreme and say there are a lot of "innocent" DUI circumstances but I do know people who got DUIs who simply had a few drinks at a wedding or dinner and the cop pulled them over for some nondrinking related issue - broken tail light, illegal u-turn, etc. and they were just hovering at the legal blood alcohol level (which isn't much) and got popped for DUI. Obviously the later in the night the cops are more actively looking for this type thing in the hopes of tacking on a bonus DUI charge to a minor ticket.

Given that, imagine having a DUI under your belt and go out for a fairly calm evening where the designated driver has a couple glasses of wine with dinner, runs a yellow light where a cop is posted, gets a DUI for being just at the legal limit, and you are also slapped with being the same drunk asshole for being a passenger and are now a multiple offender with huge penalties and are the most hated stereotype on the evening news.

And as far as California is concerned this kind of scenario can't take place within 10 years of a prior DUI. Can you NEVER get in a car with somebody who had a couple drinks for 10 years? Buh bye social life, hello living virtually through facebook.

[macmurphy]

while i completely agree that giving a passenger with a previous DUI another DUI for being in a car with someone who is getting a DUI is ridiculous (oh gods of grammar, there must be a better way to type that sentence..), driving after drinking anything at all is a foolish thing to do and anyone caught doing it (after being pulled over for whatever reason) deserves to be punished. i find it nonsensical to punish passengers though. that's just crazy

[beats me]

driving after drinking anything at all is a foolish thing to do and anyone caught doing it (after being pulled over for whatever reason) deserves to be punished.

That's being a little unrealistic. We're a drinking society and mobile society. In that you can't have zero tolerance across the board.

Here's a long but interesting read on MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) who started the ball rolling on ever stricter drunk driving laws in the 80's, and shows how it started out as a well intentioned group of people on an important issue that morphed into a prohibitionist money generating corporation.

http://alcoholfacts.org/CrashCourseOnMADD.html

[mikemc]

It should be clear at this point: one can no longer drink other than inside one's home, and then once one has had anything to drink one cannot leave until one is sober, lest one stumble on the sidewalk in front of a security camera and be arrested for public intoxication.

There are important, large companies with substantial investments in private detentiion facilities, and those facilities need to be utilized and expanded if those companies are going to prosper.

As a result, all those people you see drinking in bars will be arrested: drinking in bars and restaurants henceforth will only happens in old movies.

[edit] Moreover, if one should have someone else visit whilst one is drinking, one must not offer the visitor any alcohol, lest the visitor leave, stumble on a sidewalk, be videoed/arrested, and then sue one for putting them in such a predicament.

So, alcohol should be enjoyed privately, alone, in one's home.

[beats me]

It should be clear at this point: one can no longer drink other than inside one's home, and then once one has had anything to drink one cannot leave until one is sober, lest one stumble on the sidewalk in front of a security camera and be arrested for public intoxication.

In other outrageous (most likely) drinking related laws news, I recently found out that if you get sited enough times for pissing in public, not sure at exactly what count, it gets upgraded to indecent exposure and you have to register as a sex offender.

[mikemc]

It should be clear at this point: one can no longer drink other than inside one's home, and then once one has had anything to drink one cannot leave until one is sober, lest one stumble on the sidewalk in front of a security camera and be arrested for public intoxication.

In other outrageous (most likely) drinking related laws news, I recently found out that if you get sited enough times for pissing in public, not sure at exactly what count, it gets upgraded to indecent exposure and you have to register as a sex offender.

However, if you are a person of notoriety and choose to go 'au naturel', the whole world will ensure that full photographic advantage thereof is taken.

[pulsoc]

Ride a bike?

[AceLuby]

Ride a bike?

You can get a DUI on a bike, rollerblades, a skateboard, lawnmower, cooler (yes, someone locally was arrested while riding a motorized cooler down his street), and pretty much anything that can get you from point a to point b faster than walking.

[Machinesworking]

It's a little extreme, but let's face a single undeniable FACT.

99.9% of the people who get pulled over for drunk driving are not driving while intoxicated for the first time. The law is pretty dammed strict about this these days and honestly it's obvious to me why, knowing at least 6 people who've been permanently crippled or killed by a drunk driver, or were drunk themselves and died behind the wheel. This is more than the amount of people I've known who've been murdered, and the same amount as OD's and murders together. The chances that the first time you go out drinking and let one of your intoxicated buddies drive you home you get caught are slim to none, same as the chances that the cops catch you drinking and driving when you're the most drunk behind the wheel you've ever been.

At least here in Seattle you get serious treatment if the blood alcohol level was even close to high, anybody going out drinking and riding with a person who's not a designated driver after getting a DUI will know full well what sort of situation they're putting themselves in. It's not a matter of agreeing with the law, but more like realizing some types of behavior are fucking stupid and dangerous and if people want to engage in them they have to know they're taking a serious risk. There are busses, taxis and sober friends, so in the end it's not like people are without choices. This sort of complaint is like hippies complaining about getting caught smoking weed in public.

Personally I would make it all legal, but give the families of the people you injure or kill the right to slowly torture you to death if you get caught. I agree it seems like a set up though, but that's due to peoples desire to drive while drunk, and distaste for busses or taxis, or inability to set up a designated driver. Basically we all want to break the law, then complain when the law gets tougher because of this. I hardly know anybody driving who doesn't have a DUI, that's pretty goofy. Not as much that they got caught, "poor them boo fucking hoo!", but that it's that common.

[pulsoc]

You CAN get a DUI for a bike, rollerblades, etc, but your chances of being pulled over are MUCH lower. And if you're dumb enough to use a motorized cooler as a mode of transport, then I can't really sympathize.

I think this is one of the interesting side effects of our country's land-use policies. There are few places in the states where mass-transit is a competitive option to driving, and even fewer where you can walk to enough watering holes to satisfy. Baltimore has a few neighborhoods where you can get your drink on in a small, dense area - fed hill, fells point, hampden - but even here you have to hop in a car to really get around. And taxi service is horrible, so that is rarely an option.

[beats me]

You CAN get a DUI for a bike, rollerblades, etc, but your chances of being pulled over are MUCH lower. And if you're dumb enough to use a motorized cooler as a mode of transport, then I can't really sympathize.

I think this is one of the interesting side effects of our country's land-use policies. There are few places in the states where mass-transit is a competitive option to driving, and even fewer where you can walk to enough watering holes to satisfy. Baltimore has a few neighborhoods where you can get your drink on in a small, dense area - fed hill, fells point, hampden - but even here you have to hop in a car to really get around. And taxi service is horrible, so that is rarely an option.

You can also get DUIs on horseback. I met somebody who did.

What you say about Baltimore is also true of San Jose which is sprawling and getting anywhere of interest by taxi can cost an average of $40 one way.

And having said that they shouldn't look at punishing people as the only option. You want to fine drunk drivers, then fine. Use some of that money to subsidize the taxi industry, hook them up with breathalyzers and if a person blows over the legal limit they can get a discounted rate.

A far more permanent solution to all this is make all cars come standard with an interlok device which is a breathalyzer attached to the ignition and the car won't start if you blow over a certain amount. Problem solved. Of course there's work arounds like people getting a sober friend to blow into it for them, but that's idiotic and wouldn't happen all that frequently. Drunk driving would still go waaaaaay down.

But that will never happen because nobody in power is serious about finding solutions, only interested in punishment, and the loss of DUIs would be a huge loss of revenue.

[djsynchro]

oh land of the free

[beats me]

oh land of the free

The US? No.

We're the land of the fee.

[oblique strategies]

It's a little extreme, but let's face a single undeniable FACT.

99.9% of the people who get pulled over for drunk driving are not driving while intoxicated for the first time. The law is pretty dammed strict about this these days and honestly it's obvious to me why, knowing at least 6 people who've been permanently crippled or killed by a drunk driver, or were drunk themselves and died behind the wheel. This is more than the amount of people I've known who've been murdered, and the same amount as OD's and murders together. The chances that the first time you go out drinking and let one of your intoxicated buddies drive you home you get caught are slim to none, same as the chances that the cops catch you drinking and driving when you're the most drunk behind the wheel you've ever been.

At least here in Seattle you get serious treatment if the blood alcohol level was even close to high, anybody going out drinking and riding with a person who's not a designated driver after getting a DUI will know full well what sort of situation they're putting themselves in. It's not a matter of agreeing with the law, but more like realizing some types of behavior are fucking stupid and dangerous and if people want to engage in them they have to know they're taking a serious risk. There are busses, taxis and sober friends, so in the end it's not like people are without choices.

I agree.

[beats me]

It's a little extreme, but let's face a single undeniable FACT.

99.9% of the people who get pulled over for drunk driving are not driving while intoxicated for the first time. The law is pretty dammed strict about this these days and honestly it's obvious to me why, knowing at least 6 people who've been permanently crippled or killed by a drunk driver, or were drunk themselves and died behind the wheel. This is more than the amount of people I've known who've been murdered, and the same amount as OD's and murders together. The chances that the first time you go out drinking and let one of your intoxicated buddies drive you home you get caught are slim to none, same as the chances that the cops catch you drinking and driving when you're the most drunk behind the wheel you've ever been.

At least here in Seattle you get serious treatment if the blood alcohol level was even close to high, anybody going out drinking and riding with a person who's not a designated driver after getting a DUI will know full well what sort of situation they're putting themselves in. It's not a matter of agreeing with the law, but more like realizing some types of behavior are fucking stupid and dangerous and if people want to engage in them they have to know they're taking a serious risk. There are busses, taxis and sober friends, so in the end it's not like people are without choices.

I agree.

Have either of you gotten a DUI?