The line in the sand
I received this link to an article from a friend of mine. It seemed pretty harmless at first but after thinking on it a bit I realized how flawed this really is.
To summarize the article, it's regarding being able to arrest people or fine them for being too drunk in a bar. Being a man that has been one of the drunkest guys in the bar a few times, this worried me a bit, but I could see the logic behind it. In my finest moments I have done some dumb things including jumping from buildings. Granted the end result wasn't anything like the kid mentioned in this article who missed the swimming pool and died. I managed to walk away, or rather hobble away, on a broken foot. Stopping this sort of stuff is a good thing, believe me.
The thing about this law that really bugs me is that it is enforcement based on opinion. Take robbery for example, there is a finite line that, if crossed, means you are robbing someone. If you decide to break someone's car window, and pull out their stereo, that's robbery. There is no grey area here. However with this new legislation, how drunk is too drunk? If the police officer decides he doesn't like the way you look at him as he walks into the bar, can he arrest you if you've had 3 beers? If you dance really badly, does that count as "not having the normal use of mental or physical faculties"? Does it matter that the drunkest guy in the bar is sitting next to his dead sober friend?
They do mention that the arresting officers can perform a field sobriety test but it is not required. This is the only thing that can fully measure how drunk a person is yet it is not required? People are always going to do stupid things, we are never going to stop that, no matter how many rules and laws are wrapped around controlling our behaviour.
I do not condone drunk driving at all...
... but I do feel that this is not the way to stop it. If a guy leaves the bar walking on rubber legs, drooling, slurring, without a sober friend to help them get home, then the police have every right to act. It seems like the line keeps getting rubbed out and redrawn biting further into the side that our freedoms are on.
See the article at Chron.com
To summarize the article, it's regarding being able to arrest people or fine them for being too drunk in a bar. Being a man that has been one of the drunkest guys in the bar a few times, this worried me a bit, but I could see the logic behind it. In my finest moments I have done some dumb things including jumping from buildings. Granted the end result wasn't anything like the kid mentioned in this article who missed the swimming pool and died. I managed to walk away, or rather hobble away, on a broken foot. Stopping this sort of stuff is a good thing, believe me.
The thing about this law that really bugs me is that it is enforcement based on opinion. Take robbery for example, there is a finite line that, if crossed, means you are robbing someone. If you decide to break someone's car window, and pull out their stereo, that's robbery. There is no grey area here. However with this new legislation, how drunk is too drunk? If the police officer decides he doesn't like the way you look at him as he walks into the bar, can he arrest you if you've had 3 beers? If you dance really badly, does that count as "not having the normal use of mental or physical faculties"? Does it matter that the drunkest guy in the bar is sitting next to his dead sober friend?
They do mention that the arresting officers can perform a field sobriety test but it is not required. This is the only thing that can fully measure how drunk a person is yet it is not required? People are always going to do stupid things, we are never going to stop that, no matter how many rules and laws are wrapped around controlling our behaviour.
I do not condone drunk driving at all...
... but I do feel that this is not the way to stop it. If a guy leaves the bar walking on rubber legs, drooling, slurring, without a sober friend to help them get home, then the police have every right to act. It seems like the line keeps getting rubbed out and redrawn biting further into the side that our freedoms are on.
See the article at Chron.com
posted by Alex Charalambides | 2:22 PM
1 Comments:
It really seems quite strange the bars are not fined for serving the offending amounts of alcohol that lead to these issues. I am sure if they did impose heavy fines on the bars, there would be more of an incentive to keep the patrons happy but not drunk.
In the article it says that the officers will perform a field sobriety test but the breath test is optional.
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