DUI checkpoints

You are losing the freedom of being able to walk around minding your own business without being hassled by the cops for no reason whatsoever. A basic American freedom, one of the things that separates us from other countries.

I don't care how "polite" they supposedly are. Being stopped and questioned by the police for no reason and asked for your "papers" is wrong. Those are the tactics of a police state.

 

I see your frustration and have been there, but look at this from the cop's perspective.

A driver exhibits the behavior of being drunk, then refuses to follow a simple instruction. I can imagine how I'd react if I was the officer.

 

I've driven before when I could barely stand up. There but for the grace of God...

 

You could also argue that a driver who's been going all day and is "dang tired" can be as much of a menace on the roads as is a drunk driver. If being stopped and inconvenienced woke you up or at least made you more alert, KY, maybe the jackass cop did you a favour.

I had a crash in September because of that very thing. I didn't fall asleep but I did zone out for a couple of seconds, which was all it took. I'm just damned lucky and extremely thankful that it was a single-vehicle crash and that I was the only person who was hurt because of me being dang tired and careless.

 

I look forward to hearing more about the inalienable rights of the police to do whatever they want.

In the meantime, some stop-and-frisk statistics:

www.nyclu.org/issues/racial-justice/stop-and-frisk-practices

nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/02/ny-cops-more-into-stop-and-frisk-than-ever.html

and what they mean to the individual:

www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/opinion/sunday/young-black-and-frisked-by-the-nypd.html?pagewanted=all

 

Az - Much like the death penalty, one of the frequent challenges to stop-and-frisk is that, although it is permissible under the Fourth Amendment, it may violate the 14th Amendment's prohibition on equal protection. But the Supreme Court, even armed with reams of convincing data, didn't buy it with the death penalty and they won't buy it with this.

Of course, that doesn't mean that legislators can't. But they won't. In fact, even in poor, black neighborhoods, a lot of voters like aggressive policing. Many of them even think that the Fourth Amendment goes too far when it comes to protecting against home searches, for example.

"Freedom" is a great buzzword. But at the ground level, it is a tough sell to voters, when push comes to shove on the particulars.

 

Many times, exhaustion has the same effect on us that drinking does in terms of impairing your ability to drive or do other things. If you're exhibiting the behaviors of driving while intoxicated or under the influence, the officer has every right to pull you over.

 

I would argue 'freedom' as the most important foundational concept of the republic - regardless of its ethereal and often impractical nature.

But I'd also stand 'stop-and-frisk' to your own test of efficient policing. A 90/10 ratio of 'entirely innocent' to 'probable cause sufficient for arrest' seems an inefficient use of police hours.

 

Az - This isn't my test. It's the law's. It's, theoretically, the Constitution's. The Court has never rendered a precise percentage test, because it's pretty much impossible. But everything indicates that the Constitutional bar is set pretty low when you are in public. The Constitution trusts the police to conduct searches that are not too personally invasive. I'm not answering the question, I'm asking it: At what level does reasonable suspicion begin? Ten percent? Fifty percent? Fifty-one? I don't know. I'm asking.

I had a thought yesterday while I was out on my jog, thinking about this discussion: Sober checkpoints are the one time that white, suburban Americans get to feel like black, inner-city teen-agers for a few minutes.

 

I refer us both to Dickens: "The law is a ass."

 

And this is why I scoff sometimes at the elected officials who tote around their pocket copy of the Constitution like a mystical talisman.

 

If it's a motorhome, could you claim it's your own personal domicile and you will not be harassed?

(Breaking Bad humor)