|
The police state lives on....Drunk people charged while waiting for their Des. Driver (pg. 2)
|
View this Thread in Original format
| kaniz |
| quote: | Originally posted by Jay Leno
While I don't agree with this specific case, I agree with what the cops are trying to do.
I have seen first hand the amount of drunkness that leads to violence around Hanc's on a typical weekend, so it's nice to see the cops finally trying to get it under control in that area. |
If someone is being drunk and rowdy and causing a ruckus - I can understand. But standing quietly waiting for a DD? that's pretty absurd. |
|
|
| MarkT |
Jay, you missed the best part of this story, lol.
MADD supports the initiative!!! how ing absurd is this...
http://www.torontosun.com/news/colu...075931-sun.html
| quote: | "It's not a mixed message. You can't be intoxicated in a public place. It's an offence."
-- Insp. Charlie Green, Durham Regional Police
One would think MADD would be mad over the Durham cops charging people in Bowmanville with public intoxication while they stood on the sidewalk waiting for their designated driver service to show.
If not mad, a little perplexed.
One would think that MADD would agree that it sends a mixed message, and that doing the right thing, as in not drinking and driving, is not much of a win if you are going to be handed a $65 ticket for being drunk in a public place.
But MADD isn't mad.
Nor perplexed.
In fact, MADD Canada's CEO Andrew Murie yesterday gave the Durham cops a high-five for issuing those tickets, and the bars of Bowmanville a thumbs-down for over-serving.
"I put the blame solely on the bars," says Murie. "Those who think it sends a mixed message have not thought it out.
"How did those people get to that state? Yes, I am putting the onus strictly on the bars -- absolutely.
"The inspector is dead-on."
At this writing, Sunday's column -- "Couple taken for a ride. Fined $130 for public intoxication while waiting for designated driver service to pick them up" -- remains No. 1 on the "hit parade" when it comes to readership views on the Toronto Sun's home page.
It outnumbers, by a long shot, Tiger Woods' follies, the Toronto convenience store owner who bilked four lottery winners out of $5.75 million, and Sunday's front-page story on the peace lady who has lived in the woods of the Don Valley ravine for 25 years.
It was a prime topic on a fair whack of radio talk shows yesterday -- from John Oakley and Mike Stafford on Toronto 640, to Bill Carroll's show on CFRB, to T. J. Connors show on The Wolf in Peterborough, and to Rick Lowes' show on Haliburton's Moose-FM, and no doubt others -- as well as fodder for a mass of e-mails and online commentary.
It was a button-pusher, no question about it.
And few posted comments back the police.
MADD's reaction, to be honest, was somewhat unexpected, although not entirely unanticipated.
MADD Canada, the Canadian arm of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, was founded in 1990, and so it has had almost 20 years of total focus on the human toll of drinking and driving.
And the numbers are staggering.
Transport Canada reports a total of almost 40,000 alcohol-related fatalities on Canadian roads since 1982.
Also "staggering," says MADD's Andrew Murie -- and this is why he supports the cops in Bowmanville -- are the numbers of drunken pedestrians who have died, or who have been injured, by wandering into oncoming traffic.
"All you have to do is visit the trauma unit at Sunnybrook hospital on a weekend and witness it for yourself," said Murie. "Some 70% (of the cases) are alcohol-related."
Maybe so ... but.
Isn't it the message of MADD, and of all police, to use a designated driver if you drink? If it isn't, then why are the OPP, and other forces, going on the radio with public service announcements touting the wisdom of doing just that?
The beauty of designated driver services is that they take you and your car home -- which is why they travel in pairs.
But, if they picked you up at the bar, and drove you to your car, they'd be rightly accused by the taxi industry of providing an unlicensed taxi service -- which is why Jack Knowler, 61, and his girlfriend, Bev Rogers, were standing on the sidewalk, and not waiting inside the bar for the DD to call.
And which is why retired GM worker Marty McLellan was waiting outside the Legion where he had left his truck.
Yet all three, as reported here on Sunday, were each nailed with a $65 ticket for public intoxication, a charge which senior uniform cops in Toronto tell me is reserved solely for the "falling down drunk who is usually taken into custody to sleep it off," and not the Jack Knowlers and Bev Rogers of this world.
Vic Hanc is the owner of Hanc's Bar in Bowmanville. Jack Knowler is a regular, but he is also one of those regulars, says Hanc, who knows his limits and has never gone beyond.
"I've refused to serve lots of people who have wandered in a little unsteady, and I have cut many people off at the bar," says Hanc. "But never Jack and never Bev.
"They are not that type of drinker."
Knowler, who spent most of yesterday morning fielding phone calls from radio talk shows, said he was "in no way unsteady" on his feet the night they were ticketed.
"Neither of us were. We were at Hanc's for karaoke night," he said, indicating he had perhaps consumed six or seven beers over a three-hour period -- "too many to get into my car and drive, yes, but in no way was I drinking out of a brown paper bag either.
"We was just standing there, waiting for our designated driver service," he says. "And they pulled up at the same time the cops pulled up -- in three separate cruisers, for crying out loud, at 12:30 in the morning, with no one else on the street.
"You'd think we had robbed a bank." |
|
|
|
| Ravist |
| a lot of the police system needs to be changed, especially when they commit a crime. If they commit murder they should have the same punishment as a citizen. They should also restructure how they hire their police officers, more extensive psychological testing. Police have been bullies for too long, someone should start a campaign! |
|
|
| Ravist |
| quote: | Originally posted by kaniz
If someone is being drunk and rowdy and causing a ruckus - I can understand. But standing quietly waiting for a DD? that's pretty absurd. |
no im a dumb redneck policeman you would get both disturbing the peace and public intoxication charges for that! lol absurd, its not police its more like harass officers |
|
|
| VDub |
| quote: | Originally posted by Anas Attia
It's only going to get more ridiculous as the objective is to remove judges from decision making, give cops more of the responsibility...
MOST cops in my eye have as much critical decision making skills as my left ass cheek, and with that many of them have personal biases against the population. The laws being passed are adding to their personal power lust, and in turn as all things are said you have people getting arrested for standing in parking lots... |
I half agree Anas...
Yes the cop is getting more freedom to nail you for stuff at the side of the road but you do still have the option of fighting things in a court of law in front of a judge...
Problem with that is that you're hit with a lot of expense in work lost as well as court costs...
I hate how cops have the power to still screw you even the charge is dismissed... |
|
|
| Moral Hazard |
| I love you right wingers... you take a zero-tolerance stance on the breaking of laws and then bitch and moan when they are enforced. Is the policy stupid, yes; is the whole situation laughable, yes; however, this is exactly what happens when you take the discression away from those tasked with enforcing the law. |
|
|
| petro |
| quote: | Originally posted by Moral Hazard
yes; however, this is exactly what happens when you take the discression away from those tasked with enforcing the law. |
What are you going on about? How does one take discretion away from a police officer? They still hold the majority of the power when it comes to enforcing laws. |
|
|
| Engine9 |
take it eaaaaaaaaaasy guys
they are just filling their quota!!! :rolleyes: |
|
|
| Jayx1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Moral Hazard
I love you right wingers... you take a zero-tolerance stance on the breaking of laws and then bitch and moan when they are enforced. Is the policy stupid, yes; is the whole situation laughable, yes; however, this is exactly what happens when you take the discression away from those tasked with enforcing the law. |
considering im a libertarian, this falls right in line with my political position.
The state should have as least of an impact as possible on one's life and liberty. |
|
|
| Jayx1 |
Im sick of MADD.
They have become nothing but a bunch of prohibitionists and long ago overstepped their original (and noble) mandate of trying to stop drinking and driving.
Shame on them. |
|
|
| Silky Johnson |
| Mothers After a Deep Dicking imo |
|
|
|
|
