Posted on 05/25/2013 7:14:29 PM PDT by Skooz
SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - As Memorial Day weekend gets underway, law enforcement is out in full force to crack down on drunk driving. But SDSU grad Sennett Devermont, better known as "MrCheckpoint," is also working overtime, publicizing through social media the locations and times of DUI checkpoints throughout San Diego and the rest of Southern California, including Orange, Riverside and Los Angeles counties. Devermont uses Twitter, Facebook, his own website and text messages to get the word out to his tens of thousands of followers. "When I realized the positive impact it had.... I decided to make the service free," Devermont told News 8. Devermont's attorney, Mary Frances Prevost, says that MrCheckpoint's presence online has helped increase public safety. "When there's more talk about DUI checkpoints and more advertising about them, there is a 20 percent reduction in DUIs and DUI fatalities," Prevost said. Not everyone agrees, including some members of MADD, or Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "While we support the publication of checkpoints as a deterrent to drunk driving, sites like MrCheckpoint alert drunk drivers so they can evade arrest. It's not meant as a positive," stated Pat Rillera, executive director of MADD in L.A. and Ventura counties. Devermont blasts that notion, countering that MrCheckpoint is a public service. "In no way are we for anyone drinking and driving," he said. "That is absolutely not the intention of the website." Devermont said he has plans to expand MrCheckpoint nationwide, and has developed a smart phone app for his service that is expected to be available next month. MrCheckpoint also says that in order for anyone to receive his text messages, they must first sign an online pledge not to drink and drive.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbs8.com ...
DADD
Dads Against Drunk Daughters
DAMM
Dads Against Mad Mothers
Good idea if you ask me. I shoot the gestapo a bird when I see them on the side of the interstate, trying to catch us evil speeders. Will be downloading the app when it becomes available for nationwide use.
MADD is evily LEFTIST...and that is MAD.
“Rural area, no “blocks” or “next street over[s]”. Only way out is a U turn and THAT will trigger an intercept.”
I avoided one of these Friday evening in town by turning left after I saw the flashing lights (and a sign stating what was ahead) and going a different way home. Anytime I can avoid having my 4th Amendment rights violated without confrontation I will do so. If I can’t avoid it, there will be confrontation.
There are certain restaurants I will not patronize after 10 at night, because there is no “back way” home from them and roadblocks and DUI stops are frequent. Not because I intend to drive drunk, but to avoid the hassle of proving to some LEO that I am NOT drunk.
The same moms would loathe Moms Against Distracted Driving. Love that texting!
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We used to say DAM Mothers against Dyslexia, then my one friend changed it to Mothers against Lysdexia.
Since checkpoints are more about revenue than drunk driving, I don’t see a problem with this. The cops are more interested in nailing the .08 drinkers that probably aren’t too bad off than the .25 drunks. There are more of them, and many don’t even realize that they have had enough to drink to blow .08.
Another kind of checkpoint. . . “Are you a U.S. citizen?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fDCXzqgD99o
Even Iceberg Slim wrote in his autobiography PIMP that he didn't want his hookers smoking pot because it made them to lazy to go to work.
You can drink alcohol and still have your performance affected the next day.
If the goal is to prosecute those who are IMPAIRED and the measure is blood/breath (not performance), then pot smokers can go screw because they haven't argued this standard for all DWI/DUI prosecutions. Same as how they don't care that tobacco smokers can be denied employment and how they've long demonized tobacco and alcohol as bad for the body while pot is “natural”.
Get off how ever you want but demonizing the norms of society only slits your own throat.
Funny to see the FDA now limiting the use of caffeine. Ever drink a cup of “police officer coffee” that's been laced with NODOZ for while they file paperwork at late night diners?
Slow responses become a lifestyle even when you aren’t toking.
Your rant is way off base.
My comment dealt only with the facts related of the tests in use, nothing else.
An employer can prohibit employees from smoking tobacco or pot (even where legal). The “legalization” of pot does ZERO to permit pot smokers to drive cars even when they test positive for pot use.
CHANGE THE LAW TO READ WHAT THE NEW STANDARD MEASURE OF POT IS IF THAT IS HOW YOU FEEL.
Right now it is ZERO for drivers. Saying “but it didn’t affect my ability” is total disregard for the law. Either concede that the standard for driving while having “used” alcohol is equally irrespective of ability or else go fish today. Weather looks nice.
I agree the standard for alcohol is nonsense. It all depends on the individual, age, driving experience etc.
The standard was set for financial reasons IMHO.
Much like red light cameras are placed not where they would reduce accidents but rather where they will generate revenue for right turns without a l o n g three second stop.
When the societal norm is based on BS instead of known facts it is our duty to act to change it.
When the law does not reflect reality I feel it is not only my place to work to have it changed but also to disregard said law or in the case of the red light cameras defeat the law by not turning on red at all at camera intersections.
Agree. DUI/DWI laws/open container laws are all about PROCEDURAL crime.
Example, a 6-pack missing one beverage is an “open container” but 5 cans/bottles (sealed but loose) in a paper back are not “evidence of an open 6-pack”.
What’s more, it isn’t even about accidents or prevention of accidents. The BAC standard keeps edging downward with the Feds now pushing for 0.05 from 0.08 to prevent another projected 1,000 fatalities annually that they would blame on demon alcohol. 1,000 persons/50 states = 20 per state or about 1 every 2 and a half weeks.
Some in Utah and elsewhere have urged changing it to 0.03.
There comes a point at which the BAC is simply not a factor in the accident (let alone how each person’s body performs under said BAC). The BAC doesn’t even “clear” a driver if he or she blows lower than the arbitrary standard. It simply makes conviction easier.
And for public intoxication charges (which can simply be an officer observing a person drinking more than 2 adult beverages in an hour), there is no BAC test requirement or other performance ability litmus test. That’s even if you have no car/bicycle are aren’t even traveling anywhere.
And you, although the stupidest woman in two counties, can discern the motives of others. I remain skeptical.
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