Drinking And Driving – A Crazy Idea That Would Put A Stop To It
Would the courts hand a loaded gun to a man convicted of murder? Obviously, they would. They continue to do it over and over again when they let repeat OWI/DWI offenders out of incarceration and back on the streets. Yesterday Joseph Dakota Richey a man who already has blood on his hands was arrested again. His crime? The same crime he's been arrested for several other times. Fortunately, this time he didn't have time to kill anyone with his reckless disregard for human life, especially his own.
The following is my suggestion on how to keep terminal drunks off of our streets. Trust me it would work but there is no one in the legal system with the guts to do it.
( Original Story) Many of you will climb behind the wheel of a car this festival season thinking you are safe to drive, but you won't be. God willing you will make it home safely and all the other innocent people whose lives you threaten will make it home safely too. It is the casual approach to this behavior that causes so many deadly issues each year.
Drinking and driving is a real problem. What burns me up the most about this crime is when people are allowed to commit it over and over again. They spend a few hours in jail and with a little money and a good lawyer they are out on the town again. Many times their victims aren't given that option. They are either suffering through a lifetime of injuries or their families are crying themselves to sleep at night because their loved one was killed.
Peer pressure is often a reason people drink. Peer pressure might be a good reason for people not to drink too. I suggest that anyone who has been arrested for DUI, DWI, or OWI have that noted on their license and be required to put a special colored license plate on the back of their vehicle.
This special colored license plate gives law enforcement probable cause to pull that vehicle over at any time and administer a sobriety test. If the driver of the vehicle is found to have any amount of alcohol in their system they are incarcerated immediately.
To make the charges stick even more I propose we make it harder for them to bond out of jail by adding this to the sentence. The person who bonds them out of jail and the judge that turns them loose become liable in the event the person is ever charged with another alcohol related charge. This will make people think twice about bonding out a repeat offender and no judge will be taking any chances on any alcohol related cases.
I realize there is a document called the Constitution that will get in the way of my thinking and I know this is unrealistic. I am simply tired of reporting stories of innocent people being killed by drunk drivers.
This is my opinion, I do not represent the opinions of TownSquare Media or the staff and management of 97.3 The Dawg on this issue.