April 11, 2026
DUI's While Sober
Timothy Birdnow
Increasingly you can get a DUI without drinking or doing drugs as Police tighten the screws and hand them out based on "field tests".
I remember how it all began. It came all at once, with expose's in every newspaper and on television and so I knew there was something rotten in the state of Denmark. Prior to the birth of a major media blitz there were laws against D.W.I. (which morphed into D.U.I. because they wanted to make it easier to arrest people and the standard for being actually drunk was 1.5% blood alcohol in the seventies) but you had to actually be drunk to get arrested. This campaign changed all that with a precautionary principle.
Now it's starting to come out that people are being arrested for DUI with NO blood alcohol at all, just based on "field sobriety tests" by cops who are under intense pressure to issue the lucrative charges.
It costs a LOT of money to get out of a DUI these days - and it makes a lot of money for the local authorities.
I would add the rise of ride sharing companies has greatly reduced the number of DUI's so the authorities have to find a way to make up for the shortfall some way. That was is to charge as many people as possible (and usually white people; they aren't going to risk stopping black folks in this day and age) and hoping they don't all contest the charges.
I ran afoul of such practices when I was in college. I was stopped by a local cop (who had a vanity plate on his car "DUI King") and ordered to say the alphabet starting in the middle. I knew three different alphabets and used the Russian one far more than the English. Naturally, with all the flashing lights and cars whizzing by, I mixed them up and wound up being taken to the police station for a breathalyzer. I eventually got let go but the point is these tests are not that helpful. I am mindful of a Steve Martin movie where he was ordered to do field sobriety tests "hop on one leg while singing the star spangled banner and touching your nose" "now do summersaults". Yeah; it's kind of like that.
"Damned, your drunk tests are hard!"
At any rate they suspended basic Constitutional rights with the whole DUI campaign, such as the fourth amendment. Sobriety checkpoints are an utter abomination for civil rights and yet the courts found a "compelling state interest" that they said overrode the Constitution.
Look, I get it; we DO have a compelling state interest in getting heavily intoxicated or drugged out people from behind the wheel lest they kill someone. I am in no wawy arguing for zero enforcement. But "buzzed driving is drunk driving" as the campaign slogan says is not always correct. I knew a guy who never drank at all and he had one (count them ONE) gin and tonic at a bar and he drove his car just next door to his motel (he was on a business trip with some of his employees) and he got stopped and arrested and has a DUI on his record.
This was always about money and control. The Ruling Class wanted to test to see if they could push this far and they could.
The DUI push began about the same time as the anti-smoking campaign and was done for identical reasons and that wasn't the public health. They have largely ended smoking in America and drinking and driving is way down. That was proof of concept. It's why they dared to pull the Covid lockdowns, these lesser measures had worked so now it was time to see if they could manipulate the public into giving up even more of their freedoms.
The Left never sleeps and everything that comes up in the media needs to be examined for it's ulterior motive.
At any rate the arrests of people not guilty of any crimes was inevitable with this and we should not be at all surprised by it. This was never really about the public safety. (If it was about safety they would support the local police and want to arrest really dangerous drivers, but most of them are exempt, usually because of their ethnicity.)
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
07:53 AM
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1
Those field sobriety tests would be the death of me, especially the ones where you have to have 100% balance; at my age I don't do well on things like that. If I got hauled over for suspicion of drunk driving I'd hope I hadn't had any in hours because my super best bet would be to say "C'mon, Man, just bring the breathalyzer NOW" and hope they'd purged it properly since the last use.
Posted by: Dana Mathewson at April 13, 2026 12:00 AM (nxbxX)
2
I hear THAT Dana! I couldn't walk a straight line if you paid me.
Of course they'd be less likely to go after such as we because they want to nail easier marks. At our age we'd have a good chance of getting off the hook.
Of course they'd be less likely to go after such as we because they want to nail easier marks. At our age we'd have a good chance of getting off the hook.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at April 13, 2026 06:59 AM (oflqW)
3
Sounds like if we were out drinking together, I should be the one driving because at least my eyes work. Well, at least during the daytime. A few years ago I was dynamite at anytime of the day or night. Funny what a few years will do to you.
Posted by: Dana Mathewson at April 13, 2026 11:13 PM (nxbxX)
4
Oh, there's a joke I heard years ago that you'll all enjoy. There was this bar where the cops began to watch the guys coming out, and one night the first guy walked out unsteadily, got into his car, started it, put it in gear and ran into the guard rail, backed up a bit, then shut the engine off.
Meanwhile people were coming out of the bar and going home. Finally the original guy was the only one left. Cops were still there watching him. Finally he started his car and started to drive away. Cops nailed him, hauled him out of the car, slapped the breathalyzer on him and... ZERO.
They said "That can't be right," and tried again. Zero. Looked at the guy and he laughed at them and said "Sorry, guys, I'm the Designated Decoy!"
And since there's no law against that, they had to let him go.
Meanwhile people were coming out of the bar and going home. Finally the original guy was the only one left. Cops were still there watching him. Finally he started his car and started to drive away. Cops nailed him, hauled him out of the car, slapped the breathalyzer on him and... ZERO.
They said "That can't be right," and tried again. Zero. Looked at the guy and he laughed at them and said "Sorry, guys, I'm the Designated Decoy!"
And since there's no law against that, they had to let him go.
Posted by: Dana Mathewson at April 13, 2026 11:24 PM (nxbxX)
5
Given that I've had Parkinson's Disease for 12 years or so, me taking a "field sobriety test" would be quite a sight. I tried to touch my nose with my finger, and stuck it in my ear!
Posted by: bill H. at April 14, 2026 04:54 PM (FRG6e)
6
Now, that's funny, Bill! At least from a distance.
After having my Deep Brain Stimulation surgery about three years ago, I was having my initial programming done by an attractive young doctor, and part of the testing was that I had to repeatedly touch my nose, then reach out and touch her finger. Kinda wish I'd had to touch her nose; it might have been more fun.
After having my Deep Brain Stimulation surgery about three years ago, I was having my initial programming done by an attractive young doctor, and part of the testing was that I had to repeatedly touch my nose, then reach out and touch her finger. Kinda wish I'd had to touch her nose; it might have been more fun.
Posted by: Dana Mathewson at April 14, 2026 11:06 PM (+uala)
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