Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire DUI checkpoints? Your state have them?

Only drunks object to check points
Only dopers object to blood tests
The next logical argument is , "Only criminals/killers are against gun control.
We better all wake up and do some serious thinking on just how "safe" we want to perceive us to be, cause we aren't just sliding down a slippery slope anymore. We're down hill skiing, and we beat 99mph in 2008.

Years ago, I was headed back to school in Athens GA. I stopped and grabbed a 6'er when I gassed up and put it in the back seat.

I got within a mile or two of my exit on 316 and figured, WTH, I'm almost there and reached back and cracked one open.

As I took a long pull of the cold beer, I see a sign up ahead advertising drug searches, K9 dogs, and other things I wanted no part of.

No sooner than passing the sign is a nice big turn off on a dirt road that looks good so I turn on the blinker and plan on dumping the rest of my beer and hiding the bottle.

Bout the time I made the turn I crested a little knoll and low and behold, there sat half the Clark County/Athens police complete with tow rigs and paddy wagon.

It was a setup. The only search was down the side road that was so convienently available right past the big ol sign advertising the phantom K9 search.

I fessed up to officer fatazz, who promptly threw the empty I handed him in the woods, and then he wrote me a ticket for open container and I was on my way.

Turned out a hippy band was having a big concert that week in town and they nailed the chit out of a bunch of kids with a pocket full of joints.

I had to laugh. It was pretty clever.

No Travis, I don't.

Living in California I can truly understand why so many despise governmental intrusion and legislative strangulation and fully respect that.

Most of these checkpoints are basically fishing expeditions, where the officers are searching for any possible infraction of the law and I can understand a person's disdain for such.

I do however tend to agree that unlike our constitutionally protected rights that driving is indeed a privilege, revocable through displays of recklessness and stupidity.

I'm only relaying my life experiences while on the topic of DUI.
I only hope you and others here at the fire never experience a life changing event that might alter your opinions.

That's exactly what we do. Lots of signs cautioning to watch for K-9's, and lights that can be seen miles ahead. There is a convenient exit and a road to nowhere available. The only difference, I suppose, is that we always get kilos of cocaine and bales of weed.

Just not argued very well.

You assume my family didn't have any such experience.

And while driving is a privilege, a citizen's expectation of privacy and to not be stopped without cause is no freakin' privilege.




Travis

Same thing in MN. They used to have them. DUI, and checks on the highway during deer season. They've all been eliminated now, except.... if you're towing a boat. They can pull your ass over to a check point and look for seaweed on your friggin trailer. GMAFB.

1/2 of my nieces and nephew's were killed by an ass clown UPS worker that had trouble reading the same type of lights. Yet I agree with you on the checkpoints.

"Roll your window down, or we can break it......", wow.
For a guy who has done nothing wrong, no probable cause to be pulled over, just happened to drive through a checkpoint.
Seven cops around the truck. This vid is incredibly heavy-handed for a dui checkpoint, wouldn't you say?
Hello tyranny, looks like you're here to stay.

They do them here in Va. Beach. They are usually done about 10 pm so they can show off on the 11 pm news. Seems to me if you wanted to catch drunk drivers, hang around the bars at closing time. A lawyer friend of mine thinks they ought check out the noontime watering holes also. A lot of people having a three martini lunch.

+1

Game & Fish checkpoints are popular in even what most Americans would consider the most "Free" states.
On my last trip to Wyoming I was delayed at length by officers who wanted to "see my papers" though I passed through unabated, it is certainly unpleasant to a certain degree.
Was watching the tv show "Wardens" last week where they were shaking down Montanans at a similar checkpoint, their roadside investigations go far beyond hunting and fishing violations.

They are paid for through federal grants, those areas that don't have them don't get the funds! Helps with securing more officers, and higher pay through overtime hours. How much they help is anybody's guess. They remove unlicensed drivers and those driving without insurance, impounding cars and arresting the dirvers results in work and fees for everybody involved. Seems like they have them every couple weeks around here, the majority being on the main routes within a mile of the on and off ramps to the freeways.

Phil

On several of these DUI checkpoint refusal vids posted by people who have had nothing to drink, the cops use the excuse of "smelling alcohol" to thumb down even harder.

This one starts at 2:30. The officer "smells something" after the guy won't roll down his window all the way.

If we are really concerned about drunk driving, we need to start treating it the way the Nordic countries do. If they catch you driving drunk, you go to jail. Right now. Not next week, not next year but right now. Minimum term is for a year. They take whatever you are driving and there are substantial fines. NO EXCEPTIONS> That means attorneys can not charge thousands of dollars to get the DUI reduced to reckless driving or some other BS. How many times have you heard the report of a drunk killing someone and they have 2 - 3 - 4 or more previous DUI's? We do not care about people driving drunk, only the money that can be made off it by the police departments, cities, states and attorneys.

In the Nordic countries they get one or two drunk driving cases PER YEAR. If you really punish it, people will stop!

I oppose those too.

Big time.


Travis

Wyoming is no more immune from stupidity then anywhere else. That's why we need to examine what we really want. Adopting another mans ideals just because they sound plausible and good has deprived us of too much. I personally want to ban ice cream, as statistics prove when ice cream sales rise, so do rapes.

Have them all year round, but they double up xmas & new year's eve

I think they're legal to have them here in Missouri, but in the only checkpoints I've encountered they ask to see your driver's license, registration, and proof of insurance, check your headlights, taillights, turn signals, and will fuss at you if you don't have your seatbelt on. They've never asked a thing about whether or not I've been drinking, but I guess in the process of doing all those checks they can get a pretty good idea if you're impaired or not.

I had been up here for a couple of years before I got stopped the first time, and I didn't know what "registration" was, since we didn't have to have it in Alabama then. When I told the trooper I didn't know what it was and asked him to describe to me what I should be looking for, he immediately directed me over into the "offender" lane. Once there, another trooper took over and told me what it was, and I thought I remembered having something like that in the glove box. I found it and everything was cool and I went on my way.

Whole thing took me about 30 seconds.

COP: Have you bring drinking ?
ME: No !
COP: Have a good day.

The Cop was respectful of me and I of him.