Draconian DUI enforcement hurting Arizona restaurants

Interesting article on an unexpected side-effect of Hitleresque DUI enforcement.

The irony, of course, is that Arizona continues to lead the nation in drunk-driving deaths and the number continues to rise every year.

Why?

Because the police are more concerned with making money than on public safety. Instead of going after the real drunks, the ones who cause fatal accidents, they're wasting their time pulling over and arresting .08 offenders. Regular people who had 2 or 3 glasses of wine with dinner, when every scientific study done shows that driving does not become impaired until about .14 BAC. The .08 standard was simply forced through thanks to millions in lobbyist money from prohibitionist MADD.

(Interestingly, the founder of MADD herself has quit the organization and distanced herself from it on the grounds that it is no longer about drunk driving, but instead is now an extremist group focused on totalitarian prohibitionist goals led by religionists who think drinking - ANY drinking - is wrong.)

Where I now live, DUI enforcement is far more lax than in Arizona, and yet drunk driving isn't a problem here. Arizona's "solution" doesn't work, because it's not a solution at all - it's yet another scheme to extort money from people who can afford to pay it, meaning your average middle-age professional who had a few glasses of wine at dinner and who will cough up the few thousand dollars in fines, unlike the real drunks who can't afford to pay.

Wake up, Arizona. Your police and public officials don't give a sh*t about you or your safety. They only want your money. Demand that they stop arresting .08 "offenders" and start going after the really dangerous low-lifes ... which will never happen as long as the cops are spending hours processing someone who had 2 or 3 glasses of wine and is perfectly capable of driving home safely.

Comments

[Joe Jacari]

Obviously, if the Scottsdale, Phoenix, or any other Arizona police department really was serious about saving lives by stopping drunk drivers, they'd start cracking down on illegal alien drunks who continue to slaughter Arizonans every day.

Not only do the Mexican, South and Central American wino riff- raff continue, unabated, to kill our innocent citizens in preventable traffic accidents, they don't even have any f**king insurance.

How do you like that?

I'm sick of our scoundrel politicians--and that includes our do nothing Phoenix mayor, Phil Gordon--and half the lazy police chiefs in this state, who sit on their fat a**es and bite their nails, too afraid to arrest illegal aliens for fear being called racist.

You can bet your life that if you and I so much as ride a skateboard along the sidewalk, or walk out of a restaurant after having had a glass of wine with dinner, they'll slap cuffs on your a** and throw you in the brig before you can say abracadabra.

Speaking of wine, I've posted below my defense of the author is this site, Frank, which I put on the Housing Panic message board yesterday.

He was attacked by an anonymous, supposed Scottsdalean old time resident, since 1984, who didn't like Frank exposing some of the underside of the Scottsdale glam, exploding the mythos of the elite and affluent suburbs for what they really are.

********************

Anonymous said...

"Frank I've lived here since 1984 and I can absolutely say with 100% confidence you are superficial and full of shit- the VAST majority of people who live here are normal."
_____

Ha, ha! Oh, man.

Yeah, you probably think you're normal, too!

Hey 1984, I'd like to walk across the street from those over-priced Scottsdale habitrail hampster condos and sit outside with you at the PF Changs on the corner, near the sewage canal, outside on the patio, where the weather's nice and the wine flows like a cascading waterfall.

Then I'll buy you a nice tall glass of wine, as we watch the poseur chicks with the fake, silicone racks walk by in arrogance.

Then, as the waiter pours your wine into the glass, I will ask you to swish it around, in luxury, and then to take a nice, big deep inhale of the fragrant aroma, and experience the good life of Scottsdale.

And, as you do, the sweet aroma of wine will mix well with the smell of sewage, triggering the involuntary vomit response, as you hurl chunks onto your Chicken A La King.

Then I will stand up and address our fellow patrons, and point to you, telling everyone seated around, "here is another Scottsdale schmuck proffering your the 'soup of the day,' expectorant style. I have supplied some Ritz crackers for you to dig in. He's been here since 1984, so you're getting finely-aged, vintage schmuck chunks."

Then I will gingerly walk across the street to those highbrow condos, as the rich, affluent and elite are having their wine on the balconies of their $1.5M digs, near the sewage plant, and cackle up at them saying, "you look down on me like a common peasant. But I challenge you cowards to take a deep breath of the sewage canal air that you have sold your miserable, fake souls for."

As they, too, begin to vomit, I will say, "you are now brothers and sisters in misery with that wretch named "Anonymous 1984" of Scottsdale.

Partake of the misery you so richly deserve, as reality has manifested itself to you in the bountiful fruits of aromatic excrement that you have so handsomely paid for with your plastic, Scottsdale souls. But then again the worst deluded are the self-deluded."

Ha, ha, haaaa!

[Frank Rumbauskas]

Joe - GREAT comeback to that jackass's comment on HousingPanic!! I haven't been over there today to catch up yet. We need to grab a beer next time I'm in town visiting. Although in Scottsdale that might land us in jail ... lol

[T]

Every day I see at least ONE accident either on the way to or from work in Old Town Scottsdale. Yesterday I saw two. And my commute isn't a long one. Whenever I tell out-of-state friends or family members this, they don't seem to believe me.

[war_shu_duck]

I believe that "1984" believes what he is saying. Arizona is filled with people who have there heads up there asses. These people are not aware of anything that goes on around them beyond self. Guys like him have already decided this is paradise and no amount of truth is going to convince them otherwise. They spend all there time looking inward and disregard facts. Things like people not making real friendships, neighbors not looking out for each other, and no sense of community are "Normal" in 1984's self-asorbed world. Its all about him. Everything else either doesn't matter or exist.

[Red Green]

The valley police departments are a complete joke; all they do is find the easiest way to write a ticket. This DUI thing is completely out of hand and I am not surprised to see it is already affecting restaurants and bars in the valley. Just about everyone I know in the valley has talked about this and I can tell it has made me change my behavior. Where I would have had two or three beers while out, now I might have one.

BTW Frank, I love the site. Keep up the good work.