Or, Living in a Country without a Bill of Rights.
On the whole, I love Australia.
But, occasionally, things happen that make me slightly...uneasy. Things that kind of tweak my American sense of civil liberties.
One of these things is the Booze Bus, which was on the road I drove today on the way home from my bellydancing class.
Basically, it's a sobriety checkpoint. This one was a rather large one, with an actual police bus emblazoned with a giant .05 (the legal limit for alcohol here). One of the 3-lanes in the road was blocked off, and a policeman was ushering the other two lanes to the side, where a line of policeman stood and MADE EVERY DRIVER BREATHE INTO A BREATHALYZER.
Now, logically, these checkpoints make sense, and whenever I talk to Aussies about them, they have a deep and correct conviction that drink driving (that's what they call it here) is dangerous and horrible and should be prevented at all costs. And, the point I am trying to make about civil liberties and not being accosted by the authorites in a free state does not get across.
I wholeheartedly agree that drunk driving is a horribly stupid and dangerous thing and that sobriety checks make total sense. But forcing all drivers to breathe into a breathalyzer seems akin to having the police go into every house without a warrant looking for drugs or weapons or bags of money stolen from banks just to make sure no one is selling/making drugs, weapons, or robbing banks. It feels like an illegal search, and it doesn't sit right with me.
I hadn't had anything to drink yet today, so I breathed into the breathalyzer and was sent on my merry way, and it probably took a total of 2 minutes out of my day to do the test, but still...uneasiness.
The only road sobriety check I have ever underwent in America merely involved the policeman shining his flashlight in my car looking for booze and asking me if I had had anything to drink that night. My understanding is that you only have to breathe into the breathalyzer in the U.S. if you are pulled over for suspicion of drunk driving, and that cops would not be able to breathalyze every driver on a road.
But, then again, maybe that was in the Patriot Act and that can be done now, I'm not sure.
About Me
- hamster_grrl
- Adventures of a strong, single girl adjusting to being a stranger in a strange land starting a career in science
4 comments:
A lot of those flashlights have breathalyzers on them. I'm pretty sure it cleared the Supreme Court a few years ago.
'Free State' is a myth.
Miss you.
You can actually refuse to do a sobriety test here, but they will arrest you. You spend the night in the drunk tank and then you pay your baila and go, from what I understand.
Also, have you heard the recent news about Texas cops cracking down on people being drunk in bars? They say it's to combat drunk driving, and I know it has always been illegal to be wasted in public, BUT they are out there arresting people even if they have a DD! They showed it on Nightline the other night in Dallas. They arrested one woman for being drunk in the bar of the hotel she was staying at! That's just so ridiculous.
Come visit me, we'll get wasted IN MY HOUSE. Lame.
I was with you that night you got stopped! My dad used to have a breathalyzer but never used it on me. I had to take one once when I was underage. Boo. I know somebody who got arrested for publuc intoxication while walking home from the bar since they were too drunk to drive home. You'd think they would be happy he didn't drive!
Amandamonkey - true dat, a 'free state' is a myth.
JayAre - I think I saw something on the internet about the TX drunks in bars thing, but hadn't looked into it. It's crazy! And, I am planning a visit to the metroplex probably soon after I get back from Oz! Oh yeah, we'll totally get drunk in your house! Just make sure your hubby doesn't let the po-lice know what we're up to!
DancingFish - Yes, you were with me at that sobriety check! Good times. ;)
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