Would you like this guy sticking needles in your arm at night by the side of the highway? You may have no choice in Idaho.
BOISE, Idaho – When police officer Darryll Dowell is on patrol in the southwestern Idaho city of Nampa, he’ll pull up at a stoplight and usually start casing the vehicle. Nowadays, his eyes will also focus on the driver’s arms, as he tries to search for a plump, bouncy vein.”I was looking at people’s arms and hands, thinking, ‘I could draw from that,’” Dowell said.
[…]
For years, defense attorneys in Idaho advised clients to always refuse breath tests, Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Christine Starr said. When the state toughened the penalties for refusing the tests a few years ago, the problem lessened, but it’s still the main reason that drunk driving cases go to trial in the Boise region, Starr said. (full article here)
(This post and thread was moved over from comments on a facebook link, which I’ve copied in below).
Josh McMichael
That the police, who should be serving and protecting a nation of ostensibly ‘free’ people, can actually say and do these things without being laughed at and thrown in jail does not bode well for the ‘land of the free and home of the brave.’
Yesterday at 4:48pm
Josh McMichael
More happy links and music tomorrow. :-)
Yesterday at 4:49pm
Christopher Weeks
Are you offended that chemically-impaired driving is against the law or that blood is available as evidence? And if the latter, is it based on some particular constitutional point or just a general feeling about the practice?
Yesterday at 5:52pm
Josh McMichael
I’m glad chemically impaired driving is against the law. I definitely think that society is better off seriously punishing such irresponsible and pointless behavior that is harmful to others.I do not know if such behavior by the State is allowed by law; it appears that it very well might be. But I do not want to live in a society that permits or smiles on this behavior.
Why?
One’s blood is one of the most intimate possessions that an individual owns. With it, anyone with a decent lab has an deep an intimate view into a person’s life. Ancestry, genetic, somatic, parasitic, bacterial and viral diseases recently and currently suffered, etc.This behavior by our justice system and police puts one of our most intimate and personal posessions, which can be used against us in uncountable ways, into the hands of people who, historically, have not demonstrated that they are capable of wielding the power we’ve already given them in a compassionate, rational, or ethical manner.
Yesterday at 6:47pm
Josh McMichael
And, it does not look like a healthy relationship between the individual and the State.To be pulled over, have blood extracted by the side of the highway by an ill-trained police officer (or detained to have blood forcibly withdrawn at the nearest police station), doesn’t look like a relation between equals, as any relationship between the State and a citizen should be.
Yesterday at 7:03pm
Christopher Weeks
Hey, that all seems really smart! According to that article, resorting to blood draws seems to be a result of the ability of the suspect to refuse to blow for the breathalyzer. Is it reasonable for the state to compel a suspect to blow? If so, is it reasonable to threaten (and carry out) the blood-test only in the case of such refusal? I’m trying to figure something out that works for both sides.(And hopefully Facebook will be adequate, if not ideal, for this kind of exchange — I just started this and the trivia that seems most common is nice and all, but I’d like to think that there’s no reason more serious exchanges won’t work.)
35 minutes ago
Josh McMichael
Yeah, it could work - but facebook feels more like a large dinner party, where subjects like politics, sex, and religion should be brought up judiciously, and some subjects might be better off moved to some other time.I’ve moved this post and thread over to my blog.
I’ll be writing up another comment there in the comments - please come along!
2 seconds ago
