How can state's reduce DUII's?

[Samuel]

"I was arrested at 330am in WVA. Didn't get out of jail until the bondsman got off his fat *** and posted $1700 of my money. That was at 630pm the next, well actually later that day. Call it 15 hours in jail total. However, they made it clear that had I been arrested anytime after 7pm that night, it would have been an all nighter.

Arrested once in NC, around 230am. Spent a total of 1 hour in jail, even at that late hour. Magistrate is 24 hours there."


:rolleyes:

[SpeedySlowGuy]

:rolleyes: to you too I guess...anything to contribute?

[SpeedySlowGuy]

Originally posted by SpeedySlowGuy
:rolleyes: to you too I guess...anything to contribute?

I guess not. Other than sarcasm and bad, sanctimonious attitude.

Too bad.

[Cowgirl]

Here's my story. I was 18 when my ex-boyfriend started buying alcohol for me, i got in all bars at 18. I got my first DUI on July 31, 2002 and i lost my license for 6 months and i got two years probation. Within the tme of 18-20 i was a drunk, i woke up in the morning i had a cold beer and continued throughout the day and this went on everyday. When i was involved in my first DUI , i lost control of my vechicle going a high rate of speed on a blinding corner, my truck went off into the ditch, and rolled over and i was cut up from the back window that shattered and glass went all through me. I blew a 0.160 BAC% and was released the next morning with a fine of $200.50.
Keep reading, i got my second DUI on November 25, 2002 and i decided not to blow because i knew i would fail this too. I was not involved in a crash or anything like that, i happend to be involved in a bad fight and i took off and got pulled over. My fine for this is $642.92 in court cost, $450.00 of it goes to the jail in Laclede County and the rest is court costs. I lost my license for 5 years. Did i learn my lesson?
December 6th 2002 i was picked up for 3rd DUI and have not been yet charged with this and i cross my fingers.
With not being able to drive for 5 yrs and getting a total of 4yrs porbation and supervised i have had lots of thinking going through my mind. Why did it take this long to learn my lesson.

I am pround of myself to say that i have been clean of alcohol for now nearly 9 months and i have no desire to drink! I have no desire to hang around drinkers and i now live my life on a stricted probation with no job because, nobody wants to hire a criminal!

Just to say that in Missour it takes 3 DUI's to be considered a felony but, the jail or prison term is only 1yr!

[SpeedySlowGuy]

Sad story.

What's missing here is that you should have received help from the get go, in addition to the punishment meted out by the courts. It seems in some serious sense you have or had an alcohol problem, a serious problem, that went untreated.

You finally learned your lesson from being punished. With the right treatment, maybe the second, surely the third incident could have been avoided. At the very least, the risk of you killing or maiming someone could have been reduced.

There is treatment available, I know people who've received it as a condition of their DUI being plead down to a lesser crime. But often it's a course of AA type meetings by for-profit organizations that have their dollars as the primary concern, not your wellbeing. There should be a state mandated program that you had to complete after the first offense that would have screened you as a problem. That would prove a lot more effective than punishment alone.

[Samuel]

Jeez, who let Mr Pot Calling the Kettle Black in? :rolleyes:

What were you arrested for and why do YOU think you were arrested? In other words, what led you to break the law in the first (or second) place?

If you had wanted to discuss this civilly, you shouldn't have rolled your eyes at my opinion. You should have just respectfully started a rational exchange of ideas. In playground terms - you started it.

Care to start over and communicate like post-pubescents? Or do you want to keep playing Keyboard Commando/Internet Tough Guy?

[SpeedySlowGuy]

Originally posted by Samuel
Jeez, who let Mr Pot Calling the Kettle Black in? :rolleyes:

Far as I can tell, I offer a much needed counterpoint to some of these threads. If I were spouting off non-tech having vitriol at every turn, by all means ban me. But I hardly think I'm playing Internet Troll here. Law enforcement is very interesting to me, and that's why I'm here.

What were you arrested for and why do YOU think you were arrested? In other words, what led you to break the law in the first (or second) place?

I was arrested in WVA for the suspicion of DUI, something I was acquitted or found not guilty of. If I sound sore, it's cause I spent 3 large defending myself against a charge that, plain as day, I wasn't guilty of. It was money I'd have rather spent elsewhere. Even the magistrate who arraigned me scoffed at the case against me and offered me the lowest possible bail. The circumstances of my NC arrest are complicated and not really relevant to the discussion at hand, so I decided to save the bandwidth. If they're really of interest I'd be happy to type it out, but the focus here is DUI so I'm trying to keep it there.

If you had wanted to discuss this civilly, you shouldn't have rolled your eyes at my opinion. You should have just respectfully started a rational exchange of ideas. In playground terms - you started it.

You're joking, right? You rolled your eyes AT ME. I offered some background relative to the discussion at hand, and you didn't really even offer an opinion of any kind...you just rolled your eyes without any other commentary to clarify your {ahem} opinion.

Care to start over and communicate like post-pubescents? Or do you want to keep playing Keyboard Commando/Internet Tough Guy?

Not trying to be a tough guy, just sensing a bit of unnecessary derision; not everyone who's arrested is actually a criminal.

[Samuel]

Ok, now that we've calmed down a little bit (even though the first instance of rolling of the eyes occurred in one of Your posts).

Let me go back to expound upon my initial post in this thread. The original question was "How can states reduce DUIs?". My curt answer was "Just like everything else - stiffer/harsher penalties and punishments..."

Although, I didn't specify, that Would be for those Convicted of criminal activity. You opine that not everone who is arrested is actually a criminal. IMO and experience, far more criminals are found not guilty (or mollycoddled) than non-criminals are found guilty.

People do the "right" things because 1. They believe in doing "right" things (brought up properly and have moral rectitude), or 2. They are afraid of what might happen to them if they are caught doing "wrong" things, or 3. They received enough Negative Reinforcement for being caught doing the "wrong" things that they won't do them again.

In today's society, we can't count on number 1 anymore. Proper upbringing and reinforcement of good values is the exception rather than the norm. That leaves 2 and 3.

How do animals learn? Through trial and error and pain and/or injury and/or discomfort. That's Nature and Darwinism at work. E.g. look at smaller predators and porcupines; a couple of quills and voila, no more messing with porcupines - lesson learned. How about holding a burning match until the flame reaches your fingers?

Problem is that although humans are animals, they are so-called "Reasoning" animals. This means that they have the ability to, among other things, Make Excuses, Choose to Ignore Logic/Reason (be Stupid), and Blame Anything/Everything else Except Themselves. IMO, when people F%$& up, it's usually due to either a lack of Morals/Ethics or vertebrae. I don't buy all the BS about this medical condition or that psychological condition, blah blah blah. We are continually making up new maladies to excuse our patterns of behavior.

To rehash a tired subject, why do pursuits keep occurring? Because the punishment for evading the police is not harsh enough. Period.

Of course, this line of reasoning is not applicable to certifiable Dings, but it would hold water when dealing with the vast majority of law breakers.

Anyway, I could ramble on, but you get the gist...