If a Person Would Drive Without a License, What WOULDN'T They Do?

Is it even legal to set-up a checkpoint to check licenses? Are there no expectations against unreasonable searches anymore?

Deputies and CHP team up to catch drunk and unlicensed drivers.


Two people went to jail Friday night for driving under the influence, caught in a checkpoint set up to get drunk drivers and those without a license off the road.

The checkpoint was set up on Lyons Avenue between Peachland Avenue and Wheeler Road, with one direction handled by the CHP and the other by the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s traffic deputies.

According to CHP Officer Michelle Esposito, 1,303 vehicles were screened at the checkpoint, which was held from 7 p.m. Friday to 3 a.m. Saturday. Along with the two arrests, four vehicles were impounded and nine drivers received citations.

2 arrests, 4 vehicles stolen, 9 citations issued. Pretty successful night out for the Santa Clarita Police Department.

Full blurb here.

Keeping Our Roads Safe; 0.4% of the Cars at a Time

DUI checkpoint success in Maryland:

Anne Arundel County police stopped 830 motorists at two drunken-driving checkpoints over the weekend and reported that they arrested three people on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol.

Wow. 3 people. That's like almost one half of one percent of all cars stopped at the checkpoints. Really seems like there is a need for that type of intrusive policing, doesn't it?

Via Baltimore Crime.

Paris Gets Out of Jail

I have always wondered what it would be like to be in the slammer. The prison character I can most relate to is the white yuppie on Oz. Oz was a brilliant and scary HBO series and the white yuppie, who was in for a DUI-related death, was terrified in jail 24/7 and basically had to choose which prison gang, you know, had his way with him.

Maybe I am tougher than he was (in fiction), but my fear of prison has made me a religious taxi-taker. Paris Hilton had no such fear as she rang up two DUI's. Sadly, she has not been made to pay anywhere near the price that you and I would have had to if we had been pulled over. After just a few days in prison, in a single cell not afforded to other inmates, Hilton was released to home detention because of an undisclosed medical condition. It reminds me of being in high school and going to the nurse complaining of a stomach ache the same day a paper was due. Except that most other people cannot get out of prison for a stomach ache.

Lindsay Lohan Wrecks Her Car in a DUI (Why Don't Wealthy Celebrities Hire Cars or Take Taxis?)

Reputable source x17 reports that Lindsay Lohan has been in a DUI wreck. Worse, she had coke in her car! To see the pics go here, as x17 won't let anyone download them. A nice quote from that site:

She had coke in the car! At the presser, it was announced that narcotics were found in the car by officers at the time the vehicle was towed and impounded. You can see in X17's video, Lindsay's bodyguard Jaz driving the wrecked car away from the scene of the accident just after it occurred (didn't he think to take that white powdery substance outta the glove box?!).

But the big question is why rich celebrities such as Lohan, who like to party, have had previous run-ins with the law and shell out money to hire bodyguards are so reluctant to hire a driver or take a taxi. Lohan, I guess, would rather wrap her car around a tree.

The NFL is full of millionaire DUI offenders, most notably the prison chain gang d.b.a. the Cincinnati Bengals, but also Sean Taylor of Washington and many others. And then there is Paris Hilton, who has to do a stint in the big house for her second drunken driving charge.

Maybe I am more afraid than they are, as I would get a cell mate, unlike Paris Hilton, but their idiocy in the face of how affordable it would be for them to avoid these problems is amazing.