TDCAA has a thread on the new DWI fatality statistics. Williamson County DA Jon Bradley hopes these fatality numbers will convince the legislature to mandate blood/breath samples upon arrest.
Implied consent laws are repugnant to the 4th Amendment. The idea is that you give your consent to a breath/blood sample by driving. We would not tolerate implied consent to search our cars or our homes. It is the fear based rhetoric of DWI enforcement that gave us implied consent.
In Texas refusing to give a blood/breath sample only affects your driver’s license. In other states, like California, it is a sentencing enhancement that mandates more jail time if you are found guilty.
JB opines that the State of California must “like to actually prosecute their cases with evidence.” I know what he means, in Texas DWI are routinely prosecuted without any evidence.
No one is for traffic fataties. Traffic fatalities, including alcohol related fatalities, are a price to pay for freedom.
Here is a great quote from Ron Paul –
Government cannot create a world without risks, nor would we really wish to live
in such a fictional place. Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute
safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its
citizens’ lives. Liberty has meaning only if we still believe in it when
terrible things happen and a false government security blanket beckons.
Labels: DWI, Prosecution