Quote:
Originally Posted by Duck Butter
OK, so if i refuse ar breathalyzer test, do you send me on my way or do I go to jail? You haven't PROVED anything. I am innocent right? Why would I go to jail if nothing is PROVEN? Why can't I just drive off with a citation? I am innocent man, free my people  |
If I think you are drunk and you refuse a blood, breath or urine test, this is what happens.You are lawfully detained for investigation, at jail. I write a report based on my observations and you still get charged, but I don't have a BAC to go with my charges. This makes it easier for you to fight the case if you want, but a jury still decides based on whether they believe me, and expert with 1500 DUI convictions, or you, a guy who wasn't driving drunk, but swerves a lot and can't talk right, and smells like booze with bar receipts in his pocket. A breathalyzer is an evidentiary tool, not a foolproof magic bullet.
Drivers licenses are issued administratively in my state. If you refuse a breathalyzer I can do two things. I can get a judge to issue a warrant to do a forced blood draw. or I can detain you in a sobering cell for 6 hours while a determination of your impairment is made. If a judge issues that warrant and you end up being in a diabetic stupor, I never get a search warrant again and probably sued, definitely an internal affairs investigation to determine why I thought you were drunk, but you did not smell of booze etc. If someone is hurt or dead I always get a warrant even if you submit.
Refusing to be breathalysed in my state is an automatic 6 month suspension because you agreed to that when you got you license contractually. There is no conviction, there was no crime, because there was no evidence.
You might think that is wrong and that people get away with crimes. Yup, they do. You know what is more wrong? A police state where the ends justify the means. You give me four hours with a blowtorch and a rubber hose and I can get anyone (you included), to admit to anything. Want to solve every rape? Take the first guy accused and beat him until he confesses. Maybe you don't need to beat him. In fact, all you have to do is convince him that the consequences of admitting falsely are not as bad as the consequences of telling the truth.
Look up the Khm'er Rouge and see how they managed to get four million people to not only admit to crimes that never occured, but to turn each other in for fabricated crimes. It also makes it easier for the thugs at the bottom of the ladder to execute people when they think they are operating under bona-fide authority.
Why don't we do this? Because we have a Constitution that protects us against such things, but only when we revere it and abide by it. Right now your Constitution is being eroded by people selling things. They are selling security by telling you they are protecting you by spying on you, registering guns, registering certain people, searching without warrants etc. They don't want to stamp out crime, they want to monopolize it. They don't want to catch terrorists, they want to manipulate terrorist acts to place them in political favor, and sell you another dose of protection. Its about centralized power and the story is not a new one.
I am not going to tell you the amendment that protects you from unlawful search and seizure. I am not going to tell you the atrocities that prompted the founding fathers to include such things in our Constitution. I am going to challenge you to take ten minutes out of your day and look it up while you still can. I am going to let you choose whether or not you wish to remain an ignorant sheep or not.
