A Non-alcoholic Too Susceptible For Such Forcible Stops!!!

I do not drink. I do not drink because the penalty for drinking and driving is out of all proportion to the offence. I reason that by never drinking, there is no possibility that I would be convicted of impaired driving or driving while having over 80 mg of alcohol in my blood. I have however still been pulled over in Ride programs. The police pull over a lane of traffic and force me to wait until they are able to able to come and ask me questions, like “Have you had anything to drink tonight?” The answer “no” together with an absence of the odour of alcohol and no bottles or beverages in the car will get me on my way. It is a waste of my time and it is a waste of the officers time; who ought to be out detecting reasonable and probable cause to stop or search or demand samples from someone who likely did something wrong. While the police are harassing law abiding citizens, someone is committing a crime and getting away with it undetected.

Once Again Federal Government Buckles To The Pushes Of SAGs

The current federal government is proposing a new law. They are once again succumbing to pressure from groups like MADD. Mad mothers and fathers seem willing to sacrifice the liberty of a nation so that they can say that they did something to stop a drunk driver from injuring someone. I’m not willing to trade my liberty or due process for that matter so that I will have nothing to fear from a drunk. There will always be something to fear from a drunk. Drunks don’t stop driving because they know they are going to get caught. I suspect that this is because they are drunk and can’t think straight.

In any case if someone is drunk and driving a car a trained officer can tell by watching the driving. A car that is swerving, or being driven in an erratic fashion is one that is likely driven by someone who is impaired: pull it over. If the officer smells alcohol when he speaks to the driver he can then demand a breath sample. Why would we give the police the power and the instruction, to pull someone over, who is not driving strangely, and to demand a breath sample from someone without any indication that they had been drinking or are currently impaired?

Stakes Of Abusing The Power Are Grave

No one stops to think about how that power might be abused. Most Canadians feel that the power would not be abused. All power is abused. Lord Acton said that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This is the most fundamental truth of law and government. The more power that you give away, the more likely you are to be crushed by its use. Please consider the truth in my assertion that the police can pull over anyone who is or was drinking and is impaired by simply observing that the person drives oddly. This means that the only need that an officer would have to pull someone over randomly is to abuse the power to pull the person over because they don’t have any reason to suspect that the driver is drunk. They want to pull him over for some other reason. They don’t think that he belongs in that neighbourhood. They don’t like the look of him or they are just snooping around. In any of those cases they aren’t doing police work.