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Some argue that DUI laws have gone too far (joe.ruiz, Flickr).
Minn. Man Showed “Potential” To Do Harm
By Dan Roth~AOL
It seems like it could be a storyline out Steven Spielberg’s 2002 movie, Minority Report: a Minnesota man was convicted of a DUI offense in a car that wasn’t moving. What’s even more surprising: the car wouldn’t start at all.
As it turns out, getting a bit tipsy and stumbling out of the house to sleep it off in the car may make you a felon. It happened to Daryl Fleck.
That he’d consumed about twelve beers is not in dispute. His felony conviction for drunk driving, even though his car was not running and legally parked, has earned him 48 months in custody and five years of probation.
It started one night in 2007, when when a neighbor at Fleck’s apartment complex alerted police, they found him sleeping in his car, with the driver’s side door still open.
Appealed all the way to the Minnesota Supreme Court, Fleck’s conviction was ultimately upheld, though not without testing the elasticity of interpretation. Fleck obviously shares a fondness for beer with many Americans, though his prior DUI offenses did not win friends on the jury.
In this instance, the keys to the car were in the center console, far from the ignition. The engine was cold, and Fleck hadn’t even been listening to the radio. Officers determined Fleck’s blood-alcohol level was .18, which may be more to blame for the conflicting reasons he gave to police when asked why he was at the car than any attempt at deceit.
This is an insult to anyone with even the slightest level of common sense. Imagine that someone sitting in a parked vehicle is in fact too drunk to drive and realizes it but also realizes the legal consequences are the same whether they drive or not. This could easily be the incentive someone might have to drive when they otherwise would not have. Effectively defeating the purpose of the law in the first place. It is sad and frightening that lawmakers and police have become this incompetent. Or is it that the real incentives of law enforcement have littlle or nothing to do with making communities safer and better places to live anyway.
What is additionally disturbing is that laws like this stay in tact when a majority of the populace do not agree with the law. This strongly suggests that govt is wielding its power against the will of the people. It belittles the credibility of the judicial system and it positions the police and subsequently the government as the enemy