Ahab links to this article about how the City of Phoenix, AZ will be posting the mugshots of people convicted of DUI on a city website for all to see.
The article calls it a “public shaming”. Sorry, but I’m calling bullshit. Your picture on a website isn’t shaming. Your picture on a billboard is shaming. SHDWCaster brings up The Stocks in Ahab’s comments section, that is definitely shaming, but for some reason is considered “cruel”.
I’m sorry, but I have always considered driving drunk premeditated attempted vehicular assault and a crime worthy of a year in prison for the first offense and five for the second. I’ll give into the leftoids who want to bring Europe to the US and take the drunk driving penalties from over there and install them here. I’d also lower the drinking age to 18.
Btw, my idea of a “cruel” punishment would be to sew the mouth of the DUI drive shut so they can’t drink. Even MADD cringed when I mentioned that one.
Here they post them in the newspaper each month. With a circulation of maybe 20000 in a population of .5 million? who cares? How many people will seek out a city website for the same. The new electronic billboards would work, or a community cable channel that folks can just click to.
As always, it seems the laws that exist are never enforced. I have long argued that lowering the BAC does absolutely nothing to reduce the incidence of impaired driving.
My take; offense 1, mandatory loss of license for 1 year, $1,000 fine, 1 weekend in jail, cannot register any vehicles for 1 year, violation.
Offense 2, loss of license for 5 years, $5000 fine, 30 days in jail, no registration of vehicles for 5 years, misdameanor charge on record.
Offense 3, permanent loss of license, 2-4 years in jail, felony charge.
I worked with a drunk who had gamed the system for decades. It finally took a judge who actually read his record to clean him up. She revoked all his previous probations and suspended fines. He then served 30 monthsin jail (1/3 of his probations) and paid over $15,000.00 in fines. While he was in jail, his wife divorced him and sold his home and two rental properties, leaving him homeless and broke when he was released. The judge also permantly revoked his license with the added proviso that he’d do the remaining 60 months if he was ever again caught behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, drunk or sober. Put him on the wagon, she did. He was clean, sober and riding the bus for about seven more years before he died from the effects of alcohol damage to his liver. He told me he sure wished he’d come up in her courtroom twenty or thirty years before as he’d still have his family and own a home. He’d likely have lived longer than 58 years as well.