They’re doing something about it.
Just nothing that’ll do any good.
Bill proposes “scarlet letter†for DUI’s: bright yellow license plates
Sen. Mike Carrell wants everyone on the road to know who’s been caught driving drunk.
He’s sponsoring a bill that would require people convicted of drunken driving to put fluorescent-yellow license plates on their cars for one year — once their driving privileges have been restored.“I’ve talked to the law-enforcement agencies and they think it would be an awfully good idea to have a way of visibly telling sheep from goats out on the road,” said Carrell, R-Lakewood.
It also could help law-abiding drivers as a signal to give a wider berth to anyone behind the wheel of a car with bright-yellow plates, Carrell said.
Uh, what? So that they can be pulled over for a random Breathalyzer? So that other drivers can stay 20 car lengths away at all times and/or give them the finger from the street corner?
Why not just take them off the road by putting them in jail for a length of time that actually feels like punishment?
Nope, too hard for Washington State Legislators.
No one gets off scot-free from DUI anymore, so this is not necessary.
1. It would be ruled a “cruel and unusual” punishment, and it’s not legal UNLESS there is formal probation for which it could be made a condition.
2. It wouldn’t work anyway, any more than present laws do, because the offender can turn in all his/her registrations and drive unregistered beaters bought on the curb for cash. That’s what I’d do. If caught, you get a ticket for failing to register. Big deal.
3. It wouldn’t work because such person could always borrow cars from non-convicted people.
4. Slippery slope: what’s next? State making you have a target on your license plate if you’re a CHL-holder?
Nope, more nannyism from the State which can’t stop nannying. The worst nannys, of course, are MADD. As a cop, I arrested more than my share of drunk drivers (buckets of overtime that way), and when MADD showed up at one of my cases on a “court watch”, I refused to talk to them “I’m a State’s witness, ma’am, and I can’t discuss the case.” Do-gooders, on a level with the WCTU types of our forefather’s day. Bah!
My advice to them: leave it to the pros, ladies.
As for this legislation, doesn’t a State Senator rate some help from the State Attorney General, who would have told him that it wouldn’t fly?
I actually think it is a good idea, way better than checkpoints. Maybe a little public shame would help a bit toward making people think twice about a second offense.
First of all, it is not cruel and unusual as long as it has a reasonable expiration date, say 1 year. Permanent use of such tags would be excessive since people do learn their lesson from time to time. Personally, as a victim of a drunk driver, I would love to see first time offenders spend a year in jail, but if the offender had a family to support, I’d be just fine offering the yellow plates as a condition of probation.
As for the registration thing, you are right, an offender could just borrow a car or re-register his cars to others. So make his legal ability to drive dependent on the car he is using having the special plates. If he is caught driving a car without the yellow plates, he is found in contempt of court or in violation of his probation, and the registered owner of the car is also in contempt (unless the registered owner is willing to swear out an affidavit that the car was stolen by the offender).
And yes, that is a very slippery slope, as a matter of fact, that is a sheer drop off from logic (a slippery slope needs to actually have a reasonable progression, not a total disconnect). A CPL holder has not committed a crime, hence there is no reason to subject them to public shame.
It is too easy for a person convicted of a DUI to hide it from everyone, and as a person on the road, I’d like to know who has been recently convicted for DUI if we are going to let them right back into society.
My Father was telling me that they were trying or succeeded in getting this passed in MN. But it is not just the DUI’s car, but anyone that lives with them must have the special plates and that they can be pulled over for no-cause at any time. That is definitely not good (Well the rules of the road are that you can essentially pull someone over at any time for so much as weaving within the lane, but it can be contested and most of the time not worth the paper-work) So you are 16, got your first beater, but your grandma who is living at your house has a DUI, so not you have a special plate as well, not a fair punishment, and bordering on cruel and unusual. As far as I remember, there is no time limit on this one in MN, but I will have to get my facts in-line before I babble anymore.
Seems Ken Schram agrees. I do agree that subjecting a person to public humiliation forever is just mean, and I guess I need to read up more on WA state DUI penalties and how consistently they are enforced. I still hold that the idea has merit, especially as an alternative to jail time for a first offense for persons who have dependents.
Already the case in OH. Yellow plate, red letters. Imagine my wife’s reaction when we moved there from NM!!
Good thing I decided to register the car in OH, got to go to the red, white, and blue.
So….
If someone causes a wreck while jacking their jaw on a cell phone- what color of plates will they get?
No different, because the people who are apesh*t about drunk driving think nothing of driving while phoneing-or DWT(texting).
So is this a better solution?