Posted on 12/28/2007 7:07:11 PM PST by elkfersupper
More Texas jurisdictions are turning to forced blood draws to convict those suspected of DUI.
Jurisdictions within Texas are expanding programs where police use force to draw blood from motorists accused of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI). Last week, El Paso announced it had joined Harris and Wilson Counties in a "no refusal" program specifically designed to streamline the blood drawing process.
It works as follows. An accused motorist is arrested and taken downtown. While being videotaped, he will be asked to submit to a breathalyzer test with officers specifically avoiding any mention that blood will be taken by force if the often inaccurate breathalyzer test is refused.
During key holiday weekends, a pre-assigned judge who agreed to wait by the phone will approve search warrants created from pre-written templates -- often within just thirty minutes. With warrant in hand, a nurse whose salary is often paid by Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) will draw blood while police officers exert the required level of force. In some cases, this use of force can cause permanent damage. Montague, Archer and Clay counties have similar programs except that these departments do away with the nurse and have police officers perform the blood draw themselves, despite a state law banning the practice (view law).
Two of the twelve motorists subjected to the first blood draws in Harris County on Memorial Day weekend this year were later found to have blood alcohol levels below the .08 limit. The program will return on New Year's Eve.
Many here will advocate it.
It has to get a lot worse before it gets better.
How about NOT DRIVING WHLE DRUNK, but assumed guilty by ahole cops and then stuck with a needle????? THAT IS ASSAULT!
Diabetics are sometimes mistaken for DUI due to exhibiting similar physical problems.
Define "drunk" and I will.
If you are going to drink...go to someplace like Vitamin Shoppe and buy SWEDISH BITTERS...take a good slug of it and wait 15 minutes. If you’ve got a breathalyzer check yourself...you should be in the legal limit range to drive. Swedish Bitters will sober you up fast.
Simple solution, just keep your drunk ass at home.
As one who, once upon a time, was personally responsible for changes in the Texas DWI laws.... I’m not sure what I think about this. Anything that gets away from using the wholly unreliable Breathalyzer test, is probably a good thing.
When I BEGGED to have a blood test, I got smacked across the head.
I still don’t get why we can’t bring some sense into these laws... I propose, MANDATORY 5 year jail terms for anyone convicted of FIRST offense, BAC over 0.12%. Life terms for 2nd offense. Should never, ever hear of a 3rd or greater offense.
For 0.10% to 0.12%, you get a ticket, fine, and a night in jail.
Below that, you get no worse treatment than someone driving at the end of a graveyard shift.. or, eating a whopper. (ie: what you deserve, based on risk factors). Meaning, you get ticketed if you break a traffic law.
But then... that would solve the problem and reduce revenue... can’t have that.
Egads! Not Texas! I’m all for throwing away the key on DUIs and I generally frown upon any sort of alcohol use but drawing blood is no where in there. That’s an invasion. If we really want to stop DUIs then appoint some judges who have a backbone and will sentence them to the max rather than patting them on the backs and sending them back out onto the roads.
Good question. Many pro-drunk driving FReepers claim these are MADD made up statistics.
They are not.
The stats on DUI fatalites (and what makes up a fatality) are available through the NHTSA.
Google them for the numbers.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>How many of those accidents are caused by illegal aliens?
Every single DWI thread has this same question. It’s as if Americans are allowed to hate MADD and resist saftey measures to curtail DWI, but let one illegal alien get busted and......
What about those NOT DRUNK but with a medical condition that still get assaulted by cops ??????? Think it won’t happens? LOL. It happens every day.
Hells bells!
Why bother with blood draws,...why not just hire an elite force of troopers and beat a confession out of anyone that they happen to think could help balance the state budget.
This is lame. I’m surprised to hear such kookism lauded on FR.
A simpler solution, just keep your statist ass out of the legislatures.
Good Luck on holding your foot up for thirty seconds and doing your ABC’s backwards at the same time. Will that be the right arm or the left?
easy law to defeat.............blood is not just booze levels....it is dna on a memoery bank.......that’s the hook and biscuit
That’s because breathalyzers have been discredited in many a court case.
That’s how it should be.
I think if you have a medical condition that affects your driving, you shouldn’t be out there endangering my life and those of my children and grandchildren.
.08
(But surely you are smart enough to know that)
So now it’s your turn to tell me how you can drink a 12 pack and drive just fine.
(typical pro-drunk driving retort)
And what? they should’nt be here in the first place? You’re correct and win the magic 8 ball!
Feel free guys, drive as drunk as you wish, just let me know which highway you are on so I can avoid it.
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