Not to play devil’s advocate, but what should the punishment be for drunk driving (assuming legal licensing, etc.)?
Not for causing a crash, or for causing injury or death, but for driving drunk without harm to anyone?
(I’ll hold my answer for now)
Immediate loss of license, permanently. Plus a $1000 fine.
Don’t like it, don’t get behind the wheel after tipping back a few.
Driving is a privilege, not a right. If a person shows they have NO sense and is ready to endanger me or my children by driving drunk, then they just told society they’re not smart enough or decent enough to be entrusted with the privilege of driving on our streets again. Ever.
Here’s how they do it in Norway:
OSLO — A rich Norwegian has been ordered to pay a 700,000 kroner ($109,000) fine after driving his car 400 yards while drunk. Police stopped the 49-year-old man in October near the airport for southern Norway’s Kristiansand. Tests showed he had a blood alcohol content of .188 percent. Norway’s maximum is .02 percent.
The man pleaded guilty in court on Tuesday.
Norwegian courts set drunken driving fines based on income and personal wealth. Tuesday’s ruling said the man’s income is 751,769 kroner ($117,000) and personal wealth is 228 million kroner ($36.6 million).
It also revoked his license for two years and three months.
Dunno if there should be a penalty for drunk driving as such, but maybe it should be an aggravating circumstance in any traffic violation or crime. Sort of like using a gun in a crime is aggravating circumstance (i.e. additional 3 years for having a gun during commission, 5 years for threatening, 10 years for discharging, etc.). Cops have all sorts of leeway in determining if someone needs stopping...
For example having an accident while drunk would take the incident from a traffic citation to a misdemeanor or felony. If someone gets killed, it goes from manslaughter to murder.