I feel so much safer.
The state has made its position clear: Drive home drunk, or risk getting busted for DUI in a non-moving car.
Our judicial system is slowly morphing into a system of lawless oppression. By lawless, I mean that the laws don't mean what they mean, they mean what some judge says they mean which is entirely different from what they actually do mean. And all of it is designed to give greater power to the government to throw your *** in jail or seize your property if you don't do exactly as they say.
It was the cop who instigated this and made the DUI charge to begin with. That tells you how far they will go to get you a criminal record. He then should have asked for a jury trial. Don’t take the chance of one idiot judge deciding your fate.
First, the man did not try to defend against the charge of his intoxication not being DUI. His defense was basically that the officer had no right to investigate him. The court was not presented with an argument that sitting at the parking lot with the engine running should not have been DUI.
Second, the article failed to mention that the man had his foot on the accelerator and the engine was racing while he was asleep. This makes his sleeping in the car seem a bit more dangerous.
Perhaps the moral of the story is if you are going to sleep it off you better climb in the back seat.
In California having your keys in the ignition, with the engine off is enough to convict you of DUI in this scenario.
Regards
You should see our gun "laws."
The cop was wrong and the court was wrong. Welcome to the fascist states of america.
I guess that life does imitate art and vice versa. I remembered something like this from an old episode of Everybody Loves Raymond.
“The Shower” Episode #0221
Directed by Jerry Zaks
Written by Leslie Cavney
Debra gives a bridal shower for Amy, but her good intentions get sidetracked by Marie’s overzealous participation. When Marie attempts to “take over” Amy’s wedding shower, Debra gets upset and yells at her, prompting Marie to leave in a huff. Returning to the party festivities, Debra starts drinking a little too much champagne and winds up being too tipsy to drive. When she can’t reach Ray on the phone, Debra decides to take a nap in her car with the keys in the ignition and is awakened by a police officer, who arrests her for drunk driving. When her license is suspended, Debra finds herself in a precarious situation when she’s forced to rely on Marie for help.
I have often wondered who the crazy one is, one who can not make a rational decision under the influence of a mind altering drug, or those that expect them to.
One should not use mind altering drugs, because once you do rationality goes out the window.
New Jersey Upholds DUI for a Man in Parked Vehicle
there was an episode on everyone loves raymond jsut like this.....
I guess nj is telling people just drive drunk!!!
we in the socialist peoples’ republic of nj are so proud!!!
Oh I am so touched by their concern.And the money they get from a dui didnt have any part in this.
It amazes me how the legal system twists and turns the end result of incidents/situations to their benefit (government is always right... tax paying/responsible public be damned).
We are fast becoming subjects and not citizens. Had the man died from exposure to freezing temperatures, the headlines would've asked why had the man not used his truck heater to keep warm.
Answer: Fear of an oppressive government.
It is little wonder that 'from my cold, dead hands' is a popular slogan of independent minded, freedom loving citizens.
A friend of mine was convicted of OWI after an officer found him sleeping in his car on a parking lot. He was not behind the wheel, but had the keys. This was in Louisiana.
Thirty miles south, I had another friend who every weekend would frequent the same bar/club out in a camp/resort type of area. The Parish Sheriff Deputy would pull him over, and take him home. It got to the point where the Deputy would come and pick my friend up at the bar every weekend.
I don’t condone the behavior of these two friends. I think both have now seen the error of their ways.
A few years ago I was leaving the house at 5am to go to work. Parked in the middle of the street right in front of my driveway was a car — lights on, motor running, with the driver passed out over the steering wheel.
I was glad the driver had the good sense not to go any farther. It took the police to move him ... dunno how/if he was cited.
Next day we find out that he had been ticketed for leaving the scene of an accident and drunk driving.
He had gone home, gone into his house, forgotten something in his car (parked in a public lot), and found the police at his car, who were there based on the fact that someone had written down his license plate.
So they arrested him for drunk driving without ever actually seeing him behind the wheel. So we concocted a scheme. He contacted the driver of the car he hit (a good old boy probably drunk himself) and made it right with him so he wouldn't testify/or press charges. I offered to say that I was actually driving and had dropped him and his car off and walked home.
We got a lawyer, stuck to our story and the charges were dropped before our hearing.
I'm not proud of it, but there's a LOT of leeway when it comes to getting arrested for DUI.
(a) Except as provided in subsection (g) of this section, a person who operates a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, narcotic, hallucinogenic or habit-producing drug, or operates a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.10% or more by weight of alcohol in the defendant's blood .... blah, blah, blah...
I'm guessing that by "operates" they mean, the motor running. If, as others had suggested, he were just asleep in the vehicle perhaps it would be a drunk in public charge ?
I think that's now fairly standard in the law.