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Bill, you've stumbled on the strategy of the oppressed. When nailed doing something wrong, change the subject. Claim violated "rights" of not being insulted or offended. Complain to those who buy their ink by the barrel so your greivance gets a public airing. The discussion becomes not what you did wrong, but how eeeeeevil the system is!

Nic,

My thoughts exactly.

Bill, I counldn't agree more!

I don't drink and drive but I disagree with the open container law. I see nothing wrong with my passengers having a few drinks while I drive. To be brutally honest, I don't see anything wrong with ME having a beer or two while I drive.

Drinking and driving happens every day thousands of times on our roadways and nobody knows because nothing happens. Do you really think all those folks at the bar or drinking in restaurants have designated drivers or are calling taxi cabs?

Most people can have a few beers with no ill effects on their driving.

Most all of the accidents and chronic offenders you have are from people pounding beer or liqour, not your average guy having a few beers driving down the road.

There is a major - major problem with your thinking, Nitpicker! Would you feel the same way if someone you loved is killed in an accident with a driver that only had a few beers? Consuming intoxicating chemicals and operating a 2,000+ deadly weapon is wrong - wrong - wrong! Any excuses for it is pure bull rationalizing. Anyone that give excuses for it or attempts to accept it should not operate a motor vehicle - ever! There are too many dead victims, good citizens that want to live, too many children with the right to grow up and make something of their lives, dead. Because some drunk ass slime pus thought they were better than anyone else, and they had their excuse! I've had to deal with many drunks as a law enforcement officer. Everyone of them had the same excuse! Now, I'm really pissed! The Dog's outa here.
Crime Dog

Nit, much as I dread the backlash that's sure to follow this post, I tend to agree with your thinking. I believe you'd be hard pressed to find a person who drinks alcohol that hasn't driven after consuming a cocktail/beer/glass of wine (or two) with their dinner, and I don't have a problem with them doing so. That is not to say I condone drunk driving - there is a huge difference between the two.

As far as open container, I believe NC law states that passengers CAN have open containers, as long as the driver has not consumed any alcohol. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong!

To address the actual LTE, does anyone know if it's accurate as far as the reason the whiner was in the back of the cruiser in the first place? I knew it occurred at a checkpoint, but this is the first I've heard that it was related to an open container. Whatever reason he was there, I find his complaint totally ridiculous and, like the police chief, wish he would use his energy for something more worthwhile.

According to the story, he was cited for open container, but not drunk driving.

I agree with Nit. There's a difference between drinking and driving and drunk driving that too often gets occluded in such discussions. I'd rate a beer as equivalent to 1/3 of a cell phone in terms of impairing driving.

Kel,

See below.

"Recent amendments to North Carolina DWI laws include laws that:

Strengthens the open container law to prohibit anyone in motor vehicle from having open containers of beer or wine while in a public vehicular area. "

Doesn't matter that the driver hasn't had a drop.

This website gives a good description of nc laws.

You'll be surprised by some of the ways that DWI is determined. It's not by breathalizer.

http://www.1800duilaws.com/states/nc.asp

Crime Dog is pissed and I'm not at all surprised. As a law enforcement officer, he's had to deal with drunks, crooks, scumbags, slimeballs. Unfortunately, most cops fit the profile of know-it-all, ne'er do wrongs, with a gluttony for power and male chauvinist bent who ooze testosterone to cover their denied inadequacies. Not ALL, but Most.

Fact is, I've had more than one close friend AND family member die at the hands of drunk drivers. In ALL cases, it was someone who had consumed A LOT of alcohol. Not someone who had a beer or two.

And generally, it was someone who had been busted with a DWI multiple times.

We're wasting time prosecuting the one beer/two beer joes who drove home after a football game. They aren't the one's killing people left and right. Prove me wrong. Those would be the one's who have been caught time and time again or are just disgustingly drunk. Focus our attention on severe punishment for those folks as well as the people who serve them and we might get somewhere.

My wife sipping on a cup of wine in the backseat while I drive home from the opera is hurting somebody how?

Brian444,

Your cellphone analogy is right on. It's been proven.

Let's not mention the folks driving 20 miles per hour over the speedlimit, through redlights, and wrecklessly in general on any given day.

Without any true enforcement of traffic laws, that is what happens.

What's more dangerous to your children playing in the yard? A beer or a 19 year old driving 55 through your neighborhood, passing someone on a double-line, while talking on the cellphone.

A lot easier to catch than a guy who drank a beer. And yet, the police seem totally incapable of doing so.

Nitpicker,
Your summary of the cops is spot on.
The few I've had the displeasure to meet and get to know acted as if the sun rose and set in their behinds and anyone outside of their little orb was little more than a pos to be scraped off their shoe. They act as if the world owes them something.
A friend in high school whose dad was a cop asked me over to his house one day after school to check out the car that was going to be his as soon as he got his license. As soon as we arrived his dad came out to the garage where the car was and watched me like a hawk...as if he were afraid I was going to steal something. He only grunted when my friend introduced me and he never took his eyes off me the whole 3 minutes I was there. That kinda stuck with me.
There are exceptions. I have a customer who is a city cop, and a nicer person you would not want to meet. But in my experiences with the police, he is the exception rather than the rule.