{"id":41834,"date":"2014-02-18T06:00:41","date_gmt":"2014-02-18T12:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=41834"},"modified":"2014-02-18T04:18:08","modified_gmt":"2014-02-18T10:18:08","slug":"expanding-the-american-gulag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=41834","title":{"rendered":"Expanding The American Gulag"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mothers Against Drunk Driving is <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.citypages.com\/blotter\/2014\/02\/madd_calls_upon_minnesota_to_legalize_sobriety_checkpoints.php#Comments\">asking for DUI checkpoints in Minnesota<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Mothers Against Drunk Driving gave Minnesota low marks in its new state-by-state evaluation of DWI laws.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>To be fair and accurate, MADD will dock points from any state that doesn&#8217;t allow law enforcement to perform random no-knock breathalyzer and urinalysis raids in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n<p>No, almost:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic;\">MADD, in particular, calls upon state lawmakers to legalize sobriety checkpoints, writing that they &#8220;will give law enforcement the tools needed to cut drunk driving fatalities.&#8221; (The organization also recommends requiring ignition interlocks for all convicted DWI offenders.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Minnesota is currently one of just 12 states that doesn&#8217;t allow law enforcement to conduct sobriety checkpoints.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Clearly there&#8217;s a drunk driving crisis in Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p>Well, no. \u00a0There&#8217;s not. \u00a0Minnesota is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alcoholalert.com\/drunk-driving-statistics.html\">well below the national average<\/a> in the percentage of automobile deaths related to alcohol and alcohol impairment.<\/p>\n<p>And despite MADD&#8217;s blandishments, there&#8217;s considerable evidence that random checkpoints aren&#8217;t especially effective at getting drunk drivers off <a href=\"https:\/\/www.checkpointusa.org\/Checkpoints\/Sobriety\/docs\/checkpointDissent.pdf\">the road<\/a>, much less <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blueoregon.com\/2009\/04\/no-sobriety-checkpoints-dont-save-lives-\/\">saving lives<\/a>, as compared to the perfectly effective roving patrols.<\/p>\n<p>Alcohol-related deaths on the road are down nearly 50% in the past 25 years.<\/p>\n<p>But if MADD thinks shoving the police state&#8217;s foot in the door up to the knee by gutting the Fourth Amendment <em>even more\u00a0<\/em>is the answer, maybe it&#8217;s time for America&#8217;s voters to send them off to political happy hour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mothers Against Drunk Driving is asking for DUI checkpoints in Minnesota: Mothers Against Drunk Driving gave Minnesota low marks in its new state-by-state evaluation of DWI laws. To be fair and accurate, MADD will dock points from any state that doesn&#8217;t allow law enforcement to perform random no-knock breathalyzer and urinalysis raids in the middle [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[256,30,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fourth-amendment","category-liberty","category-liberal-tyranny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41834"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41837,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41834\/revisions\/41837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}