I’ve never been charged with DUI. I don’t drink much these days, and I never go to bars anymore. But I used to, and today I was mulling this over a bit. In the USA (where I live – and I’d love to hear other perspectives), we allow people to drive to a bar; we allow them to consume alcoholic beverages; we then allow them, at least in theory, to drive home. Now, unless the bar situations I’ve been in and observed differ greatly from the norm, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that a good percentage of people driving away from a bar have consumed at least one (and in many cases, several) drinks – and that these drinks are still in their system. Oh, hell, let’s say it: a good number of people who drive home from a bar are legally drunk OR…don’t know if they are (and I think thats an interesting concept in and of itself).
So. We’ve got people who either are or may be legally intoxicated leaving bars. In many bars. In every town, in every state. Every night. And in many cases, these are people who do this – every night.
From casually observing the police report, it appears that about four people (in my town 75k people) get arrested for DUI each night. Some, by the odds, are “constant” offenders (meaning they do this every night). Some are people who do this on occasion. Some are the people that truly did just do it this once. Either way, the penalties are harsh – probably at least $1000 in fines, community service, possibly being forced to enter some kind of “alcohol education program”. Plus public embarassment (you’re now branded a Drunk Driver), a police record, and so on – nasty future consequences.
I don’t mean to say that we shouldn’t harshly punish drunk driving. The numbers are out there, and while I don’t know the exact figures, I know that many thousands die each year due to alcohol-related auto accidents. Etc. Bad thing to do, dangerous, etc.
Except that countless people do it. If you’re still following my late-night (albeit sober) reasoning, this is what I’m getting at. Remember the officer who came to school and told you how bad drinking and driving was? Your friends, neighbors, other people you admire? Many of them have done, or continue to do this. What’s the difference between them and a Drunk Driver? They got lucky. They didn’t get caught.
So we tell people (and ourselves) that this behavior is evil, we look down on those (or distance ourselves from, or fire them, or…) who have been caught, and then we go out and do the same thing – or we know those who do.
Anyway, before I ramble on (since I think we all get my point), my question is this: is this fair? Is it hypocritical of our society to tacitly allow this behavior, but pretend its uncommon by randomly picking a handful of people to stand in as the scapegoats, and ignoring the behavior of everyone else? If it is fair, I suppose there’s no debate or question; if not, though, is there a better way to handle this behavior? I am interested in anyones’ thoughts on, for example, the realities of the situation – obviously, the reason only a couple of the people who are breaking the law pay the penalty is because there are only so many people out there to enforce the law – if everyone who engaged in this behavior could be punished, would we punish so severely? Or are we trying to hit the few who get caught hard enough that everyone else will change? Is that, itself, fair – should the few pay for the sins of the many, so to speak?
For the record, I know this is a touchy subject – I’m sure there are people here whose lives have been negatively affected by drunk driving. I’m not looking to debate the practice itself (and I’m hoping that we can avoid emotional responses that might lead to hijacks).
On a purely theoretical level: is the way we handle the enforcement of drunk-driving laws “fair”, firstly, and secondly, is it rational (in the sense of altering the behavior)?
Curious to see what people think. Appreciate your indulging my long-winded post.
