Off to work I go this morning, only to be stopped two blocks from my house in my little residential neighborhood by a sobriety checkpoint. At 9:00 in the morning.
“What’s going on?”
“Sobriety checkpoint. Have you had anything to drink today sir?”
“Are you serious? (Stifling chuckle). Uh, no. I’ve only been awake for about 30 minutes.”
“OK, sir, please follow my pen…”
“OK…”
“OK, thank you sir, you can move along.”
What the holy hell was THAT? Are you telling me that the most effective use of Police time and resources is to stop every car on my street looking for drunk drivers during the morning commute hours? I realize that this is a holiday weekend and all, but isn’t this just a tad aggressive? Maybe I could understand bar traffic at 2am, heck, maybe even 5am. But 9 in the morning? What percentage of motorists in my little neighborhood are already drunk or still out drinking from the night before at 9 in the goddamn morning? Why do it on a residential street several blocks away from any bars that isn’t even a high-traffic street? The line at the “checkpoint” was about five cars long, two of which I recognized as being my neighbors. All of us were waved through. Thanks for keeping Hugo Street safe from drunken lemurs, officer.
I swear, sometimes living in this town is like living in the effing Bizarro world.
Last I heard, there is a big push this month to ticket drivers who are not wearing their seatbelts or who have passengers who are not wearing seatbelts. Perhaps the “sobriety checkpoint” was an excuse to put officers in a better position to hand out seatbelt tickets. Especially if they were behind in their ticket quotas which don’t exist because ticket quotas are illegal in California.
They’re supposed to be doing major seat belt enforcement checkpoints in Illinois this weekend. Could that also be part of it – assuming CA has a manditory seat belt law. Anything else they could be looking for? Or maybe they’re just trying to figure out a way to balance the state budget by catching people doing anything?
I don’t really get sobriety checkpoints. With the insane amounts of equipment they require, you can see 'em from a mile away. Anyone sober enough to not run into a bus on the way can see them from a mile away.
On St. Paddy’s Day I just took Clement home instead of Geary Blvd. Wasn’t drunk, just tired and cranky and not in the mood. I’ve seen them on 19th Ave and Lombard before, as well, both quite easy to avoid if you want to. What’s the point?
Now that’s interesting. If I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt, would they write me a ticket? I guess my question is, can they cite me for any violation they see while looking into my car and asking me if I’ve got Kahlua in my coffee? Seems a little invasive to me. “Sobriety checkpoint. You have a crack in your windshield, so I need your license and proof of insurance.”
I think so. Even if they’re not specifically looking for Violation X, if you’re in the midst of Violation X, and its clearly visible when the cop is standing outside your window, you can be ticketed.
And yes, the seat belt is a ticketable offense. My friend was tagged a few months ago in Daly City for it.
You bet your ass they can. What you think they would have to ignore that bag of crack just cause they only pulled you over to see if you was drunk? It’s called the plain view doctrine.
It’s SP here. Nothing strange at all. A lot of people have a drink to many the night before, wake up, shower drive to work, but still have an alcohol level above legal. It does take quite a few hours to burn away those drinks.
I guess that could be true, but I’ve lived in the same place for almost 15 years and I’ve never seen it before on my street or any nearby street. I think I’ve only seen one on Geary or 19th as mentioned by Troy McClure SF. Those streets make sense to me for a checkpoint - high touristy nightlife areas with lots of non-SF-resident people driving around. If you’re driving in my neighborhood and you don’t live in it, you’re lost.
The other strange thing is, nobody really drives drunk around here. Bars are only a few blocks away, and you’d have to be some kind of masochist to drive there and look for parking.
Exactly. Just because you managed to get a few hours sleep after your night on the town doesn’t mean that you’re automatically sober the next morning.
You’d be amazed at how many people either, (a) don’t think they have too much alcohol in their system, or (b) think that they might be a bit over the limit but can beat the test.
You’d be surprised how many night-shift workers there are, and they like to get off work, pound a few & drive home. What 9AM is to you, is 5PM happy hour to them.
I had a good cop friend who told me stories about all the cops who get pulled over after their morning happy hour.
