Geee Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 Pajamas Media:Anyone surprised by this hasn’t been paying attention.Los Angeles Police Department officers manning sobriety checkpoints will no longer, as a matter of department policy, impound cars driven by unlicensed drivers. That is unless the unlicensed driver is a United States citizen or lawful resident, in which case he can say adios to his car for 30 days, as authorized by California law.I can see you out there shaking your heads and saying, “Wait a minute . . . .” Yes, you read it correctly: Two drivers are stopped at a sobriety checkpoint in Los Angeles and both are found to be sober, but lacking a driver’s license. The first, a U.S. citizen, receives a citation and stands by and watches as his car is towed away to the impound yard, where it will remain for a month so as to impress upon him that driving is a privilege, not a right, and that the people of the state of California extend that privilege only to those who have demonstrated some minimal level of proficiency as signified by possession of a driver’s license.The second unlicensed driver, an illegal immigrant from, let’s just say Mexico, is also issued a citation, but he is given a “reasonable period of time” to give custody of his car to a licensed driver, who will presumably drive it to the unlicensed driver’s home — or just around the corner and out of the cops’ view — where the unlicensed driver will be free to jump back behind the wheel and ply the roadways until he has the misfortune of running into another one of those bothersome sobriety checkpoints, where the process can begin anew. Lather, rinse, repeat.The change in policy was announced last week by LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, who called it a question of “fairness.” “I’m tired of casting the net so wide,” Beck told reporters. “This is the right thing to do. There is a fairness issue here … and we’re trying to balance the needs of all segments of our community and keep the roads safe.”Yes, we must balance the needs of all segments of our community, including those that rightfully ought to be segments of some other community in some other country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now