Drinking and Driving.

A rant about our useless drink driving sentences......

My 43 yr old d.... head of a nephew was caught drink driving for the 4th time, 3 oclock in the afternoon, after crashing his van whilst asleep. 123mg / ****, well over. Just had his courtcase and sentenced as followed ; 32 month ban reduced to 2 years if he attends alcohol rehab course, 200 hrs c/ service and £ 175 fine, which includes court costs !!!!!!!!!!.

The law really is an ass.

If it was my choice, people like that would never drive again.

... Some strategic amputations might do the job.

MichaelG.

.

[my father was killed by a drunk driver]

It's no better over here. Newspaper said 20+ convictions are not that rare.

It's a probability trade off, the hope is that you learn and improve and become an asset instead of a liability to society. If you do law and order stuff there are an awful lot of muppets and people who do one off dumb stuff

The USA tried the big stick system, three strikes and you're out

One guy got life for stealing an ice cream off a kid, third strike mandatory rules

Now the USA has the biggest prison population in the world, both in total and per 100,000 population

You've less chance of going to jail in N Korea, Iran, China etc than the USA

It would be nice if there was a system that works and made sense at the same time

Is sentencing for preventing reoffending, deterrence, punishment or restorative justice?

It's one of the biggest conundrums any society faces.

Neil

If it were up to me, the first time you are caught drinking and driving, banned for life. To be banned 4 times is a bloody farce. I know its easy to be " holier than thou ", but making a mistake whilst driving is easy enough without drink inside ones body, never mind being pissed !!.

Once read that the only difference between a murderer and a drunk driver is luck.

To be fair, in those countries, especially north korea I don't think they would give you a full count of their real prison population even if that included the "re-education" camps where a lot of people die, for really stupid reasons, you can be prosecuted for just one of your family members doing something.

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 02/05/2018 18:18:36

At the other end of the scale was a recent Philippines BBC article on some massive prison they have

They interviewed a guy who has been waiting 16 years for his robbery trial to even start

A few pints of beer makes you a fantastic driver, you may be the only person who thinks this though.

Mike

Having seen how well the go soft approach has worked over the last twenty years (failed completely IMHO) I would build more prisons and fill em with drink drivers etc.

My motivation would simply be to keep scum bags away from people like me so that they can no longer inflict misery onto normal members of society, a bit harsh, yeah maybe but all this pussy footing around is an insult to anyone who has ever suffered the injustice of crime to see the offender get handed down a joke sentence.

Oh and before I end, lets remeber that everyone of the offenders chose to walk that path, they were not forced to offend.

Any body who drinks and drives should be put off the road for all time,full stop,no second chances ! Their cars should be crushed as should be the cars of anyone foolish enough to provide them with cars.They should also be locked up for at least ten years,during which they should be required to attend every major road crash involving drink driving.

Needless to say,they should never,never be allowed on the road again,and I mean NEVER.!

I,m sick and tired reading and listening to the crap I hear about this scum,day after day,many a good dog was put down for far less, Make no mistake about it,they are nothing more than SCUM.!

Lifetime bans do no good, a lot of illegal drivers, (all offences), have no licence or insurance.

There's a motivation issue

The 2000-2008 Edinburgh Trams were about 8 miles and cost a Billion quid

Anyone who was crap got a big pay-off and walked away

Hadrians wall was 75 miles, had zero power tools or JCBs and took 5 years tops

If you were crap you got crucified

Draw your own conclusions

edit: Bottom line is criminals get the soft touch and government eejits get rewarded

Edited By Ady1 on 03/05/2018 00:50:52

I don't see why permanently removing someone's driving licence (for whatever reason) would make them a liability to society.

"one off" .... I think you need to re-read the OP Ady.

"dumb stuff" .... there's a big gap between dumb stuff and criminal behaviour endangering life. In my book anyway. If I sound intolerant, I am.

Edited By Bandersnatch on 03/05/2018 01:18:51

You are referring to sentencing, not necessarily sending to prison, but taking it to the full step of internment & knowing that a the large part of the prison community is of a particular religious sector (have to be careful here not to break forum rules) It is a fact that a large proportion of those leaving prison are leaving "radicalised".

Now I am not suggesting that a drunkard (& one can include any sector of the community & for any crime not just alcohol related) might be radicalised in a religious way but with the prison system breaking down to the extent that this can be allowed to happen, I can make a fair bet that the atmosphere is such that of those that are not radicalised in a religious way may well be radicalised in a criminal way.

In other words i would not be surprised that instead of coming out having learned a lesson they are coming out with the attitude that they intend to be more " criminal" than when they went in.

So when one reads in the media about the number of those released who go on to commit crimes, I am not sure that prison is actually working as a "deterrent". It is only any good for keeping really dangerous types away from the public for good, rather than being a means of preventing re-offending.

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 03/05/2018 07:39:29

A long time ago I could walk to work. One day, on my journey, I came across the Fire Brigade washing down the pavement. I asked a Firey what was going on. He said a drunk driver had ploughed into a bus queue and it was a miracle that nobody had been killed, but there was a lot of blood. Up until then I had taken a fairly generous approach to drink driving (well I was young!!) Since then I have not drunk and driven, do not tolerate anyone who does, and have absolutely no sympathy for anyone who gets caught. Bring back the stocks I say!! Sounds a trivial punishment but it's not intended to be.

cheers

Bill

That'll only work where there is still:

i) a sense of coherence in the community, and

ii) a sense of shame in the individual.

Fourth time the nephew in the OP has been done? Fell asleep at the wheel? If he's that slow a learner it's unlikely the stocks would make any difference.

Edited By Hopper on 03/05/2018 09:31:21

Interesting to see the desire to inflict severe punishment on drunk-drivers now I've decided to run the country and need to whip up popular support. Quite, right, string em' up from the nearest lamp-post I say!

But chaps, when I'm in charge, you will find I have even stronger views on speeding. If I catch you speeding, it will be a mandatory thrashing and public humiliation before lynching puts you out of your misery. And to make sure drivers understand, punishment will include sending the offenders entire family to a Work Camp.

Mealy mouthed liberal intellectuals might consider my views a little extreme. But someone has to take a grip. Reasons why society must take a hard-line on speeding include:

• Just like alcohol, speeding is one the main factors in fatal road accidents.
• Unlike drunks, whose normal judgement has been impaired by a drug, there is no excuse for speeding; the offence is entirely deliberate.
• Stand by any roadside and see for yourself that drivers rarely obey the law. A speed limit is the maximum allowed, not the target. Watch and you will see it is rare to see traffic travelling at less than the limit, which proves that most drivers are habitual law breakers. And if they break the law on the road, then they will break it elsewhere; drivers are anarchists. Responsible motorists travelling below the speed limit are often bullied by aggressive and inconsiderate road-users proving that most drivers are vicious. You must conclude that car drivers are a bad lot who need to be corrected.
• The consequences of law-breaking are all too often evaded by offenders exploiting our weak justice system. We must put an end to this: there is no reason at all why Traffic Wardens shouldn't dispense summary justice up to and including the death penalty.

Severe punishment at minimum cost to the tax-payer is the way to fix this scandal. By the way, I'm an expert. I've read Dostoevsky on Crime and Punishment; and I watched an excellent documentary about policing in the US - a chap called Judge Dredd is doing a marvellous job over there. Also mother taught me right from wrong and she reads the Daily Mail.

Vote for Silly Old Duffer! What could possibly go wrong...

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 03/05/2018 09:31:10

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 03/05/2018 09:32:46