Sobriety checkpoints coming to Norman.

[ShiroiHikari]

Has anyone else heard about this?

http://normantranscript.com/new/x186...-up-DUI-patrol

Cleveland County Sheriff Joe Lester and his deputies also are taking a zero-tolerance approach to drunken driving.

Any driver who gets behind the wheel under the influence of alcohol or drugs places themselves and others in a dangerous situation, according to a news release from the Sheriff's office.

In the release, Lester strongly discouraged anyone from driving impaired. If a deputy catches someone driving under the influence, that person will be arrested and jailed; no exception, Lester said.

Norman police will conduct sobriety checkpoints in the coming weeks in various parts of the city, all intended to keep the community safe.

“Our goal is to develop a highly visible program that will discourage people who drink from getting behind the wheel,” Easley said in the release.

I think that cracking down on drunk driving is a great idea, but checkpoints...?

I don't know about anyone else, but I get bothered by the Cleveland County Sheriff's Department enough as it is. I've been pulled over by them twice when I wasn't even doing anything wrong. It was late at night, but being out late isn't a crime, is it?

What do you guys think of this?

[jedicurt]

i've run into this before in norman... they set up a check point near my apartment a couple years ago, and it happened to be a night that i was home working late and when i was driving home, had to go through the check point and get stopped, then i realized i didn't have anything to eat, so i needed to go to homeland, got stopped a second time going through the checkpoint.... then on my way home, they made me stop again, and it was the same office who stopped me the first time... it was really annoying. and i guess i could have avoided it by adding 4 miles to my trip and just avoiding Alameda, but that seemed like it would have been a hassle too

[ljbab728]

Checkpoints are nothing new and most cities use them occasionally. OKC and Oklahoma County does that quite often.

[RadicalModerate]

During the third stop that night, by the same officer, you could have added an air of levity to the situation by spit-pasting an old paper beer or scotch label to your forehead and saying: "You may think I been drinkin' but I ain't. See? I'm on the patch."

If the officer failed to detect the humor and busted you (in a completely sober state) there are plenty of lawyers out there who could get you a big enough settlement--after their cut--to have top notch groceries, like from Whole Foods, delivered to your place for a year.

[soonerliberal]

Norman had a wave of these about four years ago. I remember there being the uproar within the student body and then people got used to them and the drama pretty much went away. However, the effectiveness is questionable because I remember my cell phone lighting up with text messages when they would have a checkpoint saying "avoid alameda near 12th" or "they are out on lindsey near berry".

[Questor]

I wish they wouldn't do these sorts of things... I find it too heavy-handed. I also find it a bit creepy to be eating in a Norman restaurant and to periodically see the police in groups of two walk in, walk up and down the isles between tables and look around, and leave. I'm sure they think they are just keeping everyone safe, but come on guys dial it down a notch. This isn't east Berlin.

[ShiroiHikari]

I don't drink, so I guess I have nothing to worry about, but...in the time they take checking me out, they could be pursuing somebody who is ACTUALLY breaking the law. I think that's what bothers me the most about it.

[kevinpate]

No real problem with it at all.

But then, I still recall the night I was working late and the lovely calls to tell me I needed to know a noise woke her up and I needed to know our other car was not in our driveway whe she looked outside. And yes, she was ok, and yes the police had already been called.

At first I thought the car was stolen, but she explained no, it was out of the driveway and sitting nearby in the neighbor's yard, and the car had been spun around nearly 180 degrees as well, with items from the trunk laying out on the neighbor's lawn after the trunk had apparently popped open.

What the heck happened? Oh, yeah. There's a Ford Probe half in the yard and half on the driveway and it's real trashed.m And a fair bit of bark has gone missing from the tree at the other corner of our lawn. That it looks like the Probe left the roadway, deflected off the tree and crossed the lawn before deciding it had more right to the driveway than our car and so it just shoved our car out of its way.

I also learned the lass who had been driving the Probe had knocked on the door to use the phone because she had a flat tire and oh yeah, she said she had almost hit our car but she, hic, hic, urp, managed to miss it.

I suppose if our car hadn't jumped out of her way and into the neighbor's yard all on its own there might have been more damage than there already was to the two vehicles.

So I dashed across town and arrived not long after the first officer's cruiser and before the second officer's cruiser. The 'flat' was actually the front tire laying on its side half underneath the crumpled Probe (as an aside, I learned Probe's crumple really really well in such situations.)

Now, if you've never seen a SFST for someone who is trying to convince herself she is fine and dandy, it's really good humor. The take several steps, walking one foot in front of the other was a slight touch of shoulder shiver, an oh so slight lean to one side followed by a triumphant "how's that?" It would have probably been even better humor if one's car wasn't just recently knocked out of the driveway.

One of the officers and I had a few words about his pouring out her can of golden goodness on my driveway. Along the lines of - Really? My car was just scared into the neighbor's yard, my stuff was strewn on the lawn from the sheer will and fear of the alleged non-impact, her car is leaking fluid on the drive and the yard, the tree across the way may not even survive the bark rip (it did thank goodness), and yet you still think the driveway really needs a beer bath?)

But the officers had a sense of humor too. When I asked the age of the lass one simply deadpanned it depends on which ID is the real one.

Oh, I've digressed. I don't have a real issue with checkpoints because some people are just too stupid to know when enough is enough and a cab needs to be called.

This particular lass was one, but absolutely not the only one, that's crossed my personal and professional paths over the years.

[TheTravellers]

[sarcasm] As long as it keeps me safe, I'll give up my liberties and freedoms and rights and privileges..... [/sarcasm]

[Sheetkeecker]

Don't Drink and Drive.

Anyone who does, EVER, deserves the whirlwind to visit their lives and to lose their license.

It is 100% irresponsible, no different, AT ALL, from someone walking through Bricktown Saturday night at 10pm and shooting a Glock 9mm with a banana-clip willy-nilly, in all directions and laughing madly.

Only difference, a clean bullet hole is a MUCH BETTER FATE that twisted steel and glass shoved completely through your body while you scream to death. Happens every day, all over the country, in precisely that fashion.

This is the meaning of the term "zero tolerance". Or go down some night and see your child's corpse intermingled with shards of sheet metal.