The Tarrant County District Attorney’s website is listing the names and ages of people arrested for drunken driving over the New Year’s weekend.
Police arrested 108 suspects and charged 43 of them so far.
Most are in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. The oldest is 55.
Codgers over 55 still like to drink but maybe they’ve wised up and got it right — stay at home, watch Rockin’ New Year’s Eve, eat black eyed peas, complain about how Ryan Seacrest is no Dick Clark, and fall asleep on the couch before 10.
Nah.
(It’s “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.”) Anyway, nearly 30 of the 43 listed have Hispanic surnames. Weird.
Possible explanation for the Hispanic surnames: Instead of pulling over people for driving drunk the cops watch for cars with faulty lights, expired inspections stickers or other minor things, pull the cars over and then bust the driver if they just so happen to be drinking, even if they were driving safely. People in older cars are naturally pulled over more often, people with lower incomes, hard-working people trying to get by in life. Someone who was driving safely but had a tail light out gets hit with a DWI and many thousands of dollars worth of fines while someone who is twice as drunk in a new Beamer is less likely to get pulled over. The .08 limit is too low. It allows police to arrest a driver who’s only had a few drinks and is still able to function well. It’s a racket pure and simple.
Agreed. Anyone with personal experience can tell you that dark people get pulled over much more often than light ones, young people more often than old, poor more often than rich.
It’s great that we know these folks are going to be convicted and they deserve to be put on the website.
It is a damn racket. If MADD really wanted to stop drunk driving, the group would fight for ignition interlock systems on every vehicle. But then with no drunks on the road, who would pay all of the lawyers, cops, and administrators?! Racket.
MADD also is fighting for a .05 limit, which roughly translates into TWO BEERS in TWO HOURS for someone like myself (200 lbs.). I’d probably have a better time drinking Red Bull and chain-smoking.
MADD is a bunch of terrorist thugs.