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Having a suspended license or not having a license at all isn't going to stop a criminal from driving. It would stop law abiding citizens from driving.
What would've stopped him from driving was every time he was arrested that the vehicle was impounded permanently. If someone let him borrow their car, should be the same result. They didn't know he wasn't supposed to drive? Too bad, they should've done their due diligence before loaning their car out to someone.
If they somehow keep finding a way to drive without a license or on a suspended, a jail term with the most violent offenders might convince them to not drive again.
Anyone convicted of drunk driving or operating on a suspended license should lose their vehicles to asset forfeiture. Most people who go to court and has a judge suspend their licenses will walk out of court and get in their cars and drive themselves home. Drunk driving laws in the US are very lax compared to other countries like Germany.
Wow. CA must hav a lot less strict laws on DUI than NV. After a third offense here that's a year in prison and you won't get your DL back. Ever. Third offense with death involved will earn a life sentence.
Lots of these offenders will drive without insurance, license etc. and will either buy a car for cash or use a "friends"/
He is certainly responsible for the death of the baby, but I thought murder required premeditation. He had to have set out with the conscious intent of killing that particular baby for it to be murder, in my understanding.
That said, I think any kind of negligent homicide due to drunk driving should carry a similarly strict penalty as murder.
I think the fact that he has a history of being caught DUI and has had his license revoked for getting behind the wheel DUI numerous times (and all the other times he WAS NOT caught) means that he has a willful disregard for the lives of those he can harm when he drinks and drives...
There is foreknowledge that he has that he ignores every time he drinks and drives---
It is not like the first time it has happeneded...
He and other people are just lucky he didn't kill someone before this...
The heaviest murder charge does require premeditation but be realistic--
Anyone knows that drinking and driving carries a severe risk of bodily harm for the drinker or anyone s/he comes in contact with while behind the wheel...
By ignoring that risk And being caught and found guilty of abrogating his responsibility to be a safe driver, I think he forfeits any type of protection that what he did was not premeditated...
This individual does not need rehab. Rehab is for people who can be rehabilitated,which this loser has clearly shown he is not a candidate for. There is only one thing to do with these repeat offenders and that is to lock them away. Well, there is one other way to keep them from operating a motor vehicle, but I doubt the readers of CD would want to read of something they would consider barbaric.
This is when I think the three strikes rule should apply -- three DUI convictions and someone's license should be revoked permanently, with a very stiff fine (like equivalent to one month wages or $2,000.00, whichever is more) and two weeks in jail -- OR, if he is here illegally, to deport him back to his country of origin.
(I don't know how more jail time would do any good, and there is NO sentence that would make up for the tragedy of a dead child.)
There were a couple of deadbeats who were brothers, in my neighborhood, who'd lost their driver's licenses years before, for numerous violations. But they drove every day. They'd buy old junkers for $100. or so and they'd go around without current plates and insurance. Sooner or later, they'd be stopped by the police and their cars would be towed and impounded.
But they wouldn't hesitate a minute, before they'd go out and find other junkers to drive. They owed the Municipal Court several thousand dollars each in fines, but never paid. The jail space was so limited by the tight budget, that there was no room to lock them up. How unfortunate anyone would have been, to be hit by them and injured. Like squeezing blood from a rock, to collect any damages.
One of them found a woman who was willing to marry him. She weighed more than twice as much as he did, but had a trust fund that paid out enough every month, to live comfortably. So she was just the woman for whom he'd been looking. The other brother found a very nice-looking woman who had some irrational interest in him and she also had a trust fund coming in. So they were set up very well in this lifestyle. Once in awhile one or the other would get a job, but would be fired within a few days, for "not doing any useful work".
I suppose there's quite a few like them out there, but I'm glad they're no longer around here.
The driver in this example is an alcoholic
I don't know if he was ever in treatment but once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic
Since he likely won't admit he is an alcoholic, he doesn't see the need to avoid driving under the influence...but because he ignores the problem does not mean it does not exist...
In England and Europe drinking even a glass of wine at dinner is often enough to make responsible people take a cab home because their DUI laws are VERY strict and their courts punish people with full measure of the law...
PLUS people have to pay hefty sum to get driver's license in first place--
So DUI is definitely taken more seriously and is not as likely to occur
Different culture--different response--
Same as with guns--
Guns--especially handguns-- much more difficult to own in England because all guns must be licenses and reported...
Much less gun violence including accidental shootings by children
Different attitudes altogether---
Even police in England do not carry weapons as matter of general course...
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