Could you please give me the name and badge number of the L.A. County Sheriff who ordered a sobriety checkpoint to be set up on PCH during a Friday night rush hour? The ensuing traffic jam on the 15th resulted in an hour’s drive from Big Rock to Cross Creek, gallons of gas burned needlessly, tons of carbon and other pollutants vented into the air, and many thousands of hours of time wasted by commuters caught in this nonsense.
Nobody wants to see intoxicated drivers weaving down PCH but the amount of time, energy, and money consumed by the Sheriffs’ shortsighted decision grossly overshadowed any legitimate law enforcement need. I can’t believe that they caught anywhere near enough drunks to justify the impact on travelers heading to points north, especially since anyone with a lick of sense would have realized that the 15th was the getaway night for a three day holiday weekend.
Assuming that the authorizing officer wasn’t simply being stupid or arrogant, the cynical side of me suggests that DUIs were never the main target of a checkpoint set up at that time of the early evening. Impounding cars driven by unlicensed drivers, who are almost always undocumented workers, has become a major revenue stream for police agencies in recent years. It’s a win-win situation for the police and the tow truck company because the former gets to keep its share of the considerable impound fee and the latter gets to keep and sell the car. An undocumented immigrant living at the poverty line is unlikely to be able to afford to pay the towing fee plus the daily storage charge).
This is a completely separate issue from cars driven by drivers with suspended licenses. These morons clearly should be arrested given that the underlying suspension was either alcohol or safety related. But no matter where you stand on the issue of immigration, impound and sale is a Draconian and heartless response to a wider social problem. Indeed, there is little benefit to our nation’s economy and wellbeing when a local police agency seizes the sole major possession of someone who is prevented from getting an officially issued license here simply because of his or her status with the INS. Immigration is a federal issue, not a state one, and the idea of the L.A. County Sheriffs to turn these people’s lives upside down under the pretense of an anti-DUI campaign should churn the stomach of any responsible citizen.
Nick Pace