Franklin County initiates Police State Weekend

Dan, here's Eric's response (for some reason he wasn't able to post his reply last night, and nor could I): Do you know how a breath test works? It's junk science. Under the Ohio Supreme Court's ruling in State v. Vega, you are not even allowed to challenge the accuracy of the device that "measures" your blood. One of the hallmarks of junk science is not being allowed to question the results. Further, even the proponents of the breath testing machines (limited to law enforcement) will tell you that they measure your blood alcohol level at the time of the test, not at the time you were driving. Just as your headache does not disappear the moment you take an aspirin, you do not get drunk the moment you drink alcohol. It takes time for both aspirin and alcohol to metabolize. Many cases I have defended involved folks who left the bar for a five minute trip home during which they were well below the legal limit and feeling fine. But as they drove they continued to metabolize alcohol, getting closer to the limit. Then they get pulled over by a police officer for a busted tail light and that turns into a two hour traffic stop/field sobriety testing/arrest/transport to station/breath testing procedure. By that time, two hours of extra metabolizing later, and they are well over the limit when they otherwise would have been sitting on their couch for the last hour and 45 minutes. But the real point here is that you are guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. You may not care much about these rights, and if you don't, you should by all means take any DUI test the police tell you to take. That's your choice. But people who fought and/or died in wars while in uniform for this country did care about these rights, and my choice and the choice of a great many other people is to exercise such rights. Absent the ability to exercise such rights, they are mere words on a page. Further still, Ohio law permits you to refuse the test and assigns the penalty (one year driving rights suspension) for doing so. Now the prosecutors (who are supposed to uphold the law) have done an end run around the law. Sorry to gas on so long about this, but concerns over DUI have a great deal of hysteria mixed in with them, much like my orange juice has a great deal of vodka mixed in with it (albeit, consumed from my couch). Cheers.

I'm not sure what your complaining about, it a person isn't drunk, then what harm? And if they are drunk,they are gotten off the road. Is there a reason someone avoids a breath test other than fear they will fail it?