• AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      In many cities in the US, not only is it illegal, they will charge you with DUI if you appear at all intoxicated, and the keys to the car were at all available to you. Available in this case can mean that you were in the back seat sleeping and the keys were in the front console, or one of the front seats. Don’t even think about running your car to stay warm/cool.

      • Aggravationstation@feddit.uk
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        6 months ago

        Is that whole sobriety test thing real in the US? Like, stand on one leg and recite the alphabet etc? I’ve seen it on TV but always thought it was pretty stupid. In the UK the police have breath-tested for drink driving since 1967.

        • realbadat@programming.dev
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          6 months ago

          Depends. Smaller townships without regular access to a breathalyzer, yes. Or cops trying to get you to admit that you are intoxicated.

          I walked a straight line while touching my nose because the cop smelled alcohol in the car (rightly so, my wife, then gf, was smashed). Took about 10 seconds for him to go “So obviously that’s all her, have a good night!”.

          So yes, it does happen.

        • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          It’s real, and it’s totally based on the officer’s gut feelings. Hell breathalyzers over analyze over 70% of the time. The entirety of the war on drugs and the tools to combat drunk driving are not entirely based in science

          • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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            6 months ago

            tools to combat drunk driving are not entirely based in science

            To the point that the accuracy of breathalyzers has been challenged so many times in CA that it’s to the point that if the cops in CA have you breathe into a machine and that machine returns a number that would constitute a DUI if that were your BAC then it’s a DUI, regardless of what the machine actually does or whether the number in question is actually connected to your real BAC in any way.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Oh they do both. And you can get what they call a DWI (Driving While Impaired) just on the basis of the circus act in some states. So the breath test comes back at say, .037, which is well within the legal limit. The cop can charge you with DWI anyways based on your bad balance.

          • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            Forget the bad balance. All the cop has to put in his report is the language they were taught. The suspect had red, glassy eyes when I approached. They might as well drag and drop these statements or just have them written by LLM.

        • Gigasser@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          It’s all really just an excuse by the popo to book you. Which is why you should always ask for the breathalyzer if you really weren’t drinking.

        • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          6 months ago

          it’s real, and it does work pretty well.

          We also do the breathalyzer, or blood draws, but those are a little more involved, and if you can’t do a field sobriety test then you definitely as hell can’t drive a fucking car lmao.

            • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              6 months ago

              you think those people are required to do them? One of the primary tests doesn’t even require you to move. 50% of the other two are literally counting.

              And like i said, you can just hit them with the blow test? Or blood like i mentioned, that’s a particularly good one.

              • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                In some states refusing the circus act is an automatic DUI. Even if you ask for a blood test. We have the technology to just do away with it. And dyslexic people can drive just fine while fucking up the numbers and alphabet. It just needs to go.

                • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  6 months ago

                  that is pretty silly, though idk much about the specifics of it, really it should only mean you get arrested/detained, it shouldn’t be possible to charge you with something that isnt proven.

                  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                    6 months ago

                    It shouldn’t. And yet it is. That’s not even the worst use of that though. Cops can beat you up and arrest you for resisting arrest at any time. And that generally comes with jail time.

                • Almrond@lemmy.world
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                  6 months ago

                  In the US it isn’t even usually trespassing, it is specifically illegal to sleep in your car, even on public property.

                • crispy_kilt@feddit.de
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                  6 months ago

                  There are no we-passionately-hate-poor-and-or-homeless-persons-and-want-to-make-them-suffer-as-much-as-we-can laws in the spirit of that culture of the USA, no

                  In the civilised world, there are laws to the opposite, in fact.

                  In Switzerland, access to lakes and rivers is guaranteed by law, for everyone (even poor people! Imagine that) even, and especially, if that means walking on land owned by someone else, private or not.

                  In Sweden, people can even roam the entire country freely, by law.

                  • VelvetStorm@lemmy.world
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                    6 months ago

                    It would be cool if we had those laws in the usa too. I don’t know why you are phrasing it in a way that makes it seem like I hate my fellow poor people though.