by John Barden

Created on: January 21, 2009   Last Updated: January 31, 2009

You hear a police siren blare behind you and pull over a bit to the right, expecting it to pass. Instead the blinding lights of a patrol car fill your rear view mirror and an amplified and threatening voice instructs you to pull over. Unsure of what you've done wrong you reach for your wallet as an officer approaches your vehicle, hand on undrawn weapon. "License and registration, please." In honest disbelief, you ask if you did anything wrong. His response: "Sir, have you been drinking?"

The officer returns to his vehicle and runs a computerized background check as you try to recall how many drinks you had over the course of the three hour retirement party you just left. He returns a few moments later, asks you to exit your car and leads you through a series of field sobriety tests which include: counting backwards from 100, walking a straight line one foot directly in front of the next, and touching alternate fingers to the tip of your nose with your eyes closed and your head tilted backward. He has done this many times before, and no matter what the outcome, has stock statements ready at hand that will automatically appear on his report as if they were pre-printed: when I approached the suspect's vehicle I could detect a strong odor of alcohol on his breath; the suspect's eyes were bloodshot; his speech was slurred; he was driving erratically.

He next informs you that he has sufficient cause to require you to take a breathalizer test. You can refuse to take it and automatically have your license revoked for six months, or you can agree and possibly incriminate yourself. Thinking you do not in the least bit feel intoxicated, you agree to take the test. You 'blow' a .08 alcohol/blood content (legally intoxicated) and are handcuffed and arrested on the spot. After decades of living within the law, paying taxes, raising a family, meeting all your obligations, moral and legal, you are now entering the justice system - not as a concerned citizen spectator or dedicated juror, but as a suspected criminal. And life as you know it is about to change drastically for the worst.

Driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or while your ability to operate that vehile is impaired, is a serious crime in every state of the union. Police no longer, as in the past, turn a blind eye or let you off, since they may be held accountable should something happen afterwards. Sometimes the repercussions are warranted and called for. Sometimes they seem draconian in their

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