October 19, 2005 :: The wheels of justice

Apparently, white women can do the impossible. On Oct. 12, the Washington Post wrote a story about a lawyer from Alexandria who got arrested for DUI in Georgetown, even though she only registered .03 blood alcohol content, and had only one glass of wine that evening. She says she wasn't exhibiting physical symptoms of drunkenness, but the arresting officer disagreed. She hired a lawyer and beat the case, although it took a while.

DC has had this law on its books since 1998 that any driver can be arrested for DUI with as little as .01 BAC, if in the judgment of the officer the driver appears intoxicated. Apparently, no one knew about it, except for the people who actually got arrested under its terms, and the officers doing the arresting. That is, until Debra Bolton came along, and the Post decided her story was worth telling.

On Oct. 18, the DC City Council passed a new law that establishes presumption of DUI at .08 and above, and presumption of sobriety at .05 and below. It took them all of six days to remedy this scourge of arrest plaguing single, affluent, one-glass-of-red-wine-tippling white women... well, at least that one. I don't think the City Council has ever done anything in six days before. They've been arguing about this ballpark for a year, and fighting over funding the very necessary renovation and reconstruction of DC schools for many years. It's amazing how quickly justice can be had for citizens who aren't even your constituents.

I wonder how many poor people would have had to have been arrested before they got a bill passed, or an article written, or even one of them had the cash to hire a lawyer and the balls to fight the case, instead of taking the revenue-boosting probationary plea deals that most DUI suspects in this city decide is the best choice of action.

posted by Rainmayun at 10:02 AM -