The Serious Crime It Is
Despite all the reportage of the disastrous results of drinking and driving, and despite the various campaigns against this truly deleterious social ill, including the efforts of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and police forces and public interest groups, the incidence of driving while under the influence is not in shrink-mode. No one seems to take this seriously enough. Imbibing in alcohol is seen as a cultural and socially-accepted relaxation-and-pleasure pastime.
It's generally engaged in and universally accepted; a fact of life. That this fact of life, this socially accepted practise has its dark side - quite apart from the risk of acquiring alcoholic dependency - is a threat too readily shrugged away. Holiday occasions, when the public finds yet another reason to "celebrate" through the emotions-and-social-liberating party and cocktail circuit is only the most obvious time when the public is alerted to an increased incidence of drunk drivers on the road.
The truth is, however, that there is no time when the driving public can be assured that those driving alongside them, behind them, in front of them, won't veer out of control as a result of alcohol-diminished perceptions and allied physical impairment. Resulting in no end of tragic consequences for too many families. It's an ongoing problem that is only now being adequately addressed by law enforcement agencies.
Yet the carnage on the roads caused by drunk driving doesn't appear to be quite as adequately realized by the law itself. Accomplished readily enough when our legislators eventually get around to giving it the credit it is due; a perniciously-dangerous public menace practised by those incapable of self-discipline. And who, in any event, when caught and cautioned, merely continue to practise their self-indulgent affliction on the public.
People simply do not appear to be willing to commit themselves to responsible behaviour. That they're endangering others around them doesn't seem to penetrate their consciousness. If it does, they feel they're invincible and fully capable of exhibiting full normal control, despite all evidence to the contrary. Any police force spokesperson can tell us and shout it off the rooftops, that drunk driving remains the leading cause of criminal deaths on the road.
The public is quick to condemn random shootings of innocent passersby. In actuality, there's little difference between an act such as that, and the anti-social disconnect of drinking and driving. The instrument that delivers death or maiming is simply transformed from a gun to a motor vehicle. The criminal disregard evinced by the bearer of a gun with respect to responsibility is a mere remove from that of a drinker who drives.
Stiffer mandatory sentences are crying out to be imposed - whether you're Paris Hilton, Margaret Trudeau, or the idiot who lives down the street.
It's generally engaged in and universally accepted; a fact of life. That this fact of life, this socially accepted practise has its dark side - quite apart from the risk of acquiring alcoholic dependency - is a threat too readily shrugged away. Holiday occasions, when the public finds yet another reason to "celebrate" through the emotions-and-social-liberating party and cocktail circuit is only the most obvious time when the public is alerted to an increased incidence of drunk drivers on the road.
The truth is, however, that there is no time when the driving public can be assured that those driving alongside them, behind them, in front of them, won't veer out of control as a result of alcohol-diminished perceptions and allied physical impairment. Resulting in no end of tragic consequences for too many families. It's an ongoing problem that is only now being adequately addressed by law enforcement agencies.
Yet the carnage on the roads caused by drunk driving doesn't appear to be quite as adequately realized by the law itself. Accomplished readily enough when our legislators eventually get around to giving it the credit it is due; a perniciously-dangerous public menace practised by those incapable of self-discipline. And who, in any event, when caught and cautioned, merely continue to practise their self-indulgent affliction on the public.
People simply do not appear to be willing to commit themselves to responsible behaviour. That they're endangering others around them doesn't seem to penetrate their consciousness. If it does, they feel they're invincible and fully capable of exhibiting full normal control, despite all evidence to the contrary. Any police force spokesperson can tell us and shout it off the rooftops, that drunk driving remains the leading cause of criminal deaths on the road.
The public is quick to condemn random shootings of innocent passersby. In actuality, there's little difference between an act such as that, and the anti-social disconnect of drinking and driving. The instrument that delivers death or maiming is simply transformed from a gun to a motor vehicle. The criminal disregard evinced by the bearer of a gun with respect to responsibility is a mere remove from that of a drinker who drives.
Stiffer mandatory sentences are crying out to be imposed - whether you're Paris Hilton, Margaret Trudeau, or the idiot who lives down the street.
Labels: Justice, Life's Like That, Society
posted by Pieface | 6:37 PM
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