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Edward Schaefer flipping the bird in court.
Driving while drunk is a crime that should, arguably, in a perfect world, be punishable by public beheading. In addition to taking the life of an innocent driver and the lives of many, you ruin a perfectly good automobile and cause even more cumbersome gridlock. And that's not right. Take, for example, Edward Schaefer, a 43-year-old Novato man, who made headlines this week after striking and killing a 9-year-old girl on his motorcycle. After researching "decades' worth of public records," NBC Bay Area uncovered Schaefer's checkered driving record. Check it out: "1990, Marin County - DUI, 6 months in jail, 3 years probation, license suspended 4 years; 1990, Marin County - DUI, 44 days in jail, 3 years probation; 1991, Marin County - DUI, 26 days in jail; 1995, Marin County - DUI, 4 months in jail, 2 years probation, license suspended 3 years, $2,000 fine, ignition device 1 year; 1999, Sonoma County - Alcohol-related Reckless Driving, 30 days in jail. 2 years probation; and 2004, Nevada - DUI." What's more, NBC goes on to report that "Schaefer faced the same Marin County judge in his first four cases." And no one noticed a pattern?! Jesus. Anyway, Schaefer is due back in court on June 19.
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6 DUIs and several "second" chances to clean up his act, and a little girl is dead and her father had to have one of his legs amputated ... no second chances for the victims.
I try not to get too filled with hate but man I hope someone shanks this motherfucker in there
They should force him to move to a state where that kind of thing is accepted. Like Texas or some shit.
There was a segnment on NBC last night that stated there are 310,000 drivers on CA roads with three or more DUIs.
While that blows my mind to the point of incredulity, it still appears that kind of thing is accepted here in the Golden West as well.
This is America. Where the right to drive is as fundamental as the right to free speech (or that's the numerous cases like this make it seems, anyway).
Judges would rather eat their robes than deprive someone of the right to drive.
In some countries the penalty for fatal DUIs is a firing squad. No, really.
The only country that I could find that used to do this was El Salvador. They don't do this anymore.
Problem BlueCanary - even if you take away the right to drive, people just drive anyway, and the penalty for driving on a suspended license is trivial.
This is what really torks me off more than anything. Any given "the cyclists" story on SFGate can spawn 1000 comments about the scofflaw cyclists, but there is little or no outrage about the stats Joel brings up. Not only are judges unwilling to do anything about drunk drivers, but it seems like NOBODY cares. Someone gets a DUI and the talk is about that will be "expensive", not that "you could have killed someone you moron!"
You're right, but they don't even do that one tiny thing. Believe me, if I were in charge, drunk drivers would be handled in a very non-PC way (Greg's description comes to mind).
I can see giving someone a second chance once or twice. But after the third time, the license should be suspended for 10 years or maybe even life. Some serious jail time should be in order too.
Wierd how if you're late paying your credit card that tit on the end of the phone knows your credit history going back a million years and will be more than happy to judge you on it. Come before an extremely well educated and well compensated judge with the resources of 18,000 law enforcement databases to draw on and he's clueless. Stupid world.
And the third DUI should trigger the mandatory tattooing of the C word on the perp's forehead.
You liberals are so NON-Liberal when your own spawn are involved or harmed - until then everyone just needs a fucking hug, right?
Dope addicts, alcoholics and generally stupid people should all be shot on sight. Homeless too. Fuck em. Shoot em, bury em and club em like baby seals. I'd rot in hell if there was such a place but in the meantime, there is San Francisco and that absolute shit-hole called Oakland.
And boo fucking hoo. They used to call DWI's a contact sport when my dad was growing up. Now you idiots elect morons like Newsom who appoint even bigger idiots like Kamala Harris to do nothing.
Yeah, you elected Newsom, you morons.
Deal.
Kamala Harris was elected dumb-ass, not appointed, which I think just may be sadder still.
Please. I might be liberal -- who manages to be both pro-choice and pro-death penalty, so don't try to shove me into your tidy little box, RobInSF -- but I didn't vote for Newsom. Ever.
There are plenty of good therapists in SF. You should reach out to one. Just sayin'.
Actually there aren't. I've been to dozens and I still can't stop the killin'.
Who did you vote for? Chicken John?
Not sure if you're asking me that, phlavor, or RobInSF but I voted for Gonzales the first time wrote in a candidate the second time.
I don't understand the author's pov at all. Charging someone who drives perfectly but is over an arbitrary limit of BAC is like pre-crime - they didn't actually DO ANYTHING WRONG. Might as well identify racial groups more likely to commit crimes, then arrest anyone you find in that group with the argument that they're more likely to rob a store. Seriously, I'm not trolling. I don't get it.
There are some really freaking dumb drivers, I see them every day, I have no reason to believe they're drunk, why can't we apply DWI-level penalties to them?
Important - I'm a motorcyclist and bicyclist so my ass is on the line here and I'm talking about DWI where nothing bad happened. If there's an accident and you can prove alcohol was at play, sure, throw the book at'm.