So it turns out that in DC, cops can arrest you for driving with any amout of alcohol in your system (even a 21+ year old with 0.01 BAC). Turns out it's been like this, but it's not commonly known. There's an article in the Washington Post about a woman who got arrested after having one glass of wine.
Turns out that if it's your first offence, you can get the charges dropped if you take a 24-hour course. And the article mentions some lawyers successfully get people off if they have low BACs, but nevertheless, the arrests are still made (at a rate of over one a day). Weird.
Note: This DC Council has amended the zero tolerance law.
Posted by Rick at October 18, 2005 10:03 AMWell it looks like Pat won't be visiting the capital anytime soon.
Posted by: Nate at October 12, 2005 10:48 AMWow. Do you have any idea how many six-packs I've killed while driving in DC? Good thing I'm out here...
Posted by: Chris at October 12, 2005 12:17 PMYeah, I can drive in D.C. again. A few months ago when I finally got around to getting a TX driver's license, I called one of the offices in D.C. to make sure all that shit was straightened out, and they didn't even have it on record that my driving priveleges were ever suspended there. So I'm good.
That's a pretty shitty law, btw. I know ignorance of the law is no excuse, but stupid laws that have no basis in reason are another thing altogether. I wonder what somebody's BAC is after communion, and whether that would be enough to get you arrested in D.C.
Posted by: Fatboy at October 12, 2005 05:48 PMIt's a beautiful, wnderous law...if you're DC. Just like the Virginia modus operandi that lets a cop tell me I was going 86 in a 65 when I wasn't, cops get to arrest for no good reason and make things up (like that lady showing any signs of intocication) so they can rake in the revenue.
One of these BS arrests makes anywhere from $400-2000 for DC, according to that article. They make over one a day, says the article, which is, at it's most conservative, $146,000 in free money a year.
Posted by: Chris at October 12, 2005 07:05 PMThe reader forum responding to this article is a pretty interesting read:
My forum name (MSWNCAC) means Masters in Social Work and National Certified Addiction Counselor. I have administered hundreds of Breathalyzer tests. My clients routinely had scores of .02, .03, .04. but it was not because they had anything to drink.
If you have a glass of fruit juice in the morning that is not quite fresh, you can easily blow .02 and higher. Sugars in fruit juices - in fact, sugars in your mouth - ferment and produce alcohol that will show up on the test, even though the alcohol is not discernable to taste. I did not become concerned until a client scored .08 or higher. At that point I would obtain a urine specimen to send to the lab to confirm that they had in fact been drinking alcohol, since mouthwash and cold medicine can also produce a high score on a Breathalyzer even though most of the alcohol never makes it into the bloodstream.
The point is, you can scrupulously avoid anything that contains alcohol and still "fail" this test.