[ferfumarma]

You raise a great point. But honestly: if you got a DUI in your youth you deserve to answer for it. It might or might not keep you from getting a job 10 years later, but you put people's lives in danger. If it does affect you: too bad. Drunk driving has always been a life sentence for its victims.

I would find your argument more compelling with a different example like shoplifting or vandalism: still deeply anti social, but not killing innocent people who are just going about their business.

[wayfinder]

Once you meet enough people you realize DUI has nothing to do with driving ability.

One of the most to-the-book buddies I know is also the worst driver I know. He once had a gnarly accident where he flipped his car a few times because he had to look at his GPS briefly. I hate sitting in his car. He insists on always being the driver too because you can tell he finds driving overwhelming but thinks he’s actually good at it. Lol.

I have another buddy who does have a past DUI. He’s extremely coordinated and I have never felt unsafe in his car.

At the end of the day, if I had to choose someone to suspend their license forever, it would be my first buddy. I don’t care if he has a clean record. He simply was not gifted hand-eye coordination and is already a menace while sober.

[ryandrake]

To be pedantic, DUI by itself is not killing anyone, it's the crashing that tends to do the killing. You don't know the circumstances behind someone's DUI conviction, which could range from being drunk plowing into a bus load of school kids to being drunk in your parked, non-running car without the keys. There are many ways a determined and creative cop + justice system can successfully convict one for DUI that don't involve harm to anyone.

[Xylakant]

I could conceivably get a DUI conviction for riding my bike sufficiently drunk here in Germany.

[vinckr]

You can get a DUI in Germany for crossing a red light on foot while drunk - even lose your license.

But luckily criminal records are not public in Germany so its not a life sentence.

[hef19898]

I know people who lost their liscense for riding their bikes while drunk. Rightfully so, luckily in my younger years I was never cought the few times I did so myself.

[danw1979]

In the UK, drunk cycling is an offence with a maximum (but not usual) penalty of £2500, but you can’t be forced to take a blood alcohol level breath or urine test as a cyclist… so you’ll just get a charge of reckless cycling instead. Neither drunk or reckless cycling has any effect on your driving license.

So basically, as long as you’re not so impaired you’re an obvious danger to others you’ll probably get away with it, which might explain why it’s such a popular alternative to getting home from the pub.

[BestGuess]

problem is that stance is like a vicious cycle. Can't get worthwhile employment screws everything from your family to your social life, worse if you can't drive anymore too, and all that is right back into why those people would be alcoholics or using other drugs and stuff in the first place.

my thing is I'm all for justice but not justice that creates more of the same problem in others or the same people giving them even more reason to give up with, well, it's like branding people on the forehead. Why be surprised when the outcast keeps doing outcast stuff when they're never allowed to be anything but an outcast? it's like if society shot itself in the foot then is outraged demanding to know who shot it in the foot.

tryin to say it feels good but just feelin good don't fix nothin

[deprecative]

What the other person seems to want is revenge or some arbitrary punitive action against someone, perhaps decades, after they've already been through the legal system and answered for their actions.

[BestGuess]

seems to me like that's what we've got right now sadly

[watwut]

The fine or minor jail time and your license being taken for period of time is answering for that driving under influence.

No reason to continue punishing people forever, that is destructive for society. This ideology of as large punishment as possible is something I find off-putting.

[kiba]

Drunk driving is a systematic problem, caused by drinking culture and car dependency.

A DUI conviction is something you could judge someone personally, but causes mayhem on a societal level.

[lazide]

And yet, most people somehow never get DUIs. Weird, isn’t it?

[kiba]

If it was easy to live in a society without drunk driving, then it would be done. Saying that some people don't get a DUI conviction is tantamount tolerating the conditions our society is in.

[lazide]

For some reason, I only ever hear this argument from folks with DUIs.

Near as I can tell, approximately 1% of licensed drivers get arrested for DUI a year, and most have repeat offenses.

That doesn’t strike me as any more of a society wide ‘impossible’ issue than anything else?

One thing I have noticed though - problem drinkers are amazing at making it always someone else’s fault.

[kiba]

For some reason, I only ever hear this argument from folks with DUIs.

For the record, I don't drink.

One thing I have noticed though - problem drinkers are amazing at making it always someone else’s fault.

It is their fault and they also have an addiction problem. And it is also a societal wide problem.

[lazide]

Thanks for adding that data point at least!

There are many society wide problems, all with various trade offs and costs to ‘fix’. (I added quotes, because in most cases I suspect a real actual fix is impossible - merely moving things around into another category or changing how the underlying situation presents itself).

There are also many different individual choices one can make, with relative tradeoffs.

How would you rate illegal drug use/overdose deaths relative to DUIs for instance? What solutions (and related costs) do you think would be necessary to ‘solve’ the DUI problem? How about obesity? How about heart disease?

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db457.htm

You’ll find comments in this post complaining about getting DUIs in the most walkable cities in the world, and on bicycles too.

We could ban all alcohol - would that solve it? Historically, the answer is a solid no.

[wierd-eye-loser]

Hey look a fascist cunt. You go to jail and pay fees. That is your sentence cunt

[willy_k]

Go back to Reddit please