Hacker News Reader

Comment by phatfish | Hacker News Reader

Pretty depressing it is only 30%.

Why?

Because folks don't want to enable drink-drivers and speeders? Maybe they want to use their roads with some basic level of safety?

True, they should set up child abuse checkpoints too - think of the children after all.

And check that every single one of your federal papers are present and punctual. We'd hate to have someone that's unbecoming to share a full disclosure of themselves to officers on the road.

Doctors and teachers handle that, since they have regular contract with children. At least in my state they're required by law to report suspected child abuse.

As a side note, these laws are doing damage to organizations looking for volunteers that I don't think we have fully grasped yet.

People are willing to put a couple of weekends into making a middle school or high school competition happen. They're a lot less willing to do it if they have to go to an FBI station to get fingerprinted or produce a state and federal background check first. And I'm not talking about people with something to hide; I'm talking about people with a completely clean background who just don't want to be bothered.

The equivalent checks outside the US may not require fingerprinting, they don't in the UK.

Making slippery slope arguments like this is not discussing in good faith. I was providing the context of someone who lives in that geo-political area.

NZ OP here. Few weeks ago there was a morning checkpoint to inspect everyone's child car seat installation.

Few years back got chased by a cop and ticketed (and scolded) for not restraining kiddo (small town and my clever 2yo somehow learned how to unbuckle themselves (even that houdini clip didn't help)). Warned I could get prosecuted for child neglect if I continue. I suspect the daycare has tipped him off.

Nanny state isn’t synonymous with police state, but it rhymes.

There is a risk to DUI checkpoints and speeding checkpoints even if you are doing neither. Innocent people die at the hands of the police fairly often, but many more are wrongfully imprisoned. Wanting to limit your interactions with the police is a valid safety and risk management proposal.

Not in NZ

What about people that are on their way to work (or somewhere else time sensitive) who want to be aware of places with a slowdown because of checkpoints?

A lot of people think that a few delays once in a while are a reasonable price to pay for suppressing the rate of DUIs.

yeah, and thats fine, but you dont have the right to say someone cant have another opinion

Umm, that’s exactly what free speech is.

okay you can say it, but you have no right to actually get your way

1. I didn't say people can't have another opinion. I didn't say that because I don't believe it and never implied otherwise.

2. Supposing I did believe it and did say it, I would be well within my rights to say it. The First Ammendment assures the right to say things like that, no matter how dumb and misguided those things are.

If safety was the real goal the police themselves would announce checkpoints and speed traps. This gives people a chance to not drink too much or speed in the first place. I've lived in places where DUI checkpoints were all announced ahead of time, and I think for many it was a serious reminder to not drink and drive.

But for many DUI checkpoints safety is not the goal. It's simply a pretext to check everyone's papers.

Like in sports, how before every drug test the athlete is given a heads-up right?

Or is perhaps the chance of a random test at any moment more of a deterrent?

That only works if you actually have a DUI checkpoints all the time everywhere. It is a random check because then people need to be careful all the time. If there is a DUI checkpoint 2 times per year in your area you can just avoid driving drunk at those two days per year.

They do. DUI checkpoints are heavily advertised here in California for exactly that reason — to deter drunk drivers. The only thing they don't do is tell the exact intersection so drunks don't just drink and drive the other direction.

https://www.chch.com/chch-news/police-services-across-ontari... In Ontario they announce R.I.D.E. checkpoints ahead of time, it is always before winter holidays.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com