Because, in California, when they slap you on the wrist for drunk driving, you stay slapped!

LA Times reported on Oct. 6, 2009 that actor Mel Gibson went before a judge to have his infamous drunk driving conviction expunged from his record after completing the terms of his plea deal.

Think what you like about Mr. Gibson’s anti-Semitic leanings, his adulterous affairs, or his drain-circling acting career — The man paid his dues. His penalties for first-offense driving under the influence (called DUI in most places, OWI here in Wisconsin) included:

• Mandatory 48 hours jail time
• Loss of license for six months
• Drunk driving school (Fate worse than death for some people)
• Attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings (Not the usual penalty, but some judges can impose this)
• Perform in public service announcements (for free, yet. What actor wants to work for free?)
• $1,300 in fines (plus $1800 court costs)The going rate in California — not jacked up because he’s rich)
• Three years of “supervised probation”

Legal experts called the resolution fairly routine for a first-time DUI case in California that caused no injuries according the LA Times.

Compare that with a first-time DUI/OWI under current Wisconsin law

• First offenders are still handled in traffic court with the jaywalkers and the speeders. Wisconsin is still the only state that fails to treat drunken driving as a misdemeanor crime from the start. (All Business, Green Bay Press-Gazette (Wisconsin) Tuesday, September 1 2009
• First offense OWI / DUI with a BAC of .08 or more, but less than .10, there is no surcharge or other additional fees. (Mr. Gibson was reported to have a BAC of .11)
• Over .10 is subject to a fine of $150 to $300, plus an OWI surcharge of $355, and license revocation from 6 to 9 months.
• But wait! If you really want to keep driving, no problems, Mate: On a first OWI / DUI offense, a person is immediately eligible to apply for an occupational license. There is no waiting period. Just go down to the DMV and fill out a form.

In fact, smoke a little weed, pop some brewskis and crash a bus full of disabled people on Thanksgiving. Don’t even show up in court. No one will bother to arrest you.

Am I being overly critical? From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Regional News section:

Van driver fails to show up for sentencing
By Tom Kertscher of the Journal Sentinel

Aug. 28, 2009 | A man due to be sentenced for driving under the influence and crashing a van that carried disabled adults failed to appear in Milwaukee County Circuit Court on Thursday.

A warrant was issued for Paul G. Porter’s arrest, but it was stayed until next Wednesday, essentially giving the 34-year-old West Bend man a second chance to show up.

Porter pleaded guilty last month to causing injury while operating with a prohibited alcohol concentration, a misdemeanor. He had been drinking beer and smoking marijuana while transporting group home residents on Thanksgiving Day.

Porter’s blood-alcohol level of 0.24 was three times the level of 0.08 considered evidence of intoxication, according to Brown Deer police. The adults had been visiting their families on Thanksgiving Day. Porter picked them up and was returning them to their group home in Brown Deer. Mount Castle Corp., a Milwaukee company that runs residential facilities, said it fired Porter after the accident.

Police weren’t called until more than 90 minutes later, after two of the passengers walked a mile and a half to their group home. Mr. Porter had a full can of beer in his pocket before he was taken into custody.

See, it doesn’t pay to keep giving second chances. It sets a bad precedent–and it makes people like me think (just for a moment), “Well, if he can get away with it, why can’t I?”

Wisconsin has the highest drunk driving rate in the country — and no one wants to deal with it

I knew when I moved here that alcohol would be in my face–not really a safe place for recovering alcoholics. I grew up here, and it hasn’t changed much since I was a kid, except now the cars go faster, and one drunk driver can take out more people in one shot.

Occasionally, someone tries to pass a law about it or increase the penalties, but there is a deep, passive aggressive resistance to not drinking alcohol that I’ve never seen anywhere else. Here’s a good example from “Letter to the Editior” Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Tuesday, August 25, 2009, regarding proposed legislation to change the law allowing children to drink in bars with their parents (really). The new law will require children to be 18 before they can pop back a few Brewskis with their folks (the legal drinking age, however, will still be 21, so go figure.). See our previous blog entry about this.

Let parents decide

I totally oppose the proposed bill regarding minors drinking in a tavern with parents. I am not in favor of minors drinking but am absolutely against Big Brother taking yet more control over our lives.

This bill basically says that the parents are too stupid to know whether this is right or wrong for their kids. One would have to assume this is aimed at the “bad” parents who don’t know better!

Patrick Kemmerling
Waukesha

Well, duh, the legal system thinks “the parents are too stupid to know whether this is right or wrong for their kids”. Age-related laws exist because many people who have children don’t have perfect judgment — and you, Mr. Kemmerling, don’t get a pass just because you want one. Same with buying the Little League cigarettes, letting your daughter have sex on your couch with her English teacher and dropping the dead body of the girl your son delivered a drug overdose to on her front lawn.

as long as their parents are with them

Yes. True. Wisconsin state law allows minors to drink in any bar as long as they are accompanied by a parent or spouse. of course, with prices what they are today, not too many parents are pouring $4 beers into their kids sippy cups–but it’s legal if they want to.

Rep. John Ainsworth (R-Shawano) has been trying since 2003 to change that law, but so far, no go. It’s hitting the headlines again, trying to change the law to only allow kids age 18 and older to drink in bars if accompanied by a parent or guardian. Why special permission is given to 18-year-olds when the law says you’re a minor until you’re 21 escapes my understanding, but hey, that’s Wisconsin for you. The state where binge drinking is a RIGHT, Gaddammit.

I grew up here, but I was still shocked to read the Journal-Sentinel forum, where “Scott” in West Bend says:

What about parental rights? Should it not be my decision on how to raise my child? In my opinion, this is another example of too much government involvement in personal choice issues.

or “Dan” in Port Washington (I think he’s serious):

What about the time honored tradition of deer hunting when a Father and Son {or Daughter] can share a beer and celebrate there first deer together and many other traditions that we have come to cherish. TO MUCH GOVERMENT

The state with the worst DUI and drunken driving deaths shows, once again, that they are a bunch of yaddering yahoo Ed-Gein-wannabees.

It’s okay to steal snowmobiles, ride around on someone’s land and run over as many deer as you can in Waupaca, Wisconsin

That’s what the judge said.

Last January, a local story unfolded about a horrific deer-killing rampage in upstate Wisconsin. Five deer were run down with snowmobiles. One had been crippled, tied to tree by its neck and strangled itself to death. Another was still alive and was put down by authorities. Read the rest of this entry »