It wasn’t even three weeks ago that we brought you the story of a man who was arrested for the 10th time on the charge of driving under the influence. That’s an astonishing number of DUI arrests, but one of the other main points from that story is that the media likes to cover these outlandish stories and make light of the person’s unfortunate circumstances.
Now comes word of a different man who has been arrested for his 11th DUI offense over the last couple of decades. The 54-year-old man was drunk and out on the road on Christmas Day 2015 when he crashed into another car. Two people were seriously injured in the wreck. The man at the center of this story had his bail set at $50,000 and he will be in court in a couple of weeks.
As we said in that post from a couple of weeks ago, people who have this many DUIs needs help. Jail time and excessive legal and financial penalties isn’t going to address the root problem. In fact, it may just make things worse as the individual is unable to pay for necessities or work a normal job.
Sure, some punishment may be necessary. People who drive drunk don’t necessarily deserve to be let off without any penalties. But they do have rights, and in the end, they are just people. They have flaws, and they have feelings. Sometimes, the same old formula — i.e. constant and unrelenting consequences — doesn’t fix the problem.
Source: Denver Post, “Driver charged with his 11th DUI jailed in Denver,” Kieran Nicholson, Feb. 17, 2016