Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart killed in hit-and-run

Hey, rookie. You were good.

 

Earlier in this thread, somebody's post referred to "minor" drunk driving offenses.

As to your second question, this is what you quoted from my post:

Legally, there has to be a difference. But morally, they are all part of the same continuum in my book.

 

Now you're just arguing semantics. By "minor" drunk driving offense, I'm sure somebody meant an accident in which no one was killed, harmed or put in harm's direct way. It may not seem fair, but that's just kind of how the system is set up, and has to be from a logistics standpoint. The guy who killed Adenhart is in a shitload more trouble than he would have been had the other car not been coming through the intersection at the same time.

On one level, it doesn't seem fair, because his offense was the same either way - driving recklessly and driving while intoxicated. But results do matter, and it would be completely impractical to treat all drunk driving cases as major felonies on par with rape, murder, etc., etc.

 

It's not arguing semantics at all. It's about you not putting words in my mouth. So often in these arguments, people have a pre-rehearsed speech about their point of view that they like to bounce back and forth, and instead of reading what I said, you skimmed it and broke out yours.

I see no problem with treating all drunk driving cases as felonies. Of course you can't lock a person away for life, but there's a whole world between misdemeanors and life sentences.

 

Right, just as there's a world of difference between a small-time marijuana possession charge and selling heroin to middle schoolers, a distinction you claimed does not really exist.

 

Again, I didn't say that, and you could go up a page or two and read what I actually said (that the degree of difference isn't "huge"), if you wanted.

I'm out. When you want to respond to what people actually post, and not what you imagined they did, let me know.

 

OK. Need a tissue?

 

There are way too many drunk driving stories, and the sad thing is -- it doesn't look like it's trend that'll stop anytime soon.

Ten years ago, I covered an unusual drunk driving trial. Unusual in a couple ways. First that it involved two separate drunk drivers, and second, it was the first time in anyone's memory that a drunk driver was charged with murder.

Early one Saturday morning, a drunk driver hit another car -- newspaper delivery guy, IIRC -- on a highway ramp. The paper guy is hurt, and a soldier and a couple other people stop to offer aid. Police show up, block off the highway and start to work the scene. Five minutes later, another drunk driver (this one with a suspended license for DUI) plows through the scene. Kills the paper guy, the solider and severly injures several others.

He eventually was convicted of murder, but despite his history, he didn't get much more than the minimum. Whatever he got, it was not nearly enough. Not nearly.

Again that happened 10 years ago. Ten years from now will we still be reporting stories like these?

 

Coming home in the early hours of the morning like many of us do, you see your fair share of impaired drivers. That's why I'm pretty defensive in how I operate after midnight. It's probably saved my butt more times than I can count.

That said, a part of me thinks driver inexperience and the possibility of a distracted driver had a small role in the accident. You've got four young people in a car and there's not much of a chance the driver is totally focused on the road. And a 20 year old probably hasn't seen enough people blow stoplights early in the morning to know not to totally trust the traffic signals.

 

Charged with triple murder:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/04/10/angels.mourn.ap/index.html

 

Wow. And good. Perhaps he won't be one of these guys who ends up as an example of what's wrong with the law.

 

Now, pall can correct me if I'm wrong (he usually does) but if this is the quote to which you're referring:

I took it to mean he was referring to the "fraudulent war on drugs" where minor offenses (an ounce of pot) should have different punishment than a crack dealer dishing out kilos. Hence the "there are some bad people out there doing their best to ruin people's lives." No one TRIES to drunk drive and kill someone.

Nothing about drunk driving.