If you had not contributed to this thread, I may have stopped reading a long time ago.Leroy wrote:Overheard before the game..."Sorry, Dontrelle Willis"
Leroy for President!
BREAKING NEWS: LARUSSA ARRESTED
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MrCrowesGarden
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Radbird
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Bo Hart
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OK, I want to chime in now. I have read all the responses. Chances are what I'm going to say is not going to be anything new; instead, it will probably just echo what others have said.
First up: I hate the, "oh, a lot of us have done it, give him a break" line of thinking. That's stupid. Attitudes and comments like this are likely why drunk driving is so prevalent in America in the first place. It's stubborn. Have I done it before? Yes, and I probably wasn't much worse than La Russa was. But really, what does that change? I still broke the law; more importantly, I put a lot of people in danger.
Even if you don't hurt someone, think of the magnitude of a DUI and how huge of an affect that could have on your life. I think the fact that we, as a country, take the chance of driving drunk speaks volumes about how stupid we can be sometimes.
Also, why would this be condoned because he was tired or fatigued or anything along those lines? How about that suggestion that mixing alcohol and weed greatly enhances the affects of the two? Wouldn't the same apply here? If he was tired, that would not support La Russa, it would make it even worse; that just means the affect of the impairment was even worse.
Continuing on: is a BAC level limit arbitrary? Yes. But no more than an age limit. Even if it is low, don't you think its that way for a reason? It's to discourage doing it.
As has been stated: this really should not have happened to La Russa. He has more money than he'll ever need. He should have called a cab. I'd think if I had the money he did I would have someone personally escort me around.
If he was tired and he was drinking to the point that it caused him to pass out, he should have had the judgement to not drive... it's especially discouraging when you hear that it was such a short drive.
I hope La Russa is blasted. You can be sure he won't let this happen again. And furthermore, hopefully it will scare people off and make them think twice about driving drunk.
First up: I hate the, "oh, a lot of us have done it, give him a break" line of thinking. That's stupid. Attitudes and comments like this are likely why drunk driving is so prevalent in America in the first place. It's stubborn. Have I done it before? Yes, and I probably wasn't much worse than La Russa was. But really, what does that change? I still broke the law; more importantly, I put a lot of people in danger.
Even if you don't hurt someone, think of the magnitude of a DUI and how huge of an affect that could have on your life. I think the fact that we, as a country, take the chance of driving drunk speaks volumes about how stupid we can be sometimes.
Also, why would this be condoned because he was tired or fatigued or anything along those lines? How about that suggestion that mixing alcohol and weed greatly enhances the affects of the two? Wouldn't the same apply here? If he was tired, that would not support La Russa, it would make it even worse; that just means the affect of the impairment was even worse.
Continuing on: is a BAC level limit arbitrary? Yes. But no more than an age limit. Even if it is low, don't you think its that way for a reason? It's to discourage doing it.
As has been stated: this really should not have happened to La Russa. He has more money than he'll ever need. He should have called a cab. I'd think if I had the money he did I would have someone personally escort me around.
If he was tired and he was drinking to the point that it caused him to pass out, he should have had the judgement to not drive... it's especially discouraging when you hear that it was such a short drive.
I hope La Russa is blasted. You can be sure he won't let this happen again. And furthermore, hopefully it will scare people off and make them think twice about driving drunk.
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jim
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Balltillyafall, maddash, kyle ... Some posts that are pretty much where my line of thoughts on this are, even if I haven't expressed them as well.
I guarantee you LaRussa will stand up to this, and do the right thing. I'll be very surprised if publicly or privately LaRussa is moaning about the .08, or the fact that he had been up since 5am, or the fact that the night air made him tired, or.....
I guarantee you LaRussa will stand up to this, and do the right thing. I'll be very surprised if publicly or privately LaRussa is moaning about the .08, or the fact that he had been up since 5am, or the fact that the night air made him tired, or.....
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stewie13
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Some interesting things that I haven't seen mentioned yet:
Most studies show that people's driving ability decreases even after 1 beer.
You can be convicted of DUI/DWI with a BAC down to around .04 I believe, even when the limit is .08 based on other factors that get taken into account (extremely rare but within the realm of the law)
I have heard numbers than at any given time, around 1/10 cars on the road is being driven by someone under the influence.
I think the correct middle ground between the people saying "it happens all the time, most people have done it, so it shouldn't be as big of deal as it is being made out to be" and the opposite group "He broke the law and put people's lives in danger and has a lot of respect and credibility" should be:
It is true that most people at some point have driven drunk and it is probably reasonable to many people (on this forum, TLR included) routinely drive with a BAC around .1.
That of course doesn't make it ok. It is pretty clear that driving a BAC of around .1 makes your chances of being involved in an accident significantly higher (so does talking on a cell phone, driving tired, etc.).
I think the disconnect is people think can't happen to them and unless you don't drink or live in an area with lots of public transportation, it probably can, although the chances of being in an accident or getting pull over are still very low... even if they are significantly higher than driving with a BAC of 0.
One interesting thing from the legal side is that how he was found. Police can't just randomly pull you over and give you a breathaylzer and make you do field sobriety tests (well they can but it could be thrown out). Now since TLR had the SUV in drive it will probably be hard to make a case he "wasn't technically driving" but if it was in park and he was simply on the side of the road that may be an interesting legal argument.
Most studies show that people's driving ability decreases even after 1 beer.
You can be convicted of DUI/DWI with a BAC down to around .04 I believe, even when the limit is .08 based on other factors that get taken into account (extremely rare but within the realm of the law)
I have heard numbers than at any given time, around 1/10 cars on the road is being driven by someone under the influence.
I think the correct middle ground between the people saying "it happens all the time, most people have done it, so it shouldn't be as big of deal as it is being made out to be" and the opposite group "He broke the law and put people's lives in danger and has a lot of respect and credibility" should be:
It is true that most people at some point have driven drunk and it is probably reasonable to many people (on this forum, TLR included) routinely drive with a BAC around .1.
That of course doesn't make it ok. It is pretty clear that driving a BAC of around .1 makes your chances of being involved in an accident significantly higher (so does talking on a cell phone, driving tired, etc.).
I think the disconnect is people think can't happen to them and unless you don't drink or live in an area with lots of public transportation, it probably can, although the chances of being in an accident or getting pull over are still very low... even if they are significantly higher than driving with a BAC of 0.
One interesting thing from the legal side is that how he was found. Police can't just randomly pull you over and give you a breathaylzer and make you do field sobriety tests (well they can but it could be thrown out). Now since TLR had the SUV in drive it will probably be hard to make a case he "wasn't technically driving" but if it was in park and he was simply on the side of the road that may be an interesting legal argument.
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Popeye_Card
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Yes, and while you can put down the phone or take your foot off the gas, you can also look in your hand and say, "Egads! I am on the phone while driving!", or you can look at your speedometer and know to slow down. It's such an imperceptible line between 0.05 and 0.10. Who knows where you are in that spectrum unless you blow? Yes, you should call a cab if it's even questionable, but how many people really practice what they preach in that regard? Yeah, LaRussa is rich. Each and every one of us can afford a cab though (or else we probably shouldn't be out drinking), and yet we don't. We say to ourselves, "I'm certainly not drunk. I can handle driving home." The vast majority of us do, whether we are actually driving home legally (.06 to .08) or not (.08 to .10).skmsw wrote:
You (and others) raise several valid points about cell phones, speeding, etc. Those things also elevate risk, and cause or contribute to accidents. Although I would suggest that one can put down the phone or take your foot off the gas while one cannot usually will yourself to sobriety, I readily agree that there are lots of ways to be dangerous.
I, like most on here, think I know my own limits of what I think that I can handle and still drive safely, and handle and still be legal. For me, I always try to stay below the latter (which is lower) if I know I'm going to need to drive. But I'll never know for sure if my hunch is correct until I get pulled over some day, and I'm administered an official breathelizer test by a cop. Tony, as far as I know, never knew his level either.
Again, more importantly to me, he fell asleep while driving. MUCH more dangerous than the amount of alcohol in his system in terms of impairing his driving. But there's no field-administered test to gauge how tired someone is while driving.
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Popeye_Card
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I don't think any of us expect him to moan.jim wrote:Balltillyafall, maddash, kyle ... Some posts that are pretty much where my line of thoughts on this are, even if I haven't expressed them as well.
I guarantee you LaRussa will stand up to this, and do the right thing. I'll be very surprised if publicly or privately LaRussa is moaning about the .08, or the fact that he had been up since 5am, or the fact that the night air made him tired, or.....
If I were caught at .093, I would not moan. Just as if I were given a speeding ticket for going 73 in 65, I would not moan about barely being over. I was over, I broke the law, I pay the price.
BUT, apparently this mishap reduces the respect some people have for LaRussa. I'm not in agreement with that. I think it's a simple mistake. That's my point in all of this. It's not to say that LaRussa isn't guilty of something he obviously got busted for, and that he doesn't deserve to be punished for it.
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cardinalkarp
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skmsw
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I do not think you and I see any of that differently.BUT, apparently this mishap reduces the respect some people have for LaRussa. I'm not in agreement with that. I think it's a simple mistake. That's my point in all of this. It's not to say that LaRussa isn't guilty of something he obviously got busted for, and that he doesn't deserve to be punished for it.
For me, there is a non-issue element to this: the fact that the manager of my favorite team took a DUI has nothing to do with him managing my favorite team.. Nothing has changed, I won't view him differently.
Obviously not due to the fact that I do not take DUIs seriously.