I posted a few days ago about yet another example of MADD’s influence in pressuring legislators to pass ever-more Draconian laws: proposed DUI laws in Manitoba giving police unlimited power to pull over any driver they wish and administer field sobriety tests – regardless of whether there are any indications of drunk driving. The following is a newspaper staff editorial standing up to similar pressures from MADD in another province, British Columbia:
Liberties Infringed
Vancouver, BC. Oct. 25 –Drunk driving is a scourge on society. It kills innocent people and maims others. But the B.C. government has taken stern measures to combat it, including the imposition of some of the toughest penalties in Canada.
That’s one reason we have strong reservations about the call by Mothers Against Drunk Driving for random testing that would allow police to pull citizens over for breathalyzer tests, even without suspicion a driver is impaired. This gives police too much power. And we have all seen what transpires when that’s allowed to happen.
Irish poet Brendan Behan may have overstated it when he said: "I have never seen a situation so dismal that a policeman couldn’t make it worse." But we don’t want a police state, and there should be reasonable limits on their authority. Let’s not further curb precious liberties.
If only the editorial staffs of our own newspapers had the courage to stand up to MADD…
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