The Government Made Me a Litterbug
Uncle has turned me into a litterbug.
I’ve chucked empty beer bottles out the window. I do not like doing this. I feel guilty about doing this. I never used to do this.
So why do I do it now?
Because having an “open container” – or an empty one – in one’s car invites severe (and for me, a car journalist, life-altering) consequences. If one happens to be pulled over by a cop for any random reason (seatbelt “violation,” “speeding,” an out-of-date sticker) and he sees an “open” or “empty” in the car, you are in serious trouble.
Better call Saul.
Even if the “empty” has been empty for weeks.
Even if all you’ve had is a sip – and your BAC level is nowhere near the legal limit defining “drunk” driving.
Physical Gold & Silver in your IRA. Get the Facts.
It doesn’t matter.
You still face the possibility of being charged with “drinking while driving” or “driving under the influence” – whatever the verbiage – and are subject to arrest and prosecution just as you would be if you “blew” a .08 or more on the Breathalyzer (see here for an interesting legal explanation/analysis) machine.
Except you didn’t.
Not being “drunk” isn’t a defense.
All that’s required to establish your “guilt” is the presence in the car of the open/empty container – even if it’s not yours. Even if you didn’t have so much as a sip.
You are presumed guilty of drinking while driving by dint of the presence of the container and it being opened or empty.
This is not unlike characterizing an 18-year-old as a “sex offender” because he had relations with his 17-year-old girlfriend.
Sober drivers are subject to being arrested and convicted and their lives ruined for what amounts to the same offense – in terms of what will happen to them – as drivers whose BAC levels are at or beyond the legal threshold defining them as “drunk.”
Even though theirs aren’t.
Hence the motivation to throw any empties out the window.
Littering is a small bust.
Clovers (see here) will sniff that people simply ought not to drink alcohol while driving, ever, regardless of the amount. But the presence of a bottle in the car does not establish that the driver has been drinking. Only that someone did. At some point. Maybe a long time ago.
But even if the driver was drinking, so what?
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