How The Feds' $8 Million Roadblocks Secretly Tested Drivers For Booze

[Newsjock]

Source: Jalopnik

If you were driving home and a cop ordered you to park somewhere, and then someone from the government asked for your saliva or blood while secretly testing you for alcohol use, would you feel like your rights were violated? Many Americans did when it happened to them, according to documents from a Freedom of Information Act request by Jalopnik and a closer look at the program's methods.

Thousands of Americans are still furious over the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's $8 million, local police-aided roadblock alcohol and drug test surveys that was run in 60 cities last year.

... Documents from a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Jalopnik seeking complaints about the program following last year's outcry over roadblocks in the Dallas area, as well as media reports from the time, reveals an agency inundated with criticism over the program, and one caught seemingly unprepared to deal with the backlash.

Furthermore, while NHTSA has claimed the surveys were entirely voluntary, a closer look at the survey's methodology reveals stopped drivers were secretly tested anyway before they could give or deny consent.

Read more: http://jalopnik.com/how-the-feds-8-million-roadblocks-secretly-tested-dr-1529376247

[elleng]

1. someone from the government asked for your saliva or blood =

no damn secret what they're doing!

[Chan790]

3. clone army?

[Earth_First]

2. I'm not giving *anyone* on the side of the road *anything*

who states "I'm from the government..."

[okaawhatever]

4. This study has been going on for decades and the volunteers are paid. Even those who are

legally intoxicated aren't charged. Nothing to see here.

[idendoit]

7. Consent is given when you get behind the wheel.

Anywhere, anytime.

[El_Johns]

8. Not. Only for cause (such as driving erratically). Taking blood and saliva is search and seizure.

The government doesn't have the right to take your blood and saliva at will.

[idendoit]

9. Try reading a little slower, maybe it'll come to you.

[El_Johns]

10. Try discussing rather than being snarky & maybe someone will care.

[appal_jack]

11. More authoritarianism at DU. Sigh.

Last edited Tue Feb 25, 2014, 11:55 PM - Edit history (1)

More authoritarianism at DU.

Sigh.

Just today, I've read supposedly-progressive DU'ers telling me that the EPA should regulate wood stoves basically out of existence, how rifles should be seized from the citizens of CT ('The Constitution State') using 'MRAPs' and the threat of 'cold dead hands,' how small-scale farmers ought to be inspected and regulated by the FDA until the burden drives them entirely out of business, and now I get to be told that once I decide to travel by the most common avenue open to Americans, all rights are automatically waived.

No. Just no.

I am an American - a citizen of a Constitutional Republic. I do not consent to the further erosion of my rights.

-app

[woo me with science]

5. K&R