Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Drunk driving loophole

This Statesman article is aimed to show the lack of laws that get passed by the Texas Legislature that actually serve their intended purpose.  The example the author chose to use in this article was a law passed in 2001, which was supposed to make the penalty for drunk driver much more severe.  According to the law, if a person refuses to take a alcohol breath test they could face a 180 day suspended license and if they fail the test they get a 90 day revocation.  Although on the surface the law seems tough, there are many ways to get around it.  Lawyers and their clients will get occupational licenses for the drunk driving suspect to avoid the suspended license charges.  Some of which I am sure are warranted, but, according to this article, there are many judges that provide these drivers with an occupational license solely based on the word of the defendant.  I feel the author's main audience would be the Texas Legislature itself and the general public.  The writer wants to provide some insight of the problem to the public and also wants the Texas Legislature to realize that many of the laws they pass are easily manipulated or loopholed in order to prevent the defendant from getting the punishment that was intended.  I agree with his dispute, but I think his use of only one lawyer throughout his argument makes it feel a bit weaker than it could have been.  When the author introduces his points throughout the article, he could have used more sources to support his claim.  Only having used one quote in his defense shows me that the writer either had the lack of ability to find more sources or the lack of sources that there were to be found for his defense.


http://www.statesman.com/opinion/loopholes-big-enough-to-drive-through-1050051.html

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