That boy has the demon of alcohol in him!

Trying to explain something simple to a drunk person is like trying to teach a two-year-old how to build a flow chart for NASA. They look at you very intently for a minute and then ask the smartest question they can to let you know they are listening. In one instance I explained to an intoxicated driver that he was being pulled over because he was driving not only on the wrong side of the road but partially on the sidewalk of the wrong side of the road. After listening with a very direct stare and occasional nodding of his head, the man finally stated, “Those sidewalks are not wide enough for two people to walk down.” I agreed with him and then explained again the problem with him driving on them. His next statement was, “They need to get those crosswalks fixed before someone gets hurt,” and after the third time I explained why I stopped him he asked me if I wanted to follow him to his house and see his new fence. When I demonstrated how to perform the walk and turn test he told me he would just sit down while he called someone about his tires and proceeded to lay down in the road. It goes without saying that he went to jail. I arrested a person for trespassing after he was caught in a stranger’s house, who began telling me that an old lady scared him because he was trying to use the phone in her house and she sounded like the devil when she yelled at him. He did not understand the problem was that he was in her house and he was not even in the right town. After I placed him in my patrol car, the elderly lady started shaking her finger towards the man and told me, “That boy has the demon of alcohol in him.” The lady said I saved her when I arrived and arrested him, but to this day I think I saved the drunken man from her!

We often deal with people on drugs that do crazy things, and the side effects of those drugs are not only dangerous but obviously take away their ability to make sound decisions. I once asked a driver how much he had to drink and was given the standard answer, “two beers.” He then went on to tell me that he was okay to drive because he did not do drugs or “any of that bad stuff.” That person died in a vehicle accident a few months later. He was intoxicated when his truck hit another vehicle driving down the road.

It does not seem like a big deal to some people to have a few drinks before driving home or somewhere else, but once someone has had enough alcohol to begin impairing their judgement they do not realize what they are doing, and most of the time they do not think they have had too much to drink. Once they are behind the wheel of a car, they are just as dangerous as any person on drugs, and their brain cells begin working just as bad. Over St. Patrick’s Day weekend deputies made two DWI arrests, three for felony drug possession, as well as several warrant arrests. Although these numbers are better then they have been in the past, even one drunk driver behind the wheel of a car is too many. What could have been a simple phone call for a ride can easily turn into an incident that can change many lives forever. We have heard every excuse there is for someone trying to justify why it was okay for them to be drinking and driving. I have heard people say, don’t you know who I am, I only live a few miles down the road, and why aren’t you out arresting the drug dealers instead of bothering people like me. The opportunity to get pulled over for DWI is up to the person who decided to drink and drive, not the deputy or officer who spotted them. Keeping the roads safe for people to drive on starts with a responsible choice of not driving to begin with when you have been drinking. Going to jail or causing an accident is not worth any reason someone could have for not getting a ride from a sober person. Help us keep our streets safe by making that phone call instead of getting behind the wheel of a car.