|
There are many times that we see, either in print or on television, advertisements from one government agency or another touting some new program they are working on. More times than not we never see or experience any ramifications of these programs and we file them in our minds under useless FYI.
Lately the television airwaves have shown a barrage of commercials warning us that if we drink and drive we will be caught and prosecuted. I already assumed that this was the case and wondered why the government was spending my tax dollars to tell me something I already knew.
I just chalked it up to more frivolous spending while we are still in the time of the “Shrub”. I mean why would the government want to spend their, make that our, money on something like, oh I don’t know, the rebuilding of New Orleans, when it can be so wisely spent on producing a commercial about something that we all already know? Call me silly, but that’s just how I think.
“ Over the Limit. Under Arrest”, in a voice that sounds like a bad impersonation of Darth Vader, warns us as we are treated to humorous visuals of male drivers driving around in cars filled with their drinks of choice that we will be arrested. When these guys are pulled over and the door of their cars are opened a veritable waterfall of wine, beer, or martinis, whatever the driver was supposedly drinking, comes flooding out. The visual really illustrates the true meaning of “being sloshed”.
To be honest, I really didn’t give the commercial too much thought until last Friday night. My wife Stacey was on her way back home with our son Alex from his JV football practice when she called me. She wanted to warn me that she would be a few minutes late because she was unable to turn left into our driveway while going south down Rosemead Boulevard.
 What? I was out just a couple of hours ago and didn’t have a problem. “Well that was because there wasn’t a sobriety check point set up then”, she informed me. The checkpoint wasn’t north or south of us, it was right in front of our driveway. In essence blocking us from going in or out. Well you could get in an out if you wanted to explain and re-explain to the Sheriffs what you were doing.
Luckily we didn’t have anything to do that night and the pickings were slim on the boob tube so the Sheriffs and the O.T.S. (Office of Traffic and Safety) would be providing the evening’s entertainment. Not only that my daughter Rachel, who was at work and unaware of this situation, would need a little help and guidance to navigate this madness. She wouldn’t be calling us until she was ready to leave work so we thought we would take in the show until she showed.
We weren’t the only ones who had this idea as the streets were lined with residents from both sides of the boulevard. It was as though the circus had come to town and with all of the commercials that had been running, I felt as though I had been pumped up for a primetime special. Sadly, there were no cars filled with martinis spilling onto the streets. I guess the special effects guys weren’t in the budget for the live show.
Even without the special effects the circus feel was definitely there. With all of the spotlights, orange cones, and the Sheriffs’ cruisers with their flashing red and blue lights, it had all the markings of a big top extravaganza. Toss in the occasional blare of a Sheriff radio or siren blast and it was as though you were at a concert. I was kind of looking at it as “COPS: Live”.
The cast was not just local Sheriffs from the Temple Station. Based on the markings on the cars we had supporting players from Rosemead and Duarte as well. I was kind of getting the vibe that the cast wasn’t expecting such a large audience and I may be wrong, but some of them didn’t seem to be too pleased with all of the scrutiny and attention.
I probably didn’t help matters much when after watching for about an hour I thought it would be a good idea to try taking a few pictures for the paper. After I had taken a few shots I began to notice that some of the Sheriff’s expressions of indifference had turned to frowns and a couple were flat out scowling at me.
That was with the exception of one friendly officer named Frank, who while based out of the Temple station, worked the South El Monte area. He called over to me from his post to ask what I was up to and when I explained that I was with the newspaper he came over to chat with me. He was very friendly, answered all my questions, and then went back to work.
 While they did stop and check approximately 1300 drivers, 1900 cars passed through the checkpoint according to Sgt. Ward at the Temple Station. They had to let a number of cars pass through because of the traffic delays it was causing. It was a daunting task to keep the traffic flowing and check as many cars as possible at the same time, but they pulled it off.
Sgt. Ward also informed me that this was not just a DUI checkpoint, it was also a safety checkpoint as well. So if you were driving without a license or a suspended one you were in for a little surprise if stopped. As my wife and I watched the show we noticed a number of cars being loaded onto tow trucks mistakenly thinking they were those of arrested drunk drivers.
In reality there were only 4 DUI arrests, the rest of the cars towed were those of unlicensed drivers. Considering the amount of bitching I have done in the past about how many unlicensed drivers there had to be in this area, I must say I felt a bit vindicated by the fact that there were more of them caught than arrests for DUI. I have to say it, I told you so.
Soon the show was over, too soon in fact. They were packed up and out of there by about 12:40 AM, which if you really want to catch drunk drivers is too early, I mean the bars don’t even close until 2:00 AM. I do think that if the Sheriffs really want to get the most bang for their buck or should I say more drunks in the tank, they should start the checkpoint at 11:00 PM and go until 3:00 AM.
You would not only snag more of the drivers that you want, the blatant violators who pose the most danger while behind the wheel, but you would also cut down on the number of cars involved in the traffic back up. I am not sure if having a crowd of observers was truly a problem, but I’m sure you wouldn’t be drawing the same size audience doing it later. I just thought I would throw out a couple of little critiques that might improve the show for future performances.
I, on the other hand, stay up late, so can you let me know when you will be coming back so I can set out some chairs or set up some bleachers and invite some friends over to see the show?
|
