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March 2010

Archive for the shenandoah dwi dui lawyer Category

Harrisonburg DWI Attorney Bob Keefer says it may be a conflict to allow MADD to present awards to high DWI producing Officers

18. August 2008 by admin.

www.BobKeeferLaw.com

Local Officers certainly do a good job of enforcing our criminal code. In our area we are very fortunate to have some extremely competent officers who are also good people.

Local Recipients of the 2007 MADD Outstanding Law Enforcement Awards were Dayton Officer Aaron Will, Grottoes Officer Wesley Scott Baugher, Harrisonburg Officer Charles Grubbs, JMU Officer Frank Stilson, Timberville Officer Larry Crider and Trooper David M. Fisher. These fine officers would certainly enforce the law without MADD’s recognition.

However, MADD understands that you get more of what you subsidize and MADD is playing for big dollars.

According to the Obama-Coburn Federal Funding Accountability Transparency Act of 2006, MADD received $9,593,455.00 in funds from the federal government between fiscal years 2001 and 2006, but received only $56,814 in fiscal year 2000.

That does not count private donations, state funding and money taken from DUI defendants.Does this competition for most DWI arrests sponsored by MADD subtly encourage the arrest of marginal DWI suspects?

Does this competition inject a bias into our law enforcement community to convict DWI suspects?

Does MADD’s characterization of DWI as a violent crime subtly affect the way DWI suspects are treated? It is interesting to look at what the founder of MADD, Candy Lightner says about the organization’s aims: By 1985, many MADD leaders were calling for the criminalization of all driving after drinking any amount of alcoholic beverage.

Lightner disagreed with this aim and said that police ought to be concentrating their resources on arresting drunk drivers, not those drivers who happen to have been drinking.

Lightner stated that MADD “has become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted or envisioned … I didn’t start MADD to deal with alcohol. I started MADD to deal with the issue of drunk driving”.

Should our Officers be encourage to adopt MADD’s neo-prohibitionist position? I do not think so; it is not the law.

Read my book on how to hire a Virginia DUI DWI Lawyer:

http://www.keeferlawfirm.com/docs/How%20to%20choose%20a%20va%20dui%20lawyer.pdf

Bob Keefer represents people charged with DUI/ DWI, traffic tickets, speeding tickets and reckless driving in Elkton, Virginia; Bridgewater, Virginia; Verona, Virginia; Harrisonburg, Virginia; Rockingham County, Virginia; Staunton, Virginia; Augusta County, Virginia; Page County, Virginia; Luray, Virginia; Woodstock, Virginia; Waynesboro, Virginia; and Shenandoah County, Virginia.