A Newton Alternative

 A NEWTON ALTERNATIVE

Having watched the interaction between the Newton Police Department and citizens of the community on numerous videos over the years, a solution presents itself.  And although I am advocating, once again, against my own interest as a criminal defense attorney, the following seems to me to be a decent thing to do.

Rather than subjecting a person to public display along side the road requiring you to perform gymnastics, shining a light in your eyes to see if they work properly, requiring you to blow into a little tube to see if they have been imbibing alcohol, and then putting you in handcuffs behind your back (as if you were a terrorist or for 'officer safety'), impounding your vehicle, transporting you to jail, and if the test comes back negative for alcohol to make you pee in a cup to see if you have any illegal substances in your blood, and finally requiring you to call a bondsman to get out of jail at significant expense to let your dog out or take your elderly parent to the doctor or any number of other reasons you need to be home in the morning, there is an alternative to this punishment by cop.

And before I get into that alternative, it must be pointed out that in our system, punishment really is meted out by the police.  The above experience is indeed punishment.  There is no waiting around for the judge to mete out punishment; it is done immediately by our local law enforcement if they have any suspicion that you are behaving inappropriately.  What I have described above happens almost nightly here in Newton.  And yes, the officers are very polite while they treat you like an object which makes it no less humiliating, disruptive, and expensive.  And you must realize also, they are not required to arrest you; they can cite you to appear in court.  They arrest you instead of citing you because it is their "policy"; they have decided to punish you, they are not waiting to take the chance that a court may let you off.  They treat you poorly by choice.

My proposal is this:  if an officer observes you driving while impaired, the official version of criminal activity, offer a breath test or even better, simply have a conversation, and if suspicion results of impairment offer a ride home.  Every purpose of the OWI statutes would be accomplished.  You would no longer be a threat to other motorists or the homeless; you would escape any possibility of injury to yourself or damage to your vehicle and all would be well.  The only person possibly harmed by this would be the local bondsman who derives his or her living on the harm done to others by our local constabulary.

The most important difference in these two options is striking.  In the first, you are treated really poorly with significant interruption and expense in your life; and in the second option, you are treated with respect as a fellow citizen in the community where you live.  The first option simply put is: if you don't do what you are told by the government, you will suffer - - you will be punished, you are a bad person, you have disobeyed,  and therefore you will be treated badly.

We don't realize just how much control we have allowed our government to have over us.  And, it increases every year with new laws and requirements and regulations and whatnot.  I think it is time for a reset.

Richard E H Phelps II

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