DUI is Now a Badge of Honor
Are you kidding? Is having a drunk driving offense (DUI) a badge of honor in todays society? I suppose there are worse things to be proud of, such as the types of terrible things you have to do to get “jumped in” and join a street gang… Well, if youve hung around a whole bunch of bars lately as I have, you might take this more seriously.
As marketing director of a DUI lawyer referral website, DWI has been on my mind quite a bit lately. In fact, I decided it would be important to interview 50-60 people who wear this badge of honor to see what they experienced when they were pulled over and arrested for driving under the influence of… drugs or alcohol, you pick.
I went to the bank and withdrew a whole bunch of five dollar bills and that night, off I went to the local bars to seek out interviewees. I figured offering someone five bucks to talk about their entanglement with the DUI police would be more than enough to get some juicy interviews.
And what better place to find people whove been arrested for DUI than a bar? If that sounds ridiculous to you, it sounded like a good idea to me, and it worked out just fine, actually!
Within the first 10 minutes at a local bar, I had found a young guy in his twenties who told me when he was pulled over, he blew a 0.13 and was taken into custody and thrown into the local “drunk tank” for an overnight stay before he got to see a judge. He ended up hiring a DUI attorney through the internet, spent one more day in jail, and ended up paying about $6,000 besides his ignition interlock fees and 3 alcohol counseling sessions.
The rest of my night was spent talking to about 3 other ex-DUI arrestees, and heres where the crazy part comes in. None of the people I spoke to seemed too traumatized by their experience, and over the next week, I talked to about 7 young men whose friends had had their own DUIs. It wasnt unusual to get one talking about his experience when his friends would chime in and start comparing “experiences”.
It was as if having a drunk driving conviction was the new “sheik”! Whos ignition interlock was the most sensitive? Who had blown the highest BAC? Did you have to do the field sobriety test, well I did! It was bragging rights all around from what I could tell, and I was astonished.
Well, it ended up that I got the data I wanted, straight from the horses mouth, but needless to say, I was surprised by what I heard when I wasnt asking questions. I dont think well be taking this into account when were running our myDUIattorney.org DUI lawyer referral site, but you never know. A badge of honor is just that.
Richard Jacobs is marketing director of myDUIattorney.org a new DUI lawyer referral service for those unfortunate people who have been arrested for driving under the influence and put through the meat grinder of the justice system.