If you don't live in Texas, don't think this doesn't concern you. It may already be happening in your area and, if it isn't it is probably come soon so please read on when I start blogging about local LEO activities. Feel free to comment on what goes on where you are as well.
"Texas ranks number one in the country in alcohol related traffic deaths." I detest drunk driving. If you kill someone while driving drunk, I'll be calling in murder and screaming for the death penalty. However, I think what is going on in Houston is atrocious too. A few years ago, Operation No Refusal got rolling. Essentially, they put extra LEOs on duty for a weekend (often on holiday weekends like this one), set up road blocks, and "have a judge on call, giving them quick access to warrants for blood samples from arrested drivers who refuse breath tests" (Id.). The whole process raises more constitutional issues than I could cover in multiple blog entries but it would start with "road blocks"? what part of stopping every single vehicle adds up to the reasonable suspicion standard? (Sorry for that little run-on but it's where my mind goes instantly upon reading the "road block" part.) At the end of these lovely weekends, the media touts the number of drunk drivers arrested. What they don't tell us is how many people they stopped, detained, and released. What they don't tell us is how many people they arrested but the charges were later dismissed. What they don't tell us is how many were arrested and later acquitted and, under these circumstances, one of those is WAY too many in my book. So, anyway, extra officers, road blocks and rubber stamping judges and now they're taking it to a whole new level.
NOW, HPD will drawing blood at the road blocks! "Houston police confirmed Thursday that a group of officers will be trained to draw blood from DWI suspects... From Thanksgiving through the first of the year, the DWI task force plans to use mandatory blood tests... For now, they will only be conducted by trained medical professionals. But soon, HPD plans to train officers to take blood." I haven't had a drink for nearly a decade BUT this disturbs me greatly because I already have an idea of how many people with medical problems and those who drive tired are detained and accused of DWI. It won't be just drunks who are subjected to being held down and having a needle jabbed in their arm by a LEO. it could be you, your CHILD, your GRANDCHILD. Just imagine 3 huge cops holding down a 16 year old female relative of yours and jabbing a needle in her arm. Even if this child is drunk driving and oh so much in the wrong, THIS is not what I want to see our LEOs doing, not in MY name you don't!
"Even though an appeals court recently threw out a case in Fort Worth where an officer withdrew blood from a struggling suspect, Houston police said it believes the program is constitutionally sound." Id. I'm speechless; just speechless. I'll let Sheriff Adrian Garcia speak for me: "there will always be those that think they are above the law". Yep, and we know who many of them are because they wear uniforms and badges!
And never forget that failure to comply may get you whacked or electroshocked or shot by these over the top, think they can do whatever they want to anyone, LEOs. If I were stopped at one of these roadblocks, the first words out of my mouth would be: "Am I free to leave?" and, if not, this is the one I'd risk being shot over. I will never, ever submit to being forcibly stabbed by a LEO with a needle; it's one step shy of rape and maybe not a full step. I've been shot at after escaping a rapist. I know exactly what my knee jerk reaction would be and I can live or die with the consequences of defending my person and my fundamental rights.