I have been ticked off about this for a while, but tonight I have to say my piece. Nashville has gone on overdrive, it seems, with sobriety checkpoints. I guess I see the value--you want to stop drunk driving and all that entails. My beef is it seems to hassle a lot of people for little gain. And also, I think the resources should be spent on trying to stop other more insidious crime.
Tonight I was leaving a retail establishment about 8 p.m. on West End, when a metro police car drove right up onto the sidewalk right beside me. It frightened me, as it looked like the officer really wasn't paying attention to what he was doing. He could have easily smashed right into the left side of my car. To be honest, I don't think he ever saw me, and I was right beside him.
And the way the police officers stand at the side of the road in these checkpoints in their black uniforms is just dangerous. Especially in some of the locations. You just can't see them in the dark, and suddenly there they are stepping up to your car with their little orange cone???? Hello???? Can you say ACCIDENT WAITING TO HAPPEN???
You're trying to make Nashville streets more safe by being reckless????? And by the way, it is ILLEGAL to drive on the sidewalk. Have the police heard of this. Chief Serpas are you listening???
The police have also held a sobriety checkpoint a couple of times right by my house. I saw blue lights coming in through my blinds, so I took my dog outside to see what was going on. They were stopping every car, asking if they had had any alcohol. If they said yes, they were asked to get out of the car and do sobriety field tests. I stayed there for a short time watching. I was impressed at how well people did. I couldn't stand on one leg for countless minutes even sober. We have some people with good balance here in Nashville.
But the truth is most people can have about two drinks before they would be above the legal limit. Stopping everyone who drives by is just a nuisance. And the real chronic drunks are probably driving elsewhere.
I would just like to see them put that same zeal toward solving some real crime.
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