DUI Checkpoint Cheat Sheet For July 20 Weekend: Look Out, Black L.A.

Reza Velayati

I'm tired of idiots claiming these checkpoints are racist. If a Mexican isn't drunk and has a drivers' license then they have nothing to fear at a DUI checkpoint. They're arrested for drunk driving or driving without licenses... They're arrested because of what they've done, not because of their ethnicity. Enabling drunk drivers, regardless of their ethnicity isn't cool.... it's enabling criminals. When someone gets killed, or their lives ruined.... then I'm sure people at the LA Weekly pretend like it's a tragedy that couldn't have been prevented.... Well, maybe if the Weekly quit enabling drunk drivers, some of those tragedies could be prevented. The more of these idiots off the rode, the better. Driving is dangerous enough as is.

Nathan Ray

Hey LA Weekly... stop enabling drunk drivers!! The only people that appreciate you sharing this information are the ones that are planning on driving drunk and hoping to get away with it.

djromero moderator editortopcommenter

Echo:

What facts did I get wrong.

I'm glad there are white people around L.A. still. I'm sort of one of them (half), but the truth is that the checkpoints above are in areas that are overwhelmingly black and Latino. Fact.

EchoParkResident

Technically you didn't get any facts wrong because none were presented, per se, just generalizations, and from there you jumped to conclusions which you presented as fact. You could mention how Rodney King was pulled over on a DUI and subsequently beaten, but you don't -- that would be a fact. Instead it's just well black and latino people live here, so, it must be racial. My personal fact is that I was hit by a white guy in echo park, so where does that fit into this alleged assault on minorities? Perhaps I'm a victim of white-on-white crime..

How many of the people, whatever race, who failed breathelizers this weekend won't be above the legal limit? Fact: 0.

Does the LAPD have a special breathelizer that makes black and latino people appear more above the limit?

What a story that would be, were it true..

But if you want to talk fact facts:

1. The Eastside is not Mexico crossed out; nor is that why there are the same laws as everywhere else in that area. If there are people driving without license, are we supposed to not have DUI checkpoints in case the police catch a drunk, undocumented driver? The white guy who hit me said he was on welfare and hoped I wouldn't follow up (which I did) -- because if you can't afford to drive drunk, don't, if you can't legally drive-- don't. There is no financial nor racial component to the concept of personal responsibility.

2. LA Live is "predominantly black and latino"? -- it's a tourist attraction. You know TBKR is also playing this weekend, not just an "R&B concert" (last big event I went to there was the LA Film Festival -- notorious minority Woody Allen was there)..

Westlake is heavily Latino, but DT includes Little Tokyo, Chinatown, and Koreatown is right next door, plus there are many Asians who live in the communities you've listed above, including the Southside, so is it really a Latino, Black, and Asian targeting spree? Because first it was "the heart of African American" by the end of the article it was "Blacks and Latinos" now perhaps it'll be "Blacks, Latinos, Asians" and if you include -- which you half heartedly did -- the BHPD and hell why not Malibu and OCPD all of a sudden you have a racial spree against "Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and, dare I say, Whites" hmm.. is it possible the LAPD just has a vested interest in keeping drunk drivers off the streets?

Occam's razor.

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that perhaps the real conspiracy here isn't the LAPD, rather you're making a very justifiable police response to a very serious situation that kills and mames a lot of innocent people regardless of race into a race issue when what you should really write is "hey I'm trying to be cool and give LAweekly 21-24 y/o demographic a headsup on the DUIs right before the weekend"... because I'm pretty sure there are cab companies that reach all of those areas, too; but that wouldn't get all the shares on facebook would it.............

djromero moderator editortopcommenter

@EchoParkResident Echo I was joking about the Eastside/Mexico, of course.

The facts are the checkpoints the LAPD publicizes are rarely in L.A.s white areas. I've been writing about this for a while and didn't want to rehash, but you're free to use Google and explore that for yourself. Go ahead and pull up all the publicized checkpoints in, say, the last 3 years, and determine the ratio of white areas to nonwhite.

Tell you what: La Opinion did just that (or something close to it) and determined the FACTS already presented here (again, I didn't want to rehash because every week I post one of these cheat sheets someone challenges me on these FACTS that have already been argued repeatedly in previous articles).

Yeah, the area around Staples is overwhelmingly Latino and yes, there was a black concert scheduled. FACTS. In fact, Staples was built on top of a barrio that was destroyed for it. FACT.

I'm not really sure what you're saying in that last point, but let me reiterate for the umpeenth time that the LAPD wants us to publicize these. Whatever motives you're ascribing to me should be passed along to them.

This piece is about the LAPD's checkpoints, mainly, but when the LASD and other departments publicize theirs I include them.

Whether or not these things are effective or have led to the reduction in killing/maming/DUIs, I'm not sure, but that's not really what this was about. But if you want to go there you should check out an excellent story in our sister publication Minnealopis City Pages titled "Do DWI Laws Work."

Oh, and on your last point about my knowledge of L.A. neighborhoods, you're wrong. You clearly haven't been reading me, so how would you come to that conclusion? I covered cops out of Parker Center and have been at this in this town for 20 years, FYI.

Thanks for your feedback, though.

Alejandra Frias

Hey thanks for the head's up!

Mike Mollica

Don't drink and drive. Stop posting guides encouraging people to do so.

EchoParkResident

I was hit by a white driver in Echo Park on Jan 1 on Sunset and Alvarado. I used to live in DT, which is very diverse for two years, and I recently moved to Echo Park... the Eastside is not "Mexico" crossed out, there are Americans who live there, no matter what country their parents were born. Hell, the taco zone next to Vons on Alvarado was closed on the 4th of July! So don't pretend to represent the woes of a neighborhood you obviously know nothing about. You call a DUI checkpoint racist -- wouldn't it be racist if there were no police defending the community in poor neighborhoods? When MLK Jr. preached "free at last" it didn't have to do with drinking and driving.. get your facts straight.

Jeff Brynan

Not understanding at all why anyone would want to assist people by warning them where DUI check points are. This simply undermines the efforts to catch idiots that drink and drive and endanger everyone else on the road.

Jacob Justin Tanenbaum

Also how can the author claim having a checkpoint at the Staple Center is racially motivated!? Having lived in Downtown for two years it is a very diverse area. I was hit by a drunk WHITE driver in Echo Park on Jan 1. but you would have there be no checkpoints because it is predominantly Latino area? What's Spanish for "go fuck yourself you pompous little social media intern?"

Pat Walsh

Newsflash, they have checkpoints in white neighborhoods too. Like Studio City, Santa Clarita, Santa Monica, and Chatsworth. Quitjur bitchin, and don't make a race issue out of it Mr. story writer.