Quote:
Originally Posted by The Goat
Not so sure about Canada but for instance my mother lived in Japan off and on for years and witnessed the zero tolerance policy there. Again, vehicle permanently confiscated and loss of driving privilege for years. When I lived in Europe (mostly Germany) in '98 I was pretty shocked at how serious the drunk driving laws were taken. I know I heard mention of permanently revoked license... never heard of such a thing in the US.
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Japan and Germany are two drastically different cultures and lands then ours. Both places have much smaller land masses, and mass transit is readily available and useful.
one other thing, it is interesting that in this thread started basically to highlight abuse of police authority, we are now discussing whether they should have the power of license revocation. Remember police have HUGE discretion on who they pull over and for what they use as a reason. A short story: when I was an MP in Germany riding with a senior partner one friday night, the partner would sit at a particular corner and wait for people to forget a turn signal or some other minor indiscretion so he could pull them over. He just wanted to find anyone he could to hassle, and if they were over the limit great. He was one of the guys who turned me away from cops or staying as a policeman in the civilian sector. Did he ever really set someone up, or falsify a report, I don't think so, but if he knew he could keep someone off the road that he didn't like, I think he wouldn't hesitate. I know that's not every officer, but in my experience it was enough of them.