Victimless crime? No

Dear Editor,

After reading the Sept. 10 issue of the Hudson Star-Observer I became furious when I came across the letter to the editor “Against more drinking laws” by Mr. Mohn.

The ignorance that came through with that article was appalling. DUIs are far from victimless crimes. As the sister of someone who was critically injured and forever changed by a man driving under the influence, I believe drunk driving is a huge problem.

Drivers that are under the influence make the choice to get into their own vehicles, but sometimes others have to pay the consequences for their stupid decisions. How is this a victimless crime? They ruin their own lives, without any help.

Morality is a personal aspect of someone’s life but if they cannot control themselves why must we pay? DUI offenders are criminals. Wisconsin law prohibits a person from driving or operating a motor vehicle while “under the influence of alcohol, a controlled substance, or a combination of alcohol and a controlled substance, or any other drug” that would make that person unsafe to be behind the wheel.

Thus because it is a crime, they are criminals. If what they did leads to a felony, then they are felons.

These offenders may be our friends and family, but also think that every 33 minutes someone is killed due to alcohol-related crashes. Those people could also be your friends and family.

Driving under the influence is a serious problem in our society. Drinking alcohol impairs a person’s judgment, reaction time and vision. These effects happen long before outward signs of impairment show.

If anything, there should be harsher punishments for those who drive under the influence. Courts need to stop giving them “slaps on the wrist” for such behavior.

I realize there are bad parts to this such as the costs and overcrowding in our prisons. But I am sure that if it was you who had someone special that was injured by a drunk driver you would pay anything to make sure they were OK and it never happened again. A life is priceless.

Tags: drunk driving, opinion, letters