New Haven Independent

Posted by: Bruce | May 9, 2006 8:01 AM

Hell yes, you did the right thing. No doubt about it. I've called in (seemingly) drunken drivers on two separate occasions, and both times I wished I had been able to follow through and see the person arrested. Police can't catch every criminal on their own -- they count on community support from people like you.

Don't listen to the kids. In a case like this, snitching is the brave and honorable thing to do.

Posted by: abc | May 9, 2006 1:28 PM

i think you did the right thing. but i wonder if the police would actually go and investigate, much less enforce the law that we pay them to enforce.

have you been cut off by someone running a red light lately and seen a cop sitting nearby do nothing? i have--more than once. i wonder what this kind of laissez-faire attitude leads people to believe? perhaps that the law is made to be broken? nah.

Posted by: donw2181 | May 9, 2006 4:08 PM

Congrats-you did the right thing!I wish NHPD would pay more attention to the speeding and erratic driving on upper Chapel. Especially at rush hour and late night.

Posted by: Miss | May 9, 2006 8:20 PM

Wow. Thanks so much, all of you, for writing. I have been worried about it all weekend, and I even told my students about it first thing Monday morning. I kind of got preachy with them, too, sounding at times like a Public Service Announcement. "We don't let friends drive drunk, do we?" I asked them. And as the words were coming out of my mouth, kind of like in a comic strip, I thought, "Damn, Gina. You sound like a commercial. Really stupid right now." But it was too late to pull the words back in and then I saw my kids' heads shaking "No" in answer to my question, so I felt better.

I agree with both ABC and DonW. There are certainly WAY too many people speeding through red lights AND speeding up Chapel Street. Just last night I stopped at a red and watched a car speed by me, well after the light had turned red.
I just think there aren't enough cops on the streets. New Haven probably needs at least a hundred more cops to monitor all the things there are laws for. But I'm not going to pretend that I'm angellic. I certainly am guilty of speeding through the streets, and in the moment I can probably justify why I'm speeding.

I don't know what the process is to get more cops on the streets (or teachers in schools, for that matter; and I'm sure the two are connected somehow.) But I think it's necessary. How many cops are there in New Haven? And if we can't get more cops, then how do we keep control as citizens?

Anyway, thanks for writing. I REALLY appreciate your reading and your input.

Posted by: JSJ | May 10, 2006 6:25 AM

Practically anyone would call the police if they saw someone waving a loaded firearm around in the middle of the street. Yet, we often fail to understand on a daily basis that our cars, when used improperly, are at least as deadly.

Tell me, if, on that same stretch of the Boulevard that's been in the news lately, there had been a similar number of handgun deaths, would we be satisfied with a decoy police cruiser and a promise to bring in some "rubber duckies"?

As a society, we see our cars as a basic American right. And many people seem to think that driving drunk, running red lights, speeding and weaving into lanes is harmless private behavior, not potentially deadly criminal negligence.

Gina, you certainly did do the right thing. And your kids know it, too. Now, stop speeding!

Posted by: Marissa | May 11, 2006 11:26 AM

All I can say is if you had not taken action and called and that drunk driver had hit someone, how would you justify that? You did the right thing. It is a lot easier to live your life wondering if you ruined someone's night rather than agonize over the fact that you did nothing to stop that driver from ruining someone's LIFE.

Posted by: rjb | May 15, 2006 11:24 AM

Just a few weeks ago near the very area where you were driving a drunk ran a redlight and slammed into the car of my friend Lisa who was also a bartender at Zinc. She was killed instantly. She was 25 years old and one of the sweetest, most thoughtful people I knew. I very much wish that someone would have called the police and reported this driver before he reached that intersection. You absolutely did the right thing. I am and have always been of the opinion that anyone who would get behind the wheel drunk and endanger the lives of our friends and families on the road deserves more than tickets and fines. Any penalty that person recieved is nothing compared to the loss of loved ones. Keep up all the good work. You are making a difference.

Posted by: Chris | August 28, 2006 3:20 PM

I'm posting here because this is a very interesting question and one that I've talked to (recently) to other people about.

In this case you have done the right thing because the person you called on WAS drunk.

To me however there are a lot of variables for NOT calling: the certainty of drunkenness, your safety, your possible lack of expertise, the inability for the police to follow every call, etc... Snitching interestingly enough never came up in my conversations.

Now the weight of all of those variables may be small and your "moral obligation" may trump them, but I like to flesh things out before I make a hard and fast decision.

To Marissa : I beleive that morally, if she didn't call, she is not made to feel guilty. There are things that we choose to ignore on an everyday basis: starving children, the homeless, and not taking political action, that have major consequences. We would be paralyzed if we thought about those things everyday. However does that mean you shouldn't call in a drunk driver? No, it is just interesting on how we feel guilt depending on our proximity to action.

Conversely if someone did see a swerving person and did not report them, would I be upset at them if the (drunk) person caused an accident? No.
I do not expect people to take action.

Would I be thankful to someone if they removed a known drunk person off the road. Sure.

Lastly, the OP brought up a great point. It is usually the case when things are "hard" or provide resistance or fear that 'true' morals come about.
I would agree.

However when I see a majority of people agree to that, it is my natural inclination to question why ,and from there a vicious cycle starts.

So in the end, for me, its not about snitching at all, but rather a whole host of other ideas. Whether or not they are valid, who knows. I just wanted to provide an alternate viewpoint (although in other forums, very contraversial) to be discussed. For the record, I am not for drunk driving.