Wow. Sobriety Checkpoints. What a concept. Take precious public funds, pay officers overtime to set up roadblocks at night where they eat Dominos pizza, stand around, stop citizens without probable cause, and question them in hopes of making some DUI arrests.
The group Checkpoints Violate Your Rights has been tracking, observing, and protesting Sobriety Checkpoints in the Aspen area since the very first one was set up on Owl Creek Road a few years ago. That checkpoint was the brainchild of the Colorado State Patrol. Police agencies came from many miles around to participate and be trained in the fine art of detaining citizens on public roads for no lawful reason.
How do I know? I was driving home at night on a sleepy little country road, only to see lots of police cars, and lights, with cars stopped, and being pulled over. I found this to be a bit disturbing, especially, since the "checkpoint" was being operated in a tactical fashion that I had read about in a military manual-essentially "place the checkpoint on a curve with no advance warning, so that motorists will be surprised and cannot turn around."
I thought at the time "This is a terrible place for a checkpoint. It’s not very safe, and these guys are supposed to be helping to keep us out of danger whenever they can." Sure enough, when the officer waved me around the car ahead of me, a car came downhill, around the corner and almost hit me head on.
I drove home, angry that our public servants were harassing citizens, causing near misses with cars, and something about the stopping for no reason seemed like life in a communist country. I went back on a bike, in the dark, with binoculars, and rendezvoused out in the bushes with a friend.
The police set up other roadblocks that summer, and we were there at every one. We gathered more people who were opposed to the checkpoints, and began showing up with signs, flags, and pamphlets. Our protests have always been peaceful, well planned, and informative. We want the public to know that they are being ushered into a totalitarian state and that the U.S. Constitution forbids the behavior of the police.
It’s interesting to note that for a while, the police backed completely off of the checkpoint operations. Perhaps the officers got tired of looking like the "bad guys" and the departments weren’t getting as many volunteers to work a late night-pizza or no pizza. Or maybe the signs that began popping up at visitor centers, city "welcome" signs, and Interstate 70, put checkpoints in a bad light. Whatever the reason, I believe that our group Checkpoints Violate Your Rights singlehandedly shut down checkpoints in the Roaring Fork Valley. Now, after a hiatus, the police are coming back.
This past Memorial Day weekend, a checkpoint was announced and we sprang into action. We drove into Glenwood Springs, CO and went right to the County Police yard to see which agencies would be participating. Who was the first person that I talked to? A SWAT officer from Grand Junction, CO. As a matter of fact, the entire SWAT team was there with their SWAT vehicle, tactical holsters, Army digital camo, and all. They told me that they were in town for "training". But they denied knowing about any sobriety checkpoints which were about to take place. Hmmm. These agencies need to talk together more often; especially if they are visiting another town, or hosting guests with machine guns from other towns.
Monsoon rains fell that night, and no checkpoint appeared. We happily went home early and we were able to get up an get to church on time the next day.
Stay tuned for some funny stories from our checkpoint escapades. In the meantime, you can download a copy of our brochure. Put one copy in your car, and give one copy to your local peace officer. There’s nothing quite like standing up for your rights. Believe me.
