As everyone knows, Sunday is THE kickoff … of Orange County law enforcement agencies’ special anti-DUI patrols.
It seems a certain big game, a certain American football extravaganza, a certain bowl of super causes many fans, viewers and dragged-along spouses to hit the sauce, down the cervezas and smoke the pot with much more gusto than during your usual Sunday blowout.
And so, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and Costa Mesa, Garden Grove and Newport Beach police departments are among the local agencies that are deploying “saturation patrols” to blanket areas known for drunken-driving stops, arrests, crashes and deaths with officers and deputies assigned just to stop such behavior.
Working with the California Office of Traffic Safety, they even have a name for this campaign: “Fans Don’t Let Fans Drive Drunk.” Which brings up the question among me and my fellow Raiders’ fans: Then how do we get home? After making bail, of course …
The coppers advise those who plan to drink to leave their keys at home. For those who plan to drive, don’t drink. Capisce?
Funding for the local operations comes from state Office of Traffic Safety grants, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Now let’s get out there and deflate those gates, Patriot fans!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.