Austin Is Conducting Sting Operations Against Ride-Sharing Drivers (examiner.com)

Since the Uber and Lyft ride-sharing apps stopped service in Austin, drunk driving has increased, riders are hunting for alternatives, and the police are conducting undercover sting operations against unauthorized ride-sharing drivers. With Chicago also considering new restrictions on ride-sharing apps, Slashdot reader MarkWhittington shares this report from Austin: With thousands of drivers and tens of thousands of riders who once depended on ride-sharing services in a lurch, a group called Arcade City has tried to fill the void with a person-to-person site to link up drivers and riders who then negotiate a fare. Of course, according to a story on KVUE, the Austin city government, and the police are on the case. The Austin Police Department has diverted detectives and resources to conduct sting operations on ride-sharing drivers who attempt to operate without official sanction. Undercover operatives will arrange for a ride with an Arcade City driver and then bust them, impounding their vehicle and imposing a fine.
"The first Friday and Saturday after Uber was gone, we were joking that it was like the zombie apocalypse of drunk people," one former ride-sharing driver told Vocative.com. Earlier this month the site compared this year's drunk driving arrests to last years -- and discovered that in the three weeks since Uber and Lyft left Austin, 7.5% more people have been arrested for drunk driving.

Comments

Follow the money

[Scutter]

Proof that the local government doesn't care about public safety but they do care about their budgets. Can't make their bottom line without DUI convictions and seized vehicles.

Turn It Around On Them

[BlueStrat]

Set up a "sting" on the cops.

There are thousands of drivers and riders, right? This is Texas where there are a large number of firearm owners, right?

Shouldn't be any trouble to surround the cops with thousands while video/audio recording and then decide, based on the police reaction, to just loudly protest or to forcibly disarm them and place them under citizen's arrest. There is power in numbers. When the government itself fails to follow the Rule of Law when it comes to the powerful and 'connected', force of numbers is about all you have left.

Or you can do the same things you've always done and get the same results you've always gotten and which has led to this situation to begin with. I seem to remember a saying about dong the same thing repeatedly and yet expecting different results.

Strat

Re: Perfect for Jury Nullification

[dryeo]

Especially unjust laws such as it being illegal to shoot and kill an uppity nigger, which I understand was the usual reason to use jury nullification in the good old USA where the Bill of Rights was never meant to apply to certain groups of sub-humans who obviously had no natural rights.