May 28, 2008
109 Nassau County DWI Arrests During Holiday Weekend
Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi made good on his promise to publicize people arrested for driving while intoxicated over the Memorial Day weekend. Yesterday, he released the names of 109 arrested--81 were for DWI while 28 were arrested for driving while impaired, which is a lesser charge. The mugshots of the 81 DWI arrestees were also released.
Suozzi said, "If the fear of killing somebody or the fear of ruining your life by getting arrested or injuring yourself is not enough, we're going to try and add other techniques, like embarrassing you." Newsday reports the most of the arrestees were in their 20s, "though the youngest arrestee was 17, and the oldest, 74" and "at least seven...were repeater offenders." And two dangerous incidents: One was driving westbound in eastbound lanes on Sunrise Highway and another was "driving drunk with her children aboard."
And the mugshots at top are of 10 NYC arrestees--at least the ones whose licenses are in NYC. Of course, they are innocent until proven guilty.
Update: Here's another Newsday article that discusses the legal debate about this initiative. Hofstra University ethicist Professor Arthur Dobrin said, "Is it ethical to shame a person before they have been deemed guilty? Whatever can be done should be in this fight [against drunken driving], provided it is both legal and ethical. Here it may very well cross the line of the latter."
A NY Times spokesperson told Newsday that it "publishes the names of people accused of crimes only if the crime itself or the prominence of the person accused makes it news in our judgment. In this case, we don't plan to publish a list of names." Newsday decided not to publish the names and pictures in print, but did run all the information and photos online.
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wow, it's the United Nations of drunks.
(how I hate the term UN to describe diversity)
Drunkards are the new Pedophiles.
Jacque - United Colors of Bennetton of drunks?
Ya could haver fooled me. I thought it was a portfolio for the ugliest on Long Island.
That is excellent. I wish every county would do this.
Of course, I'm sure it won't be long until this becomes a badge of honor.
I love "Faces of Meth"!
This is awesome... The should put them on billboards!
While I don't usually condone public shaming for other crimes, especially sex offenses years after you've done your time, but this is simply amazing.
When you drive drunk, you totally deserve what you get.
They do look pretty ugly, although mug shots never look good.
BRAVO! Wow, what a great idea.
I agree, post them on billboards! Put them on the back of bathroom doors at bars. Everywhere.
Shamar looks like he's done abit of weeping.
None of them learned anything from Tom DeLay, did they.
Is there a chance, however slight, that some of these folks arrested will be found not guilty of these charges. Perhaps owing to faulty testing equipment or a mistake by arresting officers - there is a possibility that at least one of these folks is not guilty as charged.
However, Nassau County has already declared all these people guilty - and shouted it out to the world!
There once was a phrase - innocent until proven guilty.
Not to be a turd in a punchbowl, but doesn't anyone have a problem with the state posting these people's pictures before they're even convicted of anything?
Sorry gothamist but this is wrong of you to do. Suozzi gave each press outlet the choice to publish these photo's as part of a ridiculing campaign, appearently you chose to be okay with that. By doing so you are telling the public that these people are guilty before a conviction in a court of law.
Shamar has definitely been sobbing. Boo hoo.
actually fossella had glassy eyes in his mugshot, too. how is this any different than a police blog?
or, the smoking gun. (which I'm beginning to hate as much as TMZ and Fox's red eye)
> There once was a phrase - innocent until proven guilty.
...And it says it on the link page, RTFA.
We're identifying them as arrestees of a DWI. I'll add that they'll be headed to court to argue the charges and are innocent until proven guilty, but we've published mugshots of people suspected (and not yet convicted) of different crimes. I understand the arguments against publishing mugshots, but how is this different from mobsters being trotted out for a perp walk?
And Hofstra Law Professor Robin Charlow told Newsday that Suozzi's actions were constitutional, "We want to use the criminal law to deter others from committing crimes. Shaming individuals -- which Suozzi is attempting -- serves the same function."
"I understand the arguments against publishing mugshots, but how is this different from mobsters being trotted out for a perp walk?"
You can't google a perp walk. The internet is FOREVVVERRRRR.
I'm all for people who drive drunk getting what's due to them, but this is ridiculous. Convict them, then shame them.
[19] As far as I know, Google doesn't have optical character recognition as a feature of its search capabilities, which is what it would take to search the names that are part of a the picture file above. The Nassau County site actually published the names. Any google on any of the names above would not lead to the Gothamist entry.
It's interesting that this is the first time I've heard such concern about mugshots. People didn't seem to care that Gothamist published the names and ID photos of the 4 cops charged in the Sean Bell shooting, before or after they were found not guilty. And Rep. Vito Fossella's bleary-eyed mugshot fits right in with Suozzi's list. He's challenging the charges against him due to faulty equipment.
There is an assumption of innocence before proven guilt in the U.S., but I've never heard of a guarantee of anonymity when one is charged with a crime. Perhaps this has to do with people's ambivalence over drunk driving--no harm, no foul until someone plows into oncoming traffic and kills people?
It's shameful enough just being a Long Islander..
With the exception of Davis, Ghraham and Mullaney, - the rest of them are probably illegal alien scum who deserve to be deported back to their shithole of origin.
well said, Hogarty.
Dave #20 - see the NY Times explanation: "...publishes the names of people accused of crimes only if the crime itself or the prominence of the person accused makes it news in our judgment."
That would apply to the Sean Bell case and the Fossella case. But not these folks.
A lot of these people will have their cases dropped. It's unfair to do this.
I think Stephen H Mullaney should get a discount since he has fetal alcohol syndrome.
Gothamist can do what it likes, but I think Dave's being disingenuous. The entry has the quote in bold: "we're going to try and add other techniques, like embarrassing you." No ambiguity there.
These folks haven't been found guilty yet - and there is nothing news worthy about their names or the crime. The sole goal providing the names and photos is to embarrass them - simple as that.
p.s. Google does OCR in a bunch of places. The software is called Tesseract OCR.
Once you've been arrested for Drunk Driving youre almost 100% guilty - the cops make you use a Breathalyzer and run 20 other tests to make sure youre drunk, not to mention the people in the pics all have red faces and bloodshot eyes.
These people are already all guilty, so stop crying that the paperwork hasnt been filed yet. If this prevent even 1 person from dying in a drunk driving incident, its more than worth it.
BRAVO NYC!!
Judging from the mugshot sample, I think the lesson here is, "Don't drive drunk while brown in Nassau County."
"BRAVO NYC!!"
You mean Nassau County?
I used to defend drunk drivers. Most pleaded guilty, some went to trial and were acquitted - usually on a constitutional violation or a technical issue with the equipment (failure to calibrate, etc.). EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM WAS LOADED AND DRIVING. Shame them...it is legal and if it makes people hesitate to drive drunk, then its worth it.
Who will step up and adopt "wednesday's Drunk"?
[20]: yeah, i thought about that, but the top half of that linked page where the pictures are hosted on nassaucountyny.gov? All text. It will show up on google.
Even if it doesn't show up from that website, all these sites that are covering it will take care of that. As of right now, a google search for a randomly selected person (google the woman in the middle, bottom row) of the arrested comes up with a 1010 WINS page first, then the nassaucountyny.gov page, then a myfoxny.com page, all about this story. What if she's found not guilty?
Again, I'm NOT defending drunk driving (a close friend's mom was killed by a drunk driver when she was walking home from work in nassau county), but I am defending innocent til proven guilty.
Wow, what a motley collection of red and glassy eyeballs. Maybe it's just the contrast, but the two bright white guys on the left look worst of all.