8 Comments

  • so an inanimate object that doesnt have the capability to think is forming opinions! is this the machine rebellion ive been hearing about

  • This is right up my alley for career research. He demonstrates that he has casually browsed an article or two, or perused a chapter on expired gas analysis, but has either no comprehension, or merely wishes to use big words to spout techno-babble to hoodwink the scientifically unwary.
    Expired gas analysis is valid regardless of lung capacity, and is valid in individuals with, for various medical reasons, lung capacity more than 50% below normal. That he cites blacks as having 3% less (a value I can find no support for) is trivial and of no consequence. For his cite on partition coefficients, this is a property intrinsic to the solubility of alcohol in water and the vapor pressure. It is quite constant regardless of species; race is of no consequence either.
    As with most folks who shout racism, they need look no further than the mirror to get the full picture of the racist.

  • Look into something called a “partition ratio” before you write this guy off as a quack. I have always found it funny that the manufacturers of breathalyzers will not warrant their product to measure the amount of alcohol in a given person’s breath. Several States have changed their DUI laws to accept the amount of alcohol measured on the breath as the basis for DUI instead of the amount of alcohol in the blood.

  • I’m sorry, I’ve got to give this one a pass.

    It’s one thing to complain about overlawyering on the plaintiff side in civil cases, but criminal defence is another matter – if it’s a plausible defence at all, there’s a duty to try it.

  • “… if it’s a plausible defence at all, there’s a duty to try it.”
    Agreed that a defense lawyer should try plausible defenses. But there is the matter of presentation. Once he gets all shrill spouting claims of racism then he looses credibility, his argument detracts from any potential serious consideration of the merits, and he costs his client what might have been a slim chance at a novel defense.

  • By his same argument women, being on average smaller then men, should have a much smaller average lung capacity than men, white or black. So that must mean that, according to that lawyer’s arguments, giving breathalyzer tests constitutes sexual discrimination.

  • Surprise!…

    I am sure this will surprise everyone, but I am actually arguing in favor of the lawyers who say the breathalizer is racist. Well, not really, but they do have a point. There are physiological differences on average between blacks and whites, and if……

  • I heard reference to this defense claim on the news last night but I missed the reasoning because I was laughing too hard to hear the story.
    I thought I had heard it all. WOW. The MAN designed a machine to measure levels of alcohol in the HUMAN body but failed to realize that a person of color had different lung capacity than that of (other) human beings is incredible. Why haven`t we seen this information before? I`ve been involved in EMS for years. I`ve never heard any mention of diffferent respiratory treatments for black people.Why doesn`t this apply to people that are asthmatic, haveCOPD(emphysema) or any other medical situation that would reduce their lung capacity? What if it is a woman who happens to be black? Is her breathalizer test so affected that it shouldn`t even be used? WOW the possibilties are endless.