elmuchoprez
Member
What is the name of your state? Michigan.
Is it illegal for me to forcibly prevent someone from driving if I believe they're under the influence of alcohol. Here's the specific situation:
Last Saturday, me and some friends, along with half of the country, went out to a bar to celebrate St. Patrick's day. We all drank too much to be driving. In fact, way too much to be anywhere near driving condition.
Anyway, at one point, a guy we were with decides he's going to drive home and starts making his way to his car. He's absolutely obliterated. Several of us leave the bar with him to go talk him out of this, but he's decided he's fine and trying to talk sense into a drunk guy isn't real easy.
Basically, we stood outside and argued the point for about 15 minutes to no avail. By this time, our pre-arranged sober driver shows up. We offer to take this guy with us... he'll have none of it. It was cold, we were all drunk and our patience was running thin, which meant we weren't going to stand around anymore arguing, so we wrestled him to the ground, took his keys, wrote his address on his forehead, and called him a cab. Before we left, I told the bartender the cab was on the way and I gave the drunk guy $20 and my cell phone.
The guy was a friend who was just being a drunken idiot (as it turns out, alcohol doesn't make you smarter I guess), so everything was cool once he sobered up. But, it did raise the question of how far you're allowed to go to prevent someone from driving drunk.
Did I technically car jack him since I stole his keys or is there any leniency in the law if you're trying to prevent another crime? I've got a feeling that my technical responsibility was too just call the police and tell them a drunk guy just left the bar, but that's a whole new world of hurt for him.
Is it illegal for me to forcibly prevent someone from driving if I believe they're under the influence of alcohol. Here's the specific situation:
Last Saturday, me and some friends, along with half of the country, went out to a bar to celebrate St. Patrick's day. We all drank too much to be driving. In fact, way too much to be anywhere near driving condition.
Anyway, at one point, a guy we were with decides he's going to drive home and starts making his way to his car. He's absolutely obliterated. Several of us leave the bar with him to go talk him out of this, but he's decided he's fine and trying to talk sense into a drunk guy isn't real easy.
Basically, we stood outside and argued the point for about 15 minutes to no avail. By this time, our pre-arranged sober driver shows up. We offer to take this guy with us... he'll have none of it. It was cold, we were all drunk and our patience was running thin, which meant we weren't going to stand around anymore arguing, so we wrestled him to the ground, took his keys, wrote his address on his forehead, and called him a cab. Before we left, I told the bartender the cab was on the way and I gave the drunk guy $20 and my cell phone.
The guy was a friend who was just being a drunken idiot (as it turns out, alcohol doesn't make you smarter I guess), so everything was cool once he sobered up. But, it did raise the question of how far you're allowed to go to prevent someone from driving drunk.
Did I technically car jack him since I stole his keys or is there any leniency in the law if you're trying to prevent another crime? I've got a feeling that my technical responsibility was too just call the police and tell them a drunk guy just left the bar, but that's a whole new world of hurt for him.