Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lorne who wrote (55881)	11/21/2008 8:18:21 AM
From: lorne	Respond to of 224704

will this sort of thing now become a future trend? Lawyer: Alcohol testing device is racist By DANIEL TEPFER Staff writer Updated: 11/20/2008 connpost.com A lawyer representing a man arrested in Fairfield for drunken driving says the state's breathalyzers discriminate against black people. "They are KKK in a box," said lawyer James O. Ruane of Shelton. "We really have some racist machines here." Ruane represents Tyrone Brown, 40, of Burritt Avenue, Norwalk, who was arrested April 9 by the state police on Interstate 95 in Fairfield and charged with drunken driving. A breath analysis administered at state police Troop G in Bridgeport found Brown had a blood-alcohol content of 0.188. The legal limit is 0.08. In a motion filed Tuesday in Superior Court, Ruane asked a judge to suppress his client's breathalyzer test results, contending the device used by the state police, and most other local police departments, the Intoxilyzer 5000, discriminates against blacks. Brown is an African-American. Assistant State's Attorney Mark Durso declined comment on the motion. Ruane claims the lung capacity of a black man is 3 percent smaller than a white man and, therefore, black men's test results vary from the sobriety standard set by the device. He said Dr. Michael Hlastala, a lung physiologist at the University of Washington, examined research of other lung physiologists and, based on his studies, has determined the Intoxilyzer 5000 does not effectively test the blood-alcohol content of black men. "He looked at all the research and came up with the bigger picture and found the common thread," he said. Ruane said he intends to have Hlastala testify on Brown's behalf. "The data is very clear," he said.