Blog Stage Four

Recently Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo made a call for a new “Driving While Ability Impaired” law to go after those with a blood alcohol level under .08. In response Radley Balko wrote an opinionated article that called to abolish such drunk driving laws. On October 12th, 2010, the politically charged blog “Grits for Breakfast” published an opinion piece entitled “Balko: Abolish DWI laws to focus on impaired driving” by Scott Hanson in regards to both the suggestion for a new law and the article piece written by Radley Balko. The author, Scott Hanson, is a respected individual in the journalist field as he has contributed several pieces to well known news media outlets.

The opinion article is written in support of Radley Balkos rebuttal to the suggestion of a new law by Police Chief Acevedo. The article is written for general audiences since this new law will end up causing a ripple effect that will affect all of us as citizens. The enforcement of this new law will tie up manpower of the police force which will result in higher costs and lower standards of public safety. He maintains what feels is a neutral tone throughout the article and publishes statistical facts that back up his opinion to show it is not just a subjective opinion but has observable scientific data.

The opinion piece written by Scott Hanson is based around the case made to justify such a law by Radley Balko. The article utilizes statistical information to back up the authors opinion that Radley Balko has a valid point in reasoning that we should abolish the DWI laws. Scott Hansons article utilizes statistical data to establish creditability for his opinion besides his educational background and experience. It has been established through research and studies that people are willing to put trust and faith within the results of studies if it utilizes a simple system of numbers. The thing, though, is that the data itself may be neutral but how it is represented can be manipulated by the individual who is presenting it to the public. How Scott Hanson presents the information, it is in an effective manner that has helped to convince and reinforce my feeling that Scott Hansons opinion is valid and correct and is something we, the citizens of Austin and the state of Texas, should look into doing.