Immigrant rights activists Maria Zacarias and Theresa Dang were arrested on suspicion of resisting or delaying a police officer and on suspicion of being intoxicated in public, respectively, said Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna. They have been released, according to the OC Register.
Zacarias and Dang helped change checkpoints in Santa Ana when police agreed to allow unlicensed drivers 20 minutes to find someone with a license to whisk their car away from an expensive impound. The OC May Day Coalition said then that the previous policy unfairly targeted and profited off the undocumented community. The two went out to Friday night’s check point and offered to be on-spot drivers when the arrests happened, according to the OC Weekly.
My own research into the SAPD’s DUI checkpoints, a few years ago, revealed that they hardly ever caught any actual drunk drivers. They do however serve to hassle immigrants. Beyond that however there is a simple reason why the SAPD keeps running these ineffective checkpoints. Continue reading