A public menace
THE LOADED GUN Salem police found in the possession of one Leonard Levasseur last week wasn't the kind with a barrel or bullet rounds or a trigger. It was the kind with a gas pedal, 3,000 pounds of moving steel and, according to police, Levasseur's impaired mind, driving erratically through town. When officers arrested the 55-year-old unemployed man, hiding behind another car after abandoning his own vehicle, it marked Levasseur's 13th arrest for drunken driving. All 12 priors led to convictions.
Thirteen might actually be considered a lucky number in this case, because of the miracle by which Levasseur has managed not to injure or kill while drunk and behind the wheel. His charges date to 1970; a quarter-century stretch of offenses that somehow did not claim a life. He has repeatedly refused sobriety tests, including on his most recent arrest. Today, Levasseur will face a judge in a dangerousness hearing, where prosecutors should not have a tough time convincing anyone that he qualifies as a public danger and should be jailed for 90 days.
But if a two-year jail stint like the one Levasseur served recently can't deter repeat offenders, 90 more days behind bars certainly won't. Neither will a lifetime license revocation, which, thanks to the new penalties under Melanie's Law, went into effect automatically when Levasseur refused his latest breathalyzer. Some repeat offenders will find any way to get behind the wheel again. Of those arrested for drunken driving since Melanie's Law went into effect last October, 63 percent were repeat offenders, according to state figures. That's down from 84 percent for the same period the previous year, but still a dangerously high number.
If convicted, Levasseur could get anywhere from two to five years. The question is, is five years anywhere near enough? Levasseur's 79-year-old father seemed to answer that question, saying bluntly of his own son, ``He's not going to change. He's not going to change." At some point, well before the 13th DUI arrest, the issue for law enforcement and the judicial system should change from one of appropriate punishment to one of public safety. If an individual can't stop himself from repeatedly driving drunk, society must do whatever it takes to keep him off the roads.
Laws already on the books allow prosecutors to petition courts to hold some chronic sex offenders indefinitely in a state treatment center even after they have completed their prison sentences. The laws are controversial, but something similar needs to be looked at for the repeat offenders who turn cars into lethal weapons and the roads around them into virtual shooting galleries. 