See This Guy Get Through a DUI Checkpoint Without Saying a Word -- Thanks to What He Hung Out His Car Window

When it comes to DUI checkpoints, 2013 and 2014 were both years of belligerent constitutional confrontations.

Could 2015 be the year those confrontations cool off — thanks to plastic bags hanging out of car windows?

Image via YouTube

In a video posted to YouTube Thursday, longtime police recording activist Jeff Gray tests out a novel approach to DUI checkpoints in Florida: putting license, registration and insurance information in a plastic freezer bag, along with a Fair DUI message:

I remain silent

No searches

I want my lawyer

Attached to the inside of the car with a string, the bag is meant to keep a driver from having to roll down their window at a DUI checkpoint and, as Gray put it, put themselves in danger of having police "lie" and say their speech is slurred or that the smell of alcohol or drugs is wafting from the vehicle.

How did police handle the bag trick?

Very smoothly.

Image via YouTube

While there were more than a few confused or amused glances from cops reading Gray's information...

Image via YouTube

...the whole arrangement was apparently kosher by Florida standards, and police quickly waved Gray on his way — all while Gray refused to say a word.

Watch the whole encounter below:

On Reddit on Saturday morning, commenters had wildly varied reactions to the video.

"Do [the video makers] want more drunk drivers on the road or do they want to protect drunk drivers from prosecution?" one asked. "As a Canadian, I don't quite understand the thinking, as drunk driving is the number one cause of criminal death and you would think that you'd be happy that the police are trying to catch them before they can kill someone."

Several other commenters said they didn't mind submitting to roadside testing, with one writing, "I wouldn't mind getting breathalyzed if it meant that a potential fatal crash stops from happening."

Others, however, maintained that the video showed an exercise of basic rights — rights that are deeply important.

"Those who are willing to give up freedoms for a little bit of temporary safety deserve neither freedom nor safety," one commenter wrote.

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Follow Zach Noble (@thezachnoble) on Twitter

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