Dennis RomeroHappy holidays. Peace. Noel. All that crap.
Just remember this: No matter how jolly and giving you're feeling, there's no invisible force field of good will that will protect you from the cops if you get a little too red-nosed behind the wheel this season.
The LAPD and other agencies are rolling out the DUI checkpoints and patrols so they can give you the gift of jail. Look out:
Tonight from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. there will be extra cops in patrol cars (and on motorcycles) looking for drunk drivers in the LAPD's Hollywood Division. The department calls it a DUI “saturation patrol.”
Tonight from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. there will be an LAPD DUI checkpoint at Slauson Avenue and Buckler Avenue near Windsor Hills.
Friday from 6 p.m. to midnight cops will be back on the checkpoint beat at Vernon Avenue and Hoover Street in South L.A.
Friday from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. officers will return to Hollywood with a checkpoint at Highland and De Longpre avenues.
Friday from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. there will be an LAPD DUI checkpoint at Olympic Boulevard and Blaine Street in the Westlake area, just around the corner from Staples Center.
Friday from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. a checkpoint will be happening at Hyperion Avenue and Scotland Street in Silver Lake.
Friday from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. sheriff's deputies will have a checkpoint waiting for you somewhere in the area served by their Pico Rivera station (they're not saying exactly where).
Friday there will also be checkpoints and DUI patrols in the following cities and areas, according to the Sheriff's Department's listing of holiday drunk-driver crackdowns:
El Monte
Checkpoint – El Segundo
Checkpoint – Montebello
Checkpoint – Alhambra
Checkpoint – CHP East Los Angeles Area
Checkpoint – LASD – West Hollywood
DUI Patrol – Avoid the 100 Multi-Agency (Glendora, Azusa, Covina, Irwindale, Pomona, La Verne, and Claremont)
DUI Patrol – Avoid the 100 Multi-Agency (El Camino College Police, El Segundo, Gardena, Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Inglewood, Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes Estates, Redondo Beach, Torrance)
DUI Patrol – Pasadena
Turn the page for Saturday's action:
Saturday will bring the gift of checkpoints to scenic Van Nuys, with a stop at Sepulveda Boulevard and Vost Street from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Saturday from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. another DUI saturation patrol will happen in the LAPD's Southwest Division area, near USC and beyond, from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Saturday from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. the L.A. County Sheriff's Department will have a checkpoint somewhere in its Carson station area. They're not saying exactly where.
Saturday from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. the same deal applies to the Sheriff's Norwalk station area.
Additionally, the Sheriff's Department says these DUI checkpoints and saturation patrols will be expecting you on Saturday:
Checkpoint – Avoid the 100 Multi-Agency in the city of Bell Gardens (San Gabriel, Downey, Alhambra, Monterey Park, Montebello, Bell Gardens, Whittier).
Checkpoint – Burbank
Checkpoint – Glendale
Checkpoint – Long Beach
Checkpoint – Signal Hill
Checkpoint – Whittier
DUI Patrol – Azusa
DUI Patrol – Avoid the 100 Multi-Agency (El Camino College Police, El Segundo, Gardena, Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Inglewood, Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes Estates, Redondo Beach, Torrance).
DUI Patrol – Redondo Beach
DUI Patrol – CHP West Valley Area
Sunday there will also be this activity, the Sheriff's Department says:
Checkpoint – Claremont
Checkpoint – Huntington Park
Be safe.
Send feedback and tips to the author. Follow Dennis Romero on Twitter at @dennisjromero. Follow LA Weekly News on Twitter at @laweeklynews.
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