Are Texas DPS checkpoints Justifiable?

The Texas DPS is now conducting roadblocks in certain areas to keep our streets safe and in compliance. Although they are conducting roadblocks to check that you are in compliance with regulatory traffic statutes (Valid license, insurance, and vehicle registration, etc) could there be more to that than what meets the eye?

I found an article interesting in which it stated that the Texas DPS is conducting roadblocks not just to check for compliance with regulatory traffic statutes, but to also check for evidence of DWI, as well as running warrant checks on drivers. In an article titled "Show me your papers, comrade': DPS vehicle checkpoints further degrade Fourth Amendment" posted on October 2, on the Texas Political blog Grits For Breakfast. The author of this article goes on to reply to a column that was posted by DPS Col. Steve McCraw in the McAllen Monitor. In McCraw's column, he goes on to state that although these stops check for a license, insurance, etc. That a warrant check and the authority to address obvious criminal violations could be conducted! Although his justification to this relied on various criminal activity in that area and many citations of no drivers license and insurance, The author of Grits does not agree with him.

Furthermore, Grits goes on to say that although it is not certain if these stops could result in immigration detention, that these DPS checkpoints are more so degrading than anything else and violate the Fourth Amendment. He goes on to state that in his youth, checkpoints like these could be associated with that of a "totalitarian communist"state. Although he did call out McCraw's column for using contradictory court cases such as the Supreme Court Case(City of Indianapolis v. Edmond) in which they ruled against checkpoints, I felt he couldn't convince the audience well enough. Grit's article was aimed to persuade the citizens of this state of how unlawful these DPS checkpoints are. Although that is what he aimed to persuade, he failed to do so in my opinion.

Grit's tried to state many times how McCraw just relies on excuses but after reading this article, he doesn't do much to support his argument. He relies mostly on his feelings of how it's just wrong to do this, how he remembers in his childhood, some court examples, and etc. Although the article seemed to start on the right foot, it ended up going downhill for me and I did not agree with what Grit's had to say. Even though I could see where Grit's was coming from, that it is wrong to do more than just check for a valid license and registration. I could see that McCraw was looking out for the safety of the people. I for one have witnessed bad driving on my way to school and find it good to do these stops and check that people are not intoxicated in order to protect public safety. If I am not mistaken as well, earlier this year, the Cafeteria lady of this Northridge Campus was killed by a drunk driver. That furthermore proves that these DPS checks should check all that they can in order to ensure everyone's safety!

To sum it all up, Grits was making a good story by letting us know what the opposing side was saying but ended up failing in convincing the audience. Had he relied more on examples of how it is not justifiable instead of on his feelings and childhood memories, he could have been able to persuade the citizens and readers that it is not right to allow these DPS checkpoints to do more than just check for regulatory traffic statutes!