It’s the little things that make life special, but it may also be the little things that let you know when you’ve truly developed a problem. If you happen to live in the greater Oakland, California area, this story is the sort of indicator which just might let you know it’s time to leave. We’ve seen too many stories of political correctness infecting the government to count here, and occasionally it washes over into the field of law enforcement, but this one is simply staggering. The Oakland PD had scheduled a series of sobriety checkpoints around the city for Cinco de Mayo and, as usual, let everyone know they would be on the job to prevent people from driving drunk after the partying was done. (Hat tip to Immigration Reform.)

This somehow raised the dander of someone in the Latino community who amazingly claimed this was a demonstration of racism. A group called Oakland Latinos United took to Facebook to voice their complaints.

“Oakland Police has posted on their Twitter account they’re going to put out Extra Patrols for you drunk Mexicans on Cinco de Mayo,” said a post on the Facebook page Oakland Latinos United. “How does it feel. As a Mexican Chicano I wonder if OPD will be posting DUI PSAs for every ethnic & culturally based holiday?”

So how did the Oakland PD respond? They cancelled the DUI checkpoints. (Fox News)

A warning about drunk-driving checkpoints during the Cinco de Mayo holiday got the Oakland (Calif.) Police Department in hot water.

The lengthy warning, titled “Fiesta Time or Jail Times,” about driving while intoxicated made many references to such drinks as tequila and margaritas, and many people complained it was offensive.

“In the United States, Cinco de Mayo has become synonymous with festive fiestas and salty margaritas,” the warning said. “Historically, the fifth of May commemorates Mexico’s 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War, but present-day celebrations often lead to drunk driving—and there’s no victory in that.”

Criticism about the warning prompted the Oakland Police Department to issue an apology and then cancel the checkpoints.

If it weren’t for the lessons learned from Princess Bride I’d be describing this report as inconceivable. It’s bad enough that we have police needing to justify focusing law enforcement resources in high crime areas if those neighborhoods happen to have large minority populations, but this story truly takes the corn cake. (Yeah… I just went there.)

Police departments all across the country issue warnings regarding DUI checkpoints around various holidays every year and it’s not done so they can arrest more people. They do it to arrest fewer people by reminding them that they need to either dial back the drinking at parties or make sure they have the Uber app loaded on their phones. Pointing out the background of the holiday in question isn’t racist… it’s just filler information. When they mention fireworks displays and BBQs around the 4th of July they aren’t targeting people who love America. And when they remind you that New Years Eve is coming up it’s not some plot to deny the rights of supporters of the Gregorian calendar by a handful of racist, Julian calendar dead enders. Noting in a press release that a lot of people are going to head out and drink tequila or margaritas is simply a statement of fact, particularly when many of them will be people who normally wouldn’t go near tequila at any other time of the year.

But because this one “group” (or possibly one guy with a Facebook account for all we know) decided to play the race card, the cops cancelled the DUI checkpoints. Who is running the Oakland PD these days? Next we’ll have cops apologizing for investigating theft if the perpetrator wasn’t making $15 an hour.