Posted on 07/08/2005 10:18:07 AM PDT by Dashing Dasher
Eric Laverriere was celebrating last New Year's Eve at a friend's house in Waltham when police broke up the party. They took him into protective custody and kept him locked in a cell for nine hours until the effects of a night of beer drinking wore off.
In what legal experts believe to be a first-of-its-kind legal challenge, Laverriere filed suit against the Waltham Police Department in US District Court in Boston, contending that he has a constitutional right to get drunk on private property ''so long as he causes no public disturbance."
Laverriere, a 25-year-old computer systems specialist from Portland, Maine, argues that the Massachusetts Protective Custody Law is intended to target public drunkenness and that Waltham police overstepped their bounds when they used it to seize him from a private residence.
''One thing people should be able to do is drink in their own house," Laverriere said in a phone interview yesterday. ''That's the beauty of the land of the free."
The state's Protective Custody Law, enacted in 1971, replaced a law dating back to Colonial times that made public drunkenness a crime, subject to arrest, conviction, and a criminal record. The law, which does not explicitly say whether it applies to those in public or in private, authorizes police to take incapacitated people to their homes, a treatment facility, or a police station, where they can be held against their will for up to 12 hours.
Under the law, people have to be drunk and deemed to be a danger to themselves or others. They are not charged with a crime.
Laverriere asserts in his lawsuit that he had ''a constitutional right to be drunk in private, a privacy and liberty right founded in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution."
{SNIP}
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
That looks like fiberglass insulation. It's making me itchy just looking at it. :-)
Isn't Hubbie Home?
I pinged you anyway - look at your own risk.
HI THAG!!!
The pink ones are out.
Right out.
Alrighty then, on to other business . . .
Yes, he's home but he's playing with his new XBox. I need a break anyway. ;-)
Too much of a good thing!?
That reminds me of a quote....
Flying is like sex - I've never had all I wanted but occasionally I've had all I could stand.
— Stephen Coonts, 'The Cannibal Queen'
Is pissy around today?
I suppose I could look myself, but it's soo much more funn to bug another.
Psychologically, there's no such thing as too much of a good thing. Physically is another story. This old body needs a break every now and again. :-)
We've been talking off camera.
They started an unofficial FST - due to yesterday's terror - they wanted to keep it low key.
I still think we need to keep our humor - and keep living our lives - in the face of terror.
Sometimes it is sooo much work to be happy. It's so easy to be sad.
I agree....if ever we need it ...I say it's when something like this happens
Somebody called the cops. That means they were loud, and noise crossing the property line is trespass. Being on somebody else's private property without permission is worth some attention. Also, there is no such thing as private property; that is a myth. Being drunk is also damaging State property.
Are you here?
Missing you!?
OK, I read the original article, and don't have a clue what actually happened there, except for what everyone is alleging. Guess that's why it's in court.
I always got a lot of mileage from just leaving folks the hell alone, until the neighbors complained, then you gotta do something. 9 times out of 10, a few friendly words with the homeowner gets the problem solved. If someone is throwing up on themselves, you order medical assistance so they don't choke and sue you.
But then, what do I know? It's 2 pm and I'm already drunk.
Drunk already?
Are you flirting with me!?
LOL!!!!
If I am, then I must be drunk. ;-)
(Ducking for cover)
LOLOL.
D@mn straight (hiccup...barf).
Where have you been?
;-)
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