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To: Modernman
Selling this guy gas is in the same ballpark as handing a visibly intoxicated man a firearm.

Kind of but not really. The car most likely had gas already in the tank and the drunk guy was just adding to it.

This also raises the problem of turning gas station attendants into DUI checkpoint officers. What if a white clerk refuses to sell gasoline to a black or mexican patron and then can't prove that the guy was actually drunk? The station will probably be charged with violating the guy's civil rights and be sued by those who couldn't obtain fuel as well.

Also, what if a person has a speech impediment or just an odd way of carrying himself and the clerk deems him intoxicated and won't sell him gas? If the guy later gets into an accident going to another station or something bad happens because he can't get fuel, the lawyers will go after the station again.

This type of ruling puts ordinary people just trying to make a living selling stuff into a very difficult situation. With MADD emotionally blackmailing state legislators to lower the intoxication threshold to .08 and even .04, a normal person just working at a convenience store won't be able to determine who to sell fuel to.

46 posted on 08/22/2005 1:05:36 PM PDT by JeffAtlanta
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To: JeffAtlanta; Modernman

These policy arguments are now reduced to closing arguments. So do you think you can sell this in the face of evidence that the guy was falling down drunk and he could have been stopped by a call to the police?

This is a classic for the old saying "hard facts make bad law"


79 posted on 08/22/2005 1:46:00 PM PDT by frithguild (If I made one mistake, it was that I was too cooperative and waited too long to go on the offensive.)
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