Posted on 03/17/2006 10:33:37 AM PST by billorites
IRVING, Texas -- The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has taken its fight against drunken driving to a new level. TABC agents, along with Irving police, targeted 36 bars and clubs Friday, arresting some allegedly intoxicated patrons before they departed the businesses.
The officers and agents also kept watch on bartenders who might have over-served patrons.
Agents arrested 30 people Friday night. Most of the suspects now face charges of public intoxication.
The agents and Irving police officers traveled from bar to bar and worked undercover, according to an NBC 5 report.
The report also said that some agents shared tables with suspected drunken patrons. Some patrons were subjected to field sobriety tests inside bars.
Agents and officers said the operation represented an effort to reduce drunken driving.
Sgt. Chris Hamilton, of the TABC, said some inebriated bar patrons "end up killing themselves or someone else" after departing the businesses.
Trying to think up a rational rebuttal to your question.
Or they'll just dismiss it as not relevant.
I'll add you to the list even though you are no friend.
I never said I agreed with it, nor that I had friends who would have benefited. It was just an observation.
I have no love at all for our states Alcoholic Beverage Commission officers. Several of my friends had run ins with them in college.
Buraucrats with badges.
That would depend on what game you are watching and on what network. One needs a blood alchohol content of at least .08 just to make sense of Dennis Miller doing MNF!
Nazi's
The big money was in the passengers contributing to the sheriffs "anti-drug" fund to make the charges disappear.
Thats it exactly. They just keep pushing the envelope. I wish I could say the bottom line was that this was just a revenue measure, but that's not true. They want you to bendova and take it just because some inferiority-laden cops or fascist legislature says so.
"To Protect and SERVE" is long gone.
Now it's "To Regulate and Command"
It does not. From the Texas Penal Code:
§ 49.02. PUBLIC INTOXICATION. (a) A person commits an offense if the person appears in a public place while intoxicated to the degree that the person may endanger the person or another.This story was on the local news last night, including tape of the arrests. The people I saw and heard were able to walk and converse coherently, and did not appear to be a danger to anybody. The bartender, a young woman, was sobbing at being arrested for doing her job. I hate this kind of shakedown and intimidation.
Unfortunately, the law is vague enough that it appears to rely entirely on the subjective judgment of the arresting officer, so I am not sure what defense you could even offer, other than the word of other witnesses, if you could track them down.
The scariest collection of people in a bar you'll ever want to see is the corrections' officers' bar behind the Trenton State Prison.
Y'all say what you want but if you own a bar and are well connected to the local fuzz you have no worries. More than once I have seen the cops take out local competition in favour of their "buddies" that owned bars in the same area.
"Protect and Serve" was printed on the side of LAPD cop cars in the 1960s when they were the most thuggish gang in America.
It's always had an ironic ring to it.
Chance are good that a large proportion of the drinkers are also smokers, so laugh away.
I grew up next to Greatersford State Prison, not too far from Trenton. Same establishments, same ilk. Unspeakable persons motivated by unbalanced thinking and intoxicants. Then they go home if the local "rooms for rent" place is full and the restraining order is more than three months old.
TABC is trying to shut down the Dallas night club in Austin because too many DWI arrests were patrons of the club. Of course, the APD made a habit of parking in the club's lot and following the 'suspects' on to the roadway.
Tip your bartender well. He may be shootin fish for the local five-o. Cheapskates served up willingly.
It's Tater Salad.
Now's a good time for Two Minutes of Hate. This is ridiculous.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1597573/posts
See this post, for more nanny state banning. We knew it would happen sooner or later.
Here's your sign: you're "not sure" and "some people (you)know."
Any freedom lover knows perfectly well this is wrong while you're "not sure..."
Ok, I accept some of the people you "know" in your response are not necessarily friends.
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