Posted on 03/22/2006 4:32:35 PM PST by stacytec
SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - Texas has begun sending undercover agents into bars to arrest drinkers for being drunk, a spokeswoman for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said on Wednesday.
The first sting operation was conducted recently in a Dallas suburb where agents infiltrated 36 bars and arrested 30 people for public intoxication, said the commission's Carolyn Beck.
Being in a bar does not exempt one from the state laws against public drunkenness, Beck said.
The goal, she said, was to detain drunks before they leave a bar and go do something dangerous like drive a car.
"We feel that the only way we're going to get at the drunk driving problem and the problem of people hurting each other while drunk is by crackdowns like this," she said.
"There are a lot of dangerous and stupid things people do when they're intoxicated, other than get behind the wheel of a car," Beck said. "People walk out into traffic and get run over, people jump off of balconies trying to reach a swimming pool and miss."
She said the sting operations would continue throughout the state.
"Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with." ('Atlas Shrugged' 1957)
That's happening already. It is against the law in Texas to consume alcohol before noon on Sunday, even at home.
Had two close friends of mine arrested one Sunday morning sitting at a picnic table in the front yard. They were BBQing, drinking beers and waiting for the Houston Oilers' game to start.
Cop drove by, saw them drinking beer and the empties on the table. He stopped, arrested them for consumption before noon and took them to jail.
He told them that they should have been in the house or the backyard but not out front flaunting the law. They didn't know that was the law.
I didn't either till I came over later to find that one buddie's wife was downtown bailing them out.
Pasadena, Texas a few years ago.
The USSR was a totalitarian police state, but at least it allowed its subjects to indulge their personal vices without state interference. In some respects, specifically in the area of alcohol and tobacco, modern day America is more intrusive than the Soviets were.
I bet you're a lot of fun at a party.
You may be right about their legal mandate to roust customers and their methods of doing it, but I don't think so. They can and have always arrested underage drinkers in bars.
The TABC has a lot of authority inside bars because they are charged with regulating the beer and liguor industry from manufacturing right down to retail sales. For example, they can go into a bar and demand the records of sales and check them against purchases of beer and liguor to find out if the owner/bar personnel are watering drinks or bringing in supplies without a tax stamp and refilling the bottles.
They've also ruled on things like 2 for 1 drinks at happy hours.
I can't tell if you are just very misinformed, or are trying to keep posts going back and forth, but...
Texas Code of Criminal Procedure: Art. 2.12., WHO ARE PEACE OFFICERS. The following are peace officers:...
(6) law enforcement agents of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission;
So Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents out making arrests are Peace Officers under Texas law, and are authorized to carry firearms, not just flash lights. But are they, as you say, part of some local outfit and not State employees? From the TABC website:
Vacancy announcements provide the position title, salary information, the location where the vacancy exists, closing date, job description and minimum qualification requirements. After the job closes, all applications are forwarded to the TABC Austin Headquarters. The Human Resources Division is responsible for screening each application to determine which applicants meet the minimum qualification requirements. Only applications that meet all minimum qualifications and include all proper documentation will be processed. (Emphasis added)
...
The State of Texas Application for Employment (Form AP-8), Applicant EEO Data (Form AP-8c), and the TABC Supplemental (Form HR-20) can be downloaded from this site by clicking on the following links...
Here is the link http://www.tabc.state.tx.us/jobs/default.htm
So TABC agents are State, not local.
http://www.tululuka.net/alco/
Of course, the USSR never claimed to be the free society that the US is supposed to be - and in many ways still is. What gets me is that some Americans have no problem reconciling freedom with the multitude of little intrusions into our personal lives (which can add up). To them, a cop on every Soviet, German, Cuban, or Chinese corner is statism, while a speed trap every half-mile (or "alcohol arrest" every half-block) in the US is A-OK. My goal is to set the bar higher.
Meet inneroutlaw. Inneroutlaw, meet Freedom_no_exceptions.
You two should get along just fine.
You'll have to trust me on this, but I'm neither. I will respond at a later time. Very busy right now. Thanks for your informative replies.
I just saw this on MSNBC right now this minute - they arrested people in a Texas hotel bar who were 'drunk' but the couple were staying in the hotel - they also arrested another 'drunk' even though his date was the designated driver and they arrested a young woman hotal bartender for serving 'drunks'.
I just saw this on MSNBC right now this minute - they arrested people in a Texas hotel bar who were 'drunk' but the couple were staying in the hotel - they also arrested another 'drunk' even though his date was the designated driver and they arrested a young woman hotal bartender for serving 'drunks'.
I should have added the bartender looked like a sweet girl earning a living and she was crying hard as she was arrested - you could tell this was her first arrest.
If you're happy and you know it clank your chains (clank, clank)
South Florida where making a right hand turn from the far left lane is not only legal but expected.
Turn signals do not come equiped on cars - or are faulty, seeing that they are turned on for miles at a time.
Swerving, driving on sidewalks, going 20mph in a 70-mph zone or 150mph in a 20mph zone, all legal.
I learned to drive in Wash. DC.....Nothing beats S. Florida drivers.
Must be quite a few years ago. A lot of bars open at 10:00AM on Sundays. Legal as long as the patrons have prepared food in front of them. Food must be cooked, chips and dip don't count, as one bar here in Angelo found out.
This exception was put in several years ago at the behest of the convention and hotel crowd, they claimed the concession was necessary to allow for the Sunday "Champagne Brunch" that had become fashionable in states that allowed it.
TABC is indeed the inbred capitol of nepotism in state gov't. That is not anectdotal, the agency literally has the highest rate of nepotistic employees in Texas.
Three years back I was arrested in a bar for "Intoxicated employee on premise". No, I wasn't crocked on duty, I was in the place watching a Cowboys game on my night off. I realized I had more than was safe, asked the girl who was working to call me a cab. As soon as I said that out loud, the couple who we later discovered were undercover boogied out the door leaving two nearly full beers. They were in a hurry to get Officer Numnuts in the place in time to bust me before the cab came.
Went to trial, had a stack of precedent cases out of Southwest 2nd relating to definition of public intoxication. Unfortunately, I got a brain-dead County Court at Law judge who somehow found that citations from the Texas Courts of Criminal Appeals were civil law and therefor irrelevant! Didn't have near the money to appeal, had to represent myself, that adventure in nonsense cost me $550. It developed in testimony they were there to respond to an "anonymous tip" that the bartender on duty was working intoxicated. When that came up a dry hole, they needed something to justify all that expense, and I was the best bet they had on a slow Thursday.
The Selma PD (a notorious suburb of San Antonio that was called, correctly, a "speeed trap" in a Steve Earle song), a few years ago stopped a friend of mine while she and her husband were test driving a new mini van on IH-35 on a Sunday afternoon. The Selma PD stopped her because the dealer plate was improperly displayed. The dealership had made her leave her purse behind, and there was no insurance card in the mini van, so the Selma PD officer gave her citations for no License Plate, no Driver's License, and no Proof of Insurance.
Hard ball to be sure, but legal.
The Selma Officer then said that because she had no Drivers Licenseon her (although his radio could have confirmed that she had one), he had to take her photograph and fingerprints, which he did on the side of IH-35. While her husband watched, and while she was seven months pregnant, which is why she and her husband were looking at mini vans.
Legal?
Yes.
Offensive and stupidly counter productive?
Certainly.
LOL!
Great line.
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