Public intoxication stings catch 2,200 in Texas bars

chron.com ^ | 3/23/06 | Anne Marie Kilday

[takenoprisoner]

More than 2,200 people have been arrested in Texas bars in the six months since the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission announced a crackdown on public intoxication, primarily targeting bars.

The arrests included people who were drunk in bars, who sold alcohol to a drunk person, or a drunk employee on the premises of a bar or restaurant with a license to sell alcohol, said Carolyn Beck, a spokeswoman for the TABC.

The commission has been responsible for enforcing the state's alcoholic beverage code for the past 70 years. In August, 2005, the agency announced it was beginning a crackdown on public intoxication, using both undercover and open operations.

The agency has used undercover agents before, Beck said. In a recent operation, agents infiltrated 36 bars in a Dallas suburb and arrested 30 people for public intoxication.

[thoughtomator]

We're already there.

[verity]

You should be pissed at the lawmakers instead.

[verity]

You should be pissed at the lawmakers instead.

[Old Professer]

You'll poke your eye out with that straw.

[DuncanWaring]

IT'S THE LAW.

In that case, perhaps you're familiar with the phrase "The law is an ass".

There was a time "the law" said it's OK for one man to own another as property.

[CSM]

"They didn't get enough of them!"

Actually this misuse of resources is more likely the reason the criminal driver was not stopped in time. If the officers were actually patrolling the streets the chances of stopping the driver would have been improved. Instead, the officers had to be on scene at the bar to support the TABs efforts and haul off the non-driving drunks to jail.

Prayers for our fellow freeper.

[me-here]

Just curious...

If people know they have a chance of getting arrested for drinking too much in a bar isn't there a chance that they might go to tailgate parties or somewhere else that they can get drunk with friends but don't have the option of calling someone for a ride so they won't have to drive?

[Conservative Texan Mom]

How did they determine these people were intoxicated? Also, if the people were staying at the hotel, then how did they present a danger? I'm for upholding the law, but this seems to be stretching it. I imagine this is going to get dismissed in court and embarrass the heck out of the police department.

[tfecw]

"I guess after years as a paramedic and working emergency rooms I just have little sympathy for people who let alcohol control them and can't control it."

No are intentionally obfuscating the issue and ignoring the issue at hand. People who beat their wives, kill other from being drunk behind the wheel should be punished. You are using that to justify precrime. You have no idea what someone will do if he gets tanked at a bar. One day they'll come for you and yours. What lie will you tell yourself then?

[Graycliff]

(Maybe you would feel more comfortable living with the Taliban.)


Well that's a dumb-ass statement. Just because i have a dislike for alcohol and and all the misery it's created. You want to compare me to the Taliban? I guess you say that to all the people who've lost loved ones due to idiots on alcohol.

I guess it's true. There is a jerk on every board.

[Junior_G]

We aren't talking about a few drinks and getting a little buzzed we are talking about staggering, falling down slurring drunks.

It's not one or the other. There is a whole spectrum of levels of intoxication, and I suspect you'd be perfectly happy incarcerating anybody that managed to go beyond being "a little buzzed". How about boisterous? Can we do boisterous?

[Old Professer]

There is no greater loss of freedom than that imposed by an officer of the court acting in the interest of an overbearing legislature; for this reason, our Constitution has specific rights that bar government from acting in such a manner, the fact that we seem to be giving up these rights by meekly going along with each small bite of the whole, only means that we have no more respect for freedom than those who do not trust us with its license.

[Old Professer]

Kind of hard to do when you're already in the back of a black and white on your way to the pokey when the cab shows up at the bar.

[jrawk]

how come you don't hang out in front of bars and buy cabs for drunk people... seems like you could save a lot of lives that way. But it is probably easier just to type about it in a chat forum.

You strike me as the type that believes everyone who is arrested and charged with a crime, "must have been doing something wrong."

-- lates
--jrawk

[Old Professer]

AA, right?

[Conservative Texan Mom]

I think the bars would be afraid to offer a bus service for their drunks because then they'd be admitting they had drunks, which apparently is now illegal. The undercover cop posing as a bus driver would drop the drunks off at the police station while his partner writes the bar a citation for allowing their customers to become intoxicated.

[Age of Reason]

He was hit by a drunk driver yesterday as he stood waiting to cross the street.

I blame the invention of the automobile first.

If some technological "improvement" to our lives ends up making us less free, then it's no improvement.

[Junior_G]

Drunk in public is drunk in public, i have no problem with this.

No, what you have a problem with is freedom, and how it can result in other people doing things that you don't want them to do.

[Willie Green]

Have you two posted bail yet?

[Old Professer]

The cops could at least wait until these guys get in their cars if it's DWI they're after; this is all about numbers and behavior modification.