Posted on 03/23/2006 8:18:08 AM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Obviously, this is more important than finding terrorists and illegals!
"The arrests included people who were drunk in bars, who sold alcohol to a drunk person,"
Isn't that the purpose of a bar in the first place? What a waste of time. I know some of the social conservatives on here love the idea of a governement that tells folks what to do but I hate big nanny state government.
And the fact that there are freepers defending this crackdown on freedom is pathetic.
Bump for later response...
Thank you for applauding facism based on emotional responses.
Conservative thought processes? I think not.
The sidebar Nazi pulled your thread off the sidebar.
Guess it wasn't newsworthy enough?
More material for Ron White ("Tater Salad") on the Blue Collar Comedy tour.
A cop is staking out a bar waiting for someone to come out and drive home. Around 11:45 a biker staggers out and heads towards his Harley. The cop thinks, as soon as he pulls out on the street I'll pull him over. The biker stops reaches for his keys and drops them on the ground so he starts crawling around looking for them. The cop thinks this guy is plastered. A couple of other bikers come out and help the first guy up and light a cigarette for him. The guy smokes the cigarette as as a few more of his buddies come out and leave. Then he trys to start his bike but falls over. The cop thinks I could bust him now but a DWI is bigger bust. I'll get him as soon as he gets on the road. A couple of other bikers come out and get the drunk back up on his bike and help him get it started. They leave him sitting on the bike idling the big V twin. The lights in the bar go out and the biker rolls slowly out on to the road. The cop pulls him over immediately and gives him a field sobriety test which he passes with no problems. The cop says blow into this breathalyser and is surprised to see it registers 0.0. I don't get it says the cop, I've been watching you stumble around for half an hour and now you're sober? The biker looks at the cop and says, "I'm the designated decoy."
Probably because you used the word, "gestapo," eh?
" Are you going to sleep in the bar or drive home? "
I can think of lots of options...taxi, designated driver, etc. Going into bars to arrest people for being "drunk" to "prevent" drunk driving is just plain stupid. Especially since some of the people arrested in this sting were businesspeople drinking in the bars of HOTELS where they were registered guests. These people obviously were not intent on driving; they were already 'home' for goodness' sake.
What is even more stupid is that the bars were in hotels and it was hotel guests that were charged. These people were going nowhere near a vehicle!
And that is the fault of a bar?
He could have been drinking at home, or in the car w/ no bar involved.
But they were drunk in public.
IT'S THE LAW.
They busted people in a hotel bar that were staying in the hotel, so it's about more than stopping drunk drivers. And the Texas statute for public intoxication says the person has to be a danger to themselves or someone else. If someone is at a bar and is part of a group with a designated driver, or is going to take a cab home, and is not trying to start a fight or is falling down drunk, these arrests exceed the state's statutory authority.
I'm not from Texas but I think if they want to do something about the DUI problem they should be getting the ones that are driving. How is it that sitting in a bar watching people drink so they can arrest them when they had too much going to catch the people that are out on the road driving?
I guess to some places that works, around here most of the people that are driving when they drink don't come from the bar they come from working in the fields or with they livestock after work they all sit around and drink to "unwind", then they head home.
How do the police know for a fact that they are drunk? Are they coercing people to take a breathalizer? Are people who are not driving threatened with loss of liscense if they don't submit to a breathalizer?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.