Public intoxication stings catch 2,200 in Texas bars

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

[Nachoman]

I guess I picked the right week to give up drinking.

[Muleteam1]

I have to admit, it sounds as though I may be taking the wrong side here. This is beginning to sound like a Statewide crackdown on liquor establishments. I know from friends that Texas has been getting really tough on their DUIs(DWIs?) but I would think they would have the courage to do it through new legislation and not through nearly extinct public intoxication laws. Right now I have my own bones to pick with the tax bandits at Austin to get too involved with the revenuers as well. What the heck is happening to Texas? My families have been in the State since the days of the Republic but I am now in the process of trying to sell a piece of west Texas property which has value only to the county tax office. I only hope I can escape with my hide. Maybe I should open a bar on the property instead? No, can't do that, dry county. . .</sarcasm

[fortunecookie]

I sure didn't want that drunk bastard to drive across the median and hit my 17 year old daughter head on.

That behavior is already illegal.

Driving while intoxicated, whether or not that drunk kills someone, is illegal, but it doesn't stop drunks from getting behind the wheel.

[hispanarepublicana]

Yes....this small neighborhood bar went through sort of several of these repeated "sting" operations....I mean, if a patrol car follows you closely enough for long enough, they're going to cite you for some type of moving violation, be it not flashing your turn signal long enough, etc. The bar was a mom and pop type place, and my friend said "mom and pop" were having to pay so much for fines, etc., that they were considering selling the place and retiring. That's really what the TABC's goal was, because other establishments nearby were not being targeted similarly. Who knows? Maybe getting "mom and pop" to sell was some kind of land-grab scheme?

[takenoprisoner]

Are you planning on getting drunk in public?

[Muleteam1]

>>there is no defense of these actions <<

If laws were broken there will be a defense but it won't be Texas law officers who need it. And that's not sugar-coating anything. Don't mess with Texas.

[TheLion]

"Are you planning on getting drunk in public?"

Hell no! I thought the info might add to the discussion. Maybe someone who has been caught up in this web might even be reading this thread.

Plus....my curious mind would like to know the penalties for being under the influence in public. I do know it is a misdemeanor.

[Petronski]

Driving while intoxicated, whether or not that drunk kills someone, is illegal, but it doesn't stop drunks from getting behind the wheel.

No law, not even prohibition, is going to prevent that. Not even absurdly fascist measures like the one taken in Texas.

[truemiester]

""people still think that a bar is place to go get drunk,"

Fools. Thats what the state legislature is for. Sitting around getting drunk. Once every 2 years. Like a legionnaires convention.

Or the Library. Use you imagination.

"alcohol, its not just for bars anymore!"

[Muleteam1]

>>Maybe getting "mom and pop" to sell was some kind of land-grab scheme?<<

You're asking the wrong person if you think I may disagree. I think I've told this story on FR before but in short, each time I leave my west Texas property unattended for too many weeks (my primary home is in Albuquerque) someone tries to move in on it. The last time was the city who last year, without asking, hauled 15 to 18 loads of caliche dirt in and built a street through the middle of my commercial lots where no right-of-way existed. Only a meeting with the city manager resolved this. The mystery here is that this little west Texas town is extremely conservative and were even talked about on the national cable news for the unusual way they were represented during GWB's first innauguration. If I told you what they did, you would know the place.

You got me. I don't know what is going on but it's not good. Sadly it will probably will not get better either. When Texas says, "Don't mess with Texas" I guess they mean it.

Muleteam1

[truemiester]

NEW LAW! NEW LAW!!

This is great! Put it under the heading "2-birds-with-one-stone" laws.

We stop people at the border and give them sobriety tests. This way they are not drunk in public!

If they are drunk, we arrest them. If not we send them back!

[hadaclueonce]

After 371 posts, I have figured it out!
We just put cooler full of beer every ten feet at the Mexico border. That way everyone who sneaks across will stop have a few brews and then arrest THEM for being drunk in public.

[truemiester]

Yeah!

And when the beer runs out they go home to sleep it off

HA-HA-HA

[Ron H.]

Okay, so the state is going after those that are considered to be P.I. at the source, their local neighborhood bar. Where do the cops go to next to "catch" those that are considered to be "P.I.", btw, being P.I. is a very loosely defined subjective state in the mind of the individual arresting officer at the least as drunkenness isn't required to be proven to be considered "P.I." in Texas, only an appearance to be, do they start turning out for weddings, sporting events, concerts or maybe the backyard Bar-B-Que and most any other large gatherings where alcohol is likely to be sold, served and/or consumed? Where does the inept madness stop once the Gestapo styled police start down this very slippery big-brotherism slope?!

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I'd say that they arrest them for the safety of all in the hotel as they don't want people driving through the halls to their rooms. Just trying to protect the public.

[bmwcyle]

I was surprised also.

[hadaclueonce]

Just wait until the Texas Tourisim Board, the Texas Chamber of Commerce and the Texas Task Force for Economic Development start getting phone calls about cancelled conventions coming to Texas. This BS will go out in a heart beat.

It is not about safety, it is economic dollars. TABC are out "picking up empty cans along the side of the road for pennies" compared what the big boys want.

What ever bureaucrat that came up with this idea will be head in line for the head of the PUCT next week. PUCT head job, looking for Fly poop in pepper that is going to be spread on a cow patty. The guy may be over qualified.

[gopheraj]

Yeah and that "except" is going to bite them in the butt in the end. It never stops with "just this one thing"

[hadaclueonce]

"Yeah and that "except" is going to bite them in the butt in the end. It never stops with "just this one thing"

This will be the one thing. Everything in Texas is $ driven. Local Chamber of Commerce will kick your grandma out of her homestead of they get a chance to make a 6% commision on her house.

When the word gets out that convention dollars will not be coming to the big 4, Dallas/FTW, Houston, San Antonio and Austin, the TABC will go set in their little time out corner and wait for the next leader to come with a political hair ball.

Texas starts loosing Tourism Dollars. Head of TABC is looking for a new job.

Head of TABC just learn to hate flying kites, you have great potential in the middle east.

[takenoprisoner]

Personally, I have high hopes the TABC will be working undercover at the next texas govs campaign headquarters (both parties.)