Posted on 03/25/2006 1:03:06 PM PST by MRMEAN
Last weekend’s public intoxication sting operation at Progreso drew together several important — but, at times, conflicting — values for Rio Grande Valley residents to consider.
About 160 young Valley residents — many of them minors and nearly all of them younger than 21 — were arrested late Saturday night or early Sunday morning after they crossed the international bridge while returning from Nuevo Progreso, Mexico. Under Operation Stronghold, they were detained by Progreso police officers, who were joined by Hidalgo County constable’s deputies and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents, and then were jailed until they or their parents paid a $500 fine.
Some parents denounced the sting as an unjust means to rake in $80,000.
Progreso police officials defended it as a means to reduce drinking among teenagers and, thus, save lives.
Those safety concerns are understandable. Alcohol consumption by young people is a serious problem across the United States, as is drinking and driving.
Those twin problems were brought home tragically for Valley residents during the early morning hours of Feb. 4, when two Hidalgo High School students were killed and three others were injured when their pickup truck ran off the Military Highway west of Progreso following a night out across the border.
"Basically we found that it’s nothing but underage drinking at that hour," Progreso police investigator Carlos Lucio said of Operation Stronghold.
The term "underage" is relative, however, as the legal drinking age in Mexico is 18, compared with Texas’ 21.
This isn’t the first time that the allure of Mexico’s nightclubs has been a public safety concern. Other border communities,
notably Brownsville, are crossing points for 18-to-21s who take advantage of drinking legally in Mexico.
The dangers posed by teens and young adults who drive while intoxicated becomes particularly acute during Spring Break, when carloads of college students head from South Padre Island to the bars and nightclubs of Matamoros.
But if the trips to Nuevo Progreso are a significant danger to residents of Progreso and neighboring communities, can we assume automatically that the arrests made last weekend were an appropriate response?
Public safety is a vital component of American society, but so are justice and due process. Quite a few parents of the arrested thought those values were overlooked by the sting and they went to Progreso City Hall on Tuesday to protest. Some said the sting seemed to be a money-making operation, as the 160 arrested were fined $500 apiece, the maximum allowable by state law.
"You don’t just jerk somebody off the street. … It’s ludicrous, illicit and unethical," one parent, Edward Hutchinson, told a reporter. His son’s account of the night appears in a letter on this page.
One problem with staging such a massive sting is that the number of arrests allows only so much time and attention to be given to each case. Rounding up 160 or so can shortchange the collection of evidence and put legal protections at risk.
Even Hidalgo County’s top prosecutor, District Attorney Rene Guerra, saw some constitutional problems with the arrests.
"Officers will not be able to prove danger to themselves or others if (the teenagers) are able to walk without falling down and are not swaying in traffic," he told a reporter. "In essence, anybody who has alcohol on their breath could be arrested. That would be improper, illegal and unconstitutional."
Under Operation Stronghold, officers administered field sobriety tests to check for intoxication. Those include the "pen test," or horizontal gaze nystagmus, and "divided attention" tests that include standing on one leg and the walk-and-turn test.
But, as Guerra pointed out, the threshold for a public intoxication arrest isn’t the .08 blood alcohol content that determines whether someone is driving while intoxicated. It is a stricter standard that requires "that the person may endanger the person or another."
Those arrested were not given a Breathalyzer test or a blood test — they are not required to do so by state law. So all 160 arrests relied on the evidence of an officer’s observations prior to and during a field test.
Unfortunately, field tests are not terribly accurate. Research sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that the pen test makes a correct classification in 77 percent of cases, while the one-leg stand and walk-and-turn tests were accurate just 68 and 65 percent of the time, respectively.
We share the Progreso Police Department’s desire to curb drinking among the Valley’s young people and to eliminate the danger that they pose to others. But it is important that law enforcement agencies do not trample civil rights protections in a zealous attempt to do so.
Suspects charged with public intoxication, a Class C misdemeanor, have the right to contest their citations, as well as the right to request a jury trial. We wonder whether the municipal court in Progreso would be equipped to handle the dozens of potential challenges that might emerge from future sting operations.
And as soon as national health care (federalized) comes in, they'll be going into restaurants to check patrons cholesterol count and blood-sugar level.
Freedom involves personal risk of all types at all levels, but the benefits of freedom outweigh the cost.
Can't drink as you please in a bar? This is too much.
This is another case of legal thievery...who do you call when the police are robbing you?
Public intoxication ARRESTS! but millions of socialist pigs illegaly come into this country and they and their da** mexican flag are allowed to roam free and do whatever the h*ll they want. Am I mad as h**l oh you bet I am!
The only hope is if all 160 people contest the citations, and ram this giant wad of cases right back into the court system. I doubt the small town in the article would appreciate that.
It's for the chiiiiildren!!!!!!!
That doesn't make sense
I guess you didn't hear about the police in the Dallas area that went into bars, and even into HOTEL BARS, and arrested people for Public Intoxication.
That's right - arrested people in a HOTEL BAR, for PI. Even people that were registered, and staying at that hotel were arrested.
One law-man said you can't get drunk in a hotel anymore.
What a load of crap! Man, I miss the days when your buddy, or your dad's/uncle's/grand-pa's buddy would drive you home and give you over to your parents to mete out justice for a night out on the town. Now, it's arrest you, take your money, and mess up your 'record', all becuase someone doesn't like the fact that you drink.
I guess it's a good thing that 9 times out of 10, I drink at home.
As proud as I am to be a Texan:
This is a shake down, "revenue enhancement" pure and simple.
I watched a clip on TeeeeVeeee of a lady in a hotel, had room rented etc, was at the hotel bar, and got busted.
Just sitting at the bar minding her own business.
Barney Fifes hauled her ass to jail.
She spent the night in jail and paid a large fine to get out.
While we have 12 million aliens running loose.
Millions of Mooslimes here who only want to kill us.
Uncontrolled borders.
Etc etc
Total disgrace....
This and the smoking thing has really got me pissed, hate because I light up and drink a couple of beers then gather at thr trough for your share of the slops these new crimres bring into the government. Hell I don´t even drink anymore and stopped smoking, but I m so POed right now I think I will go buy me a siz pack of beef burritios, a 12 pack of beer and a couplle of cigars.
Maybe if we could get the Mexicans and the Mooslims to get drunk in bars, we could get rid of two problems.
Like here in PA...when they do a Soberity check point, they check 80 drivers, arrest 2 drunks, write 60 tickets for expired Tags, burnt out tail lights and no seatbelts. All it is is a ploy to make money.
If they really want to get drunk drivers, set one up around a Police bar and arrest drunken cops as they weave down the road. Or the country club where the local Politcians think of ways to rape tazpayers.
I thought it was legal to get drunk in Mexico or Canada and come back before sleeping it off as long as you can prove you did the drinking across the border and you were of legal age there.
OK..this is so stupid..when I was going to TCU in 1983..an idiot da went to drunk driving seminar and came up with an idiotic idea..throw away your traffic ticket and arrest even the most innocent drivers..actually..the dallas morning news was very good in this drive..pointing out the stupidity of this campaign..they pointed out that it took at least an hour to arrest the speeder..leaving a city of at least one million to be covered with about 80 cops...what idiots..thankfully the idiot dropped the idea..
I don't know if it's true in Texas state and local law enforcement, but I have read that there is an exceedingly high number of Mormons among Federal agencies like the FBI and DEA. In part this is a natural consequence of their patriotic and conservative culture, and in part it is an unintentional byproduct of the fact that so many non-Mormons do not pass law enforcement background checks due to youthful drug use. It's easier for the 3-letter agencies to recruit in Mormon country than anywhere else.
Now I am descended from Mormons, work with Mormons, love them to pieces, but no one can deny a streak of puritanical zeal among them. This may partly explain the neo-Prohibitionist morass that our law enforcement establishment is falling into.
Public intoxication is one of those laws which is best enforced only when there is an obvious violation by a specific individual. Random screening of otherwise law-abiding hotel guests for intoxication brings down contempt and ridicule on the entire edifice of law enforcement.
-ccm
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