Posted on 03/22/2006 10:40:15 AM PST by Daytyn71
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission sent a message to bar patrons last week.
TABC agents and Irving police swept through 36 Irving bars and arrested about 30 people on charges of public intoxication. Agency representatives say the move came as a proactive measure to curtail drunken driving.
North Texans interviewed by NBC 5, however, worried that the sweep went too far.
At one location, for example, agents and police arrested patrons of a hotel bar. Some of the suspects said they were registered at the hotel and had no intention of driving. Arresting authorities said the patrons were a danger to themselves and others.
"Going to a bar is not an opportunity to go get drunk," TABC Capt. David Alexander said. "It's to have a good time but not to get drunk."
Dallas comedian Steve Harvey agreed with the Texas residents who said the arrests infringed on individual rights.
"If a guy's got a designated driver, go ahead and let him get toasted," Harvey told NBC 5.
Texas law states that inebriated individuals could be subjected to arrest anywhere for public intoxication. Harvey and other North Texans called the measure extreme.
"That seems to be an extreme case," one man said. "You are self-contained, in the hotel, you're not going in the streets, it seems a little ridiculous."
TABC officials said the sweep concerned saving lives, not individual rights. Harvey and others interviewed by NBC 5 said they believe drunken driving to be unacceptable, although Harvey wanted to confirm that the United States remains a free country.
"Freedom of drinking should always be allowed, and it is only American to let a guy get drunk where he wants to get drunk," Harvey said.
They were havinng trouble gathering usable evidence against a suspected house of ill repute. Figuring that discouraging the use of the establishment by it's patrons, might have the same effect as raiding it.
They put a clearly marked Sheriff's dept car at the entrance to the parking lot. This really worked for a few days as customers tended to stay away.
Then the owners put up a sign stating,
"PARKING SECURITY PROVIDED BY
BEXAR COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPT."
Freakin' Booze Nazi's!
MADD National Office
511 E. John Carpenter Frwy. Suite 700
Irving, TX 75062
The US never did recover fronm the Noble Experiment of Prohibition, did it?
And left us with the Kennedy clan, to boot.
I thought it was the concept of "right" that he was shaky on.
"It wasn't too long ago when a Texan could buy a plastic sleeve that would slip over a beer can, authentically relabeling it as a Pepsi."
We didn't even need a pepsi sleeve to hide it...it was legal to drink and drive, just not drunk. Course it was never considered proper etiquette to salute the officer next to you at the light by tipping with your highball or bud.
PRIVATE CLULB. Membership $.01
The nazis are in Texas too.
The aim of government-nazis is to control every aspect of life, so that there will be no privacy whatever. They are already arresting people for their thoughts. ("hate crime" laws)
Lets hope that they are! I hate saying this but the police in this state have gone mad!
The following is a bit long, but is a documented answer to your rhetorical question...
*******
Ken Rodriguez: Was tragic suicide victim right about North Side nightclub?
Web Posted: 02/10/2006 12:00 AM CST
San Antonio Express-News
A throng of leering patrons ring a hip-hop dance floor at Graham Central Station.
Two women — one in a tight miniskirt, the other in skin-hugging jean shorts — are bumping and grinding to the rhythms of the night.
The one in shorts thrusts her rear toward her partner. The miniskirted one opens her legs and wraps her knees around a big bottom. To throbbing music, the women gyrate.
Some might call this modern dance. George Dickerson, I suppose, would call it simulated sex.
Whatever you call it, there was lots of it Wednesday night at Graham Central Station, a club Dickerson skewered in a now-famous e-mail to City Councilwoman Elena Guajardo.
I'm here to find out if what Dickerson alleged is true: "The entertainment Graham Central Station provides for their customers," he wrote, "is of a lude (sic), lascivious, low class, debaucheristic, criminalistic, riot insistic, anarchist nature."
Zachry Construction Corp. fired Dickerson for penning that e-mail on a company computer. Two days later, Dickerson killed himself.
Guajardo claims Dickerson's e-mail was racial and discriminatory. Others say it was spot on. Was it?
The first person I meet tells me the club gets crazy. "The TABC (Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission) wants to pull their liquor license," says a guy in jeans with a long-tailed shirt. "They've been selling alcohol to minors. People leave drunk and get arrested for DWI."
How do you know?
The young, 20-something man reaches into his front pants pocket and pulls out a badge.
"I've had to come in here and arrest a couple of people," the cop says. "One for an outstanding DWI warrant. The other for assault."
In 2005, police recorded 260 incidents at the club. Another 46 have been logged through the first 40 days of '06. Complaints range from fighting and underage drinking to stolen vehicles and assault. As a result, TABC recommends nonrenewal of the club's license, which expires in April. Graham Central Station is fighting to keep it.
Are you working tonight, I ask the officer.
"No," says the cop, a beer in one hand, a cigarette in the other, "I'm here to enjoy myself."
The cop does not want to be named. So I'll call him Steve.
Steve introduces me to two friends — deputies with the Bexar County Sheriff's Office. They, too, are off-duty and nursing drinks.
A waitress passes by with a tray of red-colored vials. Steve buys a round for his friends.
A deputy tells me he drank something called a Vampire Kiss.
What's that?
"I don't know," the deputy says with a big grin, "but it was good."
I ask the deputy about the crowd. "I recognize people that are former inmates," he says.
Really?
"I see them here all the time," Steve adds.
That reminds me: Dickerson wrote that the club attracts "undesirable, low class elements from bad parts of the city."
Some might consider jail a bad part of the city. Just guessing, but others might see a link between inmates and "undesirable" and "low class elements."
Not everyone here, of course, has a criminal history. But then it's Ladies Night, and that brings out the best in club patrons.
During the evening's miniskirt contest — top prize, $500 — one woman bends over to reveal she's either wearing a piece of dental floss for panties or nothing at all.
"That," says the announcer to a whistling crowd, "would be illegal in 48 other states."
Illegal or not, the lady splits first prize with another bare-bottomed competitor.
Sometime after 1 a.m., the off-duty cops gather around an elevated cage at the end of the South Beach dance floor. Inside the cage, two fully clothed women are dancing like strippers.
Steve places a dollar bill between his teeth. A tall woman in spiked heels and jeans gyrates to the floor, and pushes her knees through the cage's metal bars. As Steve moves his head between splayed legs, the dancer snatches the bill from his teeth.
Now lubricated with liquor, the deputies approach the cage, money sticking from mouths.
Lewd club behavior?
Dickerson, I bet, never knew who was leading the charge.
If they were TRULY concerned with saving lives and not individual rights, they'd shut down every abortion clinic as the procedure almost always results in death.
Dallas still has its dry areas (including private drinking clubs). He MAY not drink a drop.
But .08 means easier convictions even if it doesn't mean impairment.
My back and neck are scewed up for life by a dumb broad yammering on her cellphone at 10am.
She should be in jail for HER reckless disregard for other drivers' and pedestrians' safety. It'll never happen.
The cellphone lobby is stronger than big alcohol.
they will all be working for homeland security before the year is out
Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here
You do realize that it is LEGAL for a judge to be drinking on the bench in Texas? Right?
The code says it should be for "medicinal purposes".
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