Cops bust high school beer kegger - root beer, that is

BayNews 9 ^ | Saturday, March 29, 2008 | ROBERT IMRIE

[rarestia]

WAUSAU, Wis. (AP) -- Cars lining the street. A house full of young people. A keg and drinking games inside. Police thought they had an underage boozing party on their hands.

But though they made dozens of teens take breath tests, none tested positive for alcohol. That's because the keg contained root beer.

The party was held by a high school student who wanted to show that teens don't always drink alcohol at their parties.

[rarestia]

LOL! This is a great commentary. Good for this kid!

[Pappy Smear]

I love it. Stickin’ it to the man!

[em2vn]

Unwarranted search of the home and ninety breathalizer(sp) tests administered? That’s a commentary all right.

[Fzob]

Nearly 90 breath tests were done, and officers even searched locked rooms for hiding teens.

"It was a tremendous waste of time and manpower, but we still had a job to do, and our officers did it," Joling said.

They discovered the kegs were root beer and still tested 90 kids?????? What breach of civil liberties and just down right stupidity.

[Normal4me]

WTH do they sell soda by the keg?

[Fzob]

Remind you of anything (sans the root beer of course)

[Viking2002]

HeeheeheeHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.................jeez, what a great way to punk the cops. Back in the day, we used to do this back home to the authoritarian, broomstick-up-the-ass types. I'm glad to see this kid is keeping an art form from dying. HAWHAWHAWHAWHAW. :-)

[ozaukeemom]

That is the way it is done here in Wisconsin. The police can do anything pretty much. And, if you do not cooperate, you will receive an obstructing justice citation and a target on your back. But, do not ask for any help. They are too busy busting root beer keggers.

[Alright_on_the_LeftCoast]

wow, they didn’t taze anybody, shoot any family pets???? Harassment, plain and simple...bad cop, no donut...

[wku man]

Horse crap. That kid oughta be billed for the police manhours he wasted.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[Awestruck]

bill the kid? how about billing the police genius that kept testing the kids after he figured out there was no alcohol on the premises.. or how about not assuming that all kids are up to no good? how about unwarranted searches? The police f’ed up..not the kids...

[timm22]

[Police Chief from the story:] "If one kid had come there, even hadn't drank there, but had come there and had been drinking and had left and crashed and burned, then what would the sentiment be? Why didn't the police check everybody out?"

There could be drunks or crooks hiding anywhere the police go. I guess that means they need to conduct a full search and give everyone a sobriety test on every call, even if the police are just going to get an old lady's cat out of a tree. After all, there could have a been a drunk there that the police missed.

Never mind that whole 4th Amendment business, just make sure then police don't miss anything. < /s>

[Red_Devil 232]

I suppose you read the second to last paragraph? It explains why they continued testing.

[rabidralph]

Quite a few breweries in Wisconsin also make rootbeer.

[wku man]

And when, pray tell, did the cops "figure out there was no alcohol on the perimises"? Maybe after they searched the house and its occupants, and conducted the breath tests? The keg may have been full of root beer, but that doesn't mean there wasn't any alcohol there. How could the cops know any other way than by searching and testing? If you read the whole article, the police chief makes his point when he said,

"If one kid had come there, even hadn't drank there, but had come there and had been drinking and had left and crashed and burned, then what would the sentiment be? Why didn't the police check everybody out?"

When you have a probable cause situation, cops can't just conduct a cursory once over and assume there's nothing illegal going on. Had just one kid been drinking there, and got into a wreck on the way home, there would've been hell to pay. Try looking at it through the eyes of the cop, and I think you'll see they did what they had to.

And yes, the little a**hole trying to get a "gotcha" in on the cops should have to pay for everything. Maybe next time he has a party, he'll tell his little friends to park a little better and be a little quieter.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[Hoof Hearted]

"I suppose you read the second to last paragraph? It explains why they continued testing."

What you refer to as an explanation by law enforcement, I would call a lame excuse by law enforcement.

[wku man]

What's lame about it? Makes sense to me.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[silentreignofheroes]

Quit licking their boots,

[Hoof Hearted]

"When you have a probable cause situation,..."

But you don't have a 'probable cause situation', unless you call searching and breath-testing all those kids because a couple cars were parked illegally 'probable cause'.

[wku man]

It's about probable cause. When police respond to an obvious party, they announce their presence, and kids begin pouring out of the house running away, they have probable cause to believe something criminal is in progress. If they don't go in an determine what's going on, and investigate to see if a crime(s) has taken place, they're not doing their jobs.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!