Damn. I can just imagine what morons we Texans must look like to the Brit who reads this Reuters piece in a London pub while working his way through a pint.
Texas has begun sending undercover agents into bars to arrest drinkers for being drunk, a spokeswoman for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said on Wednesday.
The first sting operation was conducted recently in a Dallas suburb where agents infiltrated 36 bars and arrested 30 people for public intoxication, said the commission’s Carolyn Beck.
Being in a bar does not exempt one from the state laws against public drunkenness, Beck said.
The goal, she said, was to detain drunks before they leave a bar and go do something dangerous like drive a car.
“We feel that the only way we’re going to get at the drunk driving problem and the problem of people hurting each other while drunk is by crackdowns like this,” she said.
“There are a lot of dangerous and stupid things people do when they’re intoxicated, other than get behind the wheel of a car,” Beck said. “People walk out into traffic and get run over, people jump off of balconies trying to reach a swimming pool and miss.”
Damn again. Drunks … in a bar … drinking. That is now a crime subject to arrest? Does the fact that bars are privately-owned establishments matter naught? Well, given the ballooning case of municipal smoking restrictions, apparently and unfortunately not. Also, it seems this is part of a state-wide effort. Still, people are being busted on the pretense of their current condition in hopes of preventing potential future-but-as-yet-uncommitted crimes. Good end, horrid means that lay waste to years of campaigns advocating designated-driver programs.
I thought I’d throw out the thoughts of a few Texas bloggers on the matter.
The Swanky Conservative [emphasis in original]:
Those people could have driven somewhere. They could have done something harmful to themselves or others.
Innocent until proven guilty means exactly jack-squat to those opposed to people doing things others don’t like. And the guys with the power – the cops – are running right along with with ‘em. All too happy to arrest those who could have committed a crime.
Life follows art, eh?
Methinks Swanky goes to far in calling Minority Report art, but the validity of his point remains the same.
All it will do is encourage people to stay home and get smashed or throw drunk parties. Drunks in bars may be annoying, but as long as they aren’t harming anyone, why not let them drink?
Quite right, and it goes back to my point about public intoxication enforcement on what should be deemed private property.
Finally, The Fat Guy [On the argument about stupid and dangerous drunk acts presented in the above article by the TABC’s Ms. Beck] :
They make drunken bootie calls, too. They write drunken blog posts, too. They fall asleep with the lights and teevee on and run up the light bill, too. They put frozen pizza in the oven and wake up to a stinky kitchen and a carbonized disc, too. They stumble and bark their shins on the coffee table that someone mysteriously moved while they were out, too. Somehow, as a society, we have managed to hold it all together in the face of all the mayhem stemming from freedom of choice.
Reading that, I feel I’m the guest of honor on an episode of This Is Your Life.
Cheers, TABC, I’m at home right now so you can get screwed. However, please be so kind as to let me know if, in the next couple of months, you plan on raiding wedding receptions.
Comments
2 responses to “Texas Arresting People in Bars for Being Drunk”
I can’t figure out how this is legal. A bar is a private establishment, much like a home. Is the TABC going to start going into homes to see if people are drunk now too? If the TABC were to sit outside a bar on public property, and they used to in Lubbock all the time, that’s fine. This though is inside a privately owned bar.
We have to get these people in jail so they dont hurt themselves. Its important that we get these tax paying people into a county run facility with rapist and murderers where they are perfectly safe. Or they get their teeth kicked in and gang raped. At least they didnt fall asleep with the tv on!