Texas starts arresting bar patrons for being... erm... drunk.

[DRoseDARs]

Um, yeah. Gotta' fill that quota somehow...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060322/us_nm/bars_dc

Texas arresting people in bars for being drunk

1 hour, 30 minutes ago

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - 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."

She said the sting operations would continue throughout the state.

[SlowwHand]

That will be beat in court. What it doesn't reference is allegations against the bartender.

[Fake Boris]

[DRoseDARs]

Know what would just be the cat's meow? Someone releasing a video of commissioner Carolyn Beck being a total lush in public.

[Zkribbler]

The story goes...

As it gets close the closing time, a guy comes staggering out of a bar. He can't walk straight, and has lots of trouble even unlocking his car door.

Two cops who are on stakeout know an arrest is imminent.

Other bar patrons file out pass this guy, who's dropping his car keys and almost passing out as he sits in his car. The parking lot empties as the guy searches around under his seat trying to find his keys.

Finally, he fishes them out, slaps his own face several times, shakes his head, starts his car and begins to drive off.

The police set off their siren and pull the guy over as soon as his tires touch public pavement. They do a sobriety test, and the result are 100% sober.

"But you could hardly stand up back there," they protest.

"Of course," the guy replies, "I'm the designated decoy."

[Rufus T. Firefly]

You know, if this were happening in Massachusetts, conservative bloggers and pundits would be pissing themselves about how it's liberal PC naziism run amok or some such nonsense.

So what does it mean that, instead, this is happening in the home of the Alamo?

[DRoseDARs]

@ZKribbler

Can you be arrested and charged with aiding and abetting a crime in that case if anyone having driven from that bar gets pulled over and charged with a DUI?

[Zkribbler]

I dunno. That, or maybe obstruction of justice. Where's Imran? I bet he knows.

[Grandpa Troll]

Ok, I am a former Federal Officer. I also have been a bouncer,floorman and a doorman.

In North Carolina as well as Texas there is a law, IIRC, called Dram Shop Law


Basically, where a club can and should be found guilty of serving a patron who is beyond reasonably intoxicated.


This may be where this is coming from

[asleepathewheel]

Technically they are committing crimes....

And I have made the DD argument at trial before for a public intox client...not very sucessful in front of just a judge.

[BlackCat]

@ZKribbler

You yanks really amazes me - you are allowed to carry heavy weapons and shoot people if they step on the wrong lawn, and this while your police is busy catching people on their fourth beer

[DRoseDARs]

So this is a matter of poorly written law? I'll give Texas that much if it is. Still, arresting someone JUST for being drunk in a bar? Not driving, not causing a scene. Just drunk in a bar? Jeez.

[Elok]

Originally posted by BlackCat
@ZKribbler

You yanks really amazes me - you are allowed to carry heavy weapons and shoot people if they step on the wrong lawn, and this while your police is busy catching people on their fourth beer

The average Texan lawn and the average European state are about the same size. Why does the "national defense" argument work for you and not them?

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Elok


The average Texan lawn and the average European state are about the same size. Why does the "national defense" argument work for you and not them?

Well, we eouropeans are at least so civilized that we only shoot if the straggler is an enemy army

[David Floyd]

This is kinda silly. However, I seriously doubt the police are arresting people for being intoxicated, but rather OBVIOUSLY intoxicated. If you are the type of drunk who can suck down 12 beers in an hour and act perfectly normal (at first glance anyway), you're not gonna get bothered.

It's the idiot fratboys who take group shots and generally make asses out of themselves who will feel this one

Joking aside, though, this is pretty silly - arrest people for committing a real crime - ie, something that hurts someone - not some artificial crime. If a person gets drunker than hell in a bar, that's fine. If they start picking fights or driving home, that isn't fine. Seems to be a reasonable enough distinction.