Texas Police Arrest People In Bars For Public Intoxication - Massive Sweep

[matcom]

:crazy:

<snip>

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."

http://www.nbc5i.com/news/8169246/detail.html

[johnnie]

1. Yeeeeee Hawwwwww

Gotta love the Lone Star state :eyes:

[Swede]

4. Things really are better in Texas.

Including stormtroopers.

[Elidor]

2. Way to bring in the tourists, guys n/t

[Squatch]

3. ...said the sweep concerned saving lives, not individual rights

That pretty much sums it up right there.

Won't somebody please think of the children?

[Ohio Joe]

5. OK, I really want to leave Ohio but..

It appears Texas is definitely off the list of places to go.

[Coventina]

6. I'm shocked, SHOCKED I telly 'ya! People getting drunk in BARS?!?!?

Oh the humanity!

:eyes:

:wtf:

Say goodbye to bar crawls and bachelor/bachelorette parties, etc. etc.

[laheina]

22. Pretty soon, Texans will only be able to drink in their closets

and lord knows that those are crowded already.

[pokerfan]

38. Come out of the closet, Texas!

Dad, Texas won't come out of the closet!

[asthmaticeog]

7. Right. So in Texas you can drive with an open beer in your hand...

...but you can't get tight in a BAR.

Genuis.

[GirlinContempt]

11. Isn't texas the home of the Drive-Thru margarita?

Or am I thinking of another state?

[Bridget Burke]

13. I think that's Louisiana.

But the "no open container in the car" law is fairly new in Texas. Most of us remember when the DRIVER was allowed to hold an open container.

Nothing like barrelling down the road with a cold beer in your hand!

[fleabert]

24. no open containers in TX, but we do have beverage barns...

drive thru beer & liquor stores. you can't drink it till you get home though.

[anarch]

25. my dream is to one day open a drive-thru liquor and gun store

Sounds like TX is the place to do it! I will also sell cigarettes, of course, and I will call my store "The ATF Store".

[asthmaticeog]

29. Ah, I see. My mistake.

Did it *used* to be legal at one time, though? I could swear I remember talking with a touring musician from Texas about something called "Bubba Laws" that pertained to the legality of driving with open containers.

[fleabert]

34. not for many years. I got my license in 1989 and it was illegal then

but I am sure there was a time it was legal. My mom probably drove around with me on my 'hatchback pallet' in the back of her 1973 Vega with an open can of Bud between the passenger seat and the emergency brake!

[LaraMN]

8. Next they will proceed to arrest people for having sex in hotel rooms.

I feel safer, even all the way across the country!:P

[RagingInMiami]

9. Or maybe for shooting people in the face

[asthmaticeog]

15. ba-ZING.

:applause:

[Bridget Burke]

10. Irving's in the Metroplex...

A patchwork of municipalities clustered around Dallas & Fort Worth. Some of the areas are dry & others aren't. So you've got a lot of bars--or just restaurants that serve alcohol--clustered along the borders. I'm sure that leads to many people drinking up & then driving back to their dry little neighborhoods. (Nowadays, many Muslim immigrants have moved to the dry areas--probably NOT what the straitlaced founding fathers planned.)

Busting hotel guests is truly idiotic. And how do they KNOW the others didn't have alternate ways home? Or--could they have told the drunks to call a cab?

If someone isn't being a nuisance in the bar--why arrest him? (or her)

--Thankful that I live in a neighborhood with several bars and/or restaurants within walking distance. I don't get really drunk--with age comes some wisdom. But I don't worry about driving after "one more margarita." Let's hear it for mass transit & workable neighborhoods!

[anarch]

12. you know, that's one of the weirdest things about drinking in Texas

all those Baptist-controlled dry areas right up against some other area with a zillion bars and liquor stores right on the border...almost encourages drinking and driving, really.

Anyway, this raid is ridiculous. I wonder if they breathalyzed people, or made them stand on one leg and say the alphabet backwards and shit, right there in the bar.

[pitohui]

17. the goal is to put the bar or hotel out of business

there has been harassment of this nature in north carolina as well, the goal being baptist-fascists (or should that be baptisto-fascists?) who want to crush the bar owner and put him out of business

to harass people in a hotel bar in this fashion is over the top and says to me that somebody at the hotel didn't pay off the right highly placed crook in the local pd

they used to call it a protection racket

[Blue-Jay]

14. Where the hell are you *supposed* to get drunk?

And doesn't Texas have drive-thru beer stores?

[pitohui]

20. at a bar where the manager has paid off the cops

this is pretty obvious extortion to me

[ThomCat]

21. Yes, I think you have it exactly right.

This is the set-up for a moneymaking opportunity.

[Orsino]

37. Isn't there some sort of free-trade law that would allow...

...the establishment owners to sue the state for lost business?

Not just the over the thirty people arrested, but the hundreds who won't ever go near those places again?

[ThomCat]

40. Only if they were in international corporation.

[laheina]

23. Good point nt

[pitohui]

16. great news, more customers for louisiana casino hotel/resorts

texas don't want you to party? come on down

plenty of our casinos are open and running, w. hotels attached, there's music, there's gambling, there's spa and swimming pool, and gosh guess what

they's drinking!!!!!!!

so come on down and see us, ya'll

[Left Is Write]

18. "Going to a bar is not an opportunity to go get drunk," TABC Capt.

Er...maybe you should get rid of all the alcohol they sell there, if that's the case.

I know! Maybe a Constitutional amendment banning alcohol! That would work...right? Right?

[pitohui]

19. dude's just looking for a pay-off

when the hotel bar coughs up the money, they will be harassed no more

if i were the hotel gm, i would consider approaching the fbi abt this and seeing what they could do for me, you could maybe arrange to be wearing a wire when the officer came around for the pay-off

[DS1]

26. Here I sit, Ass a'flexin'

Givin' birth to another Texan

[leftofthedial]

27. how have jennaslut and babslut evaded capture

all these years?

not to mention king george itself.

they must be practicing for when king george reduces the victory gin ration.

[genieroze]

32. This must be a * law, the dry drunk is mad because he can't get toasted.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

28. Someone please post this...

over in the "Is everything better in Texas?" thread please! :eyes:

[liberalpress]

30. Just another reason I'm glad I left Texas

[genieroze]

31. Hum,

"Texas law states that inebriated individuals could be subjected to arrest anywhere for public intoxication."
What about ones own home, is that next? What about a private backyard barbecue. OMG, drinking in a bar, what a concept.
:crazy:

[KamaAina]

33. I trust they made sure Dubya wasn't on vacation first

how embarrassing it would have been for King Dumbass** to get hauled off and thrown into the drunk tank...

[Orsino]

35. I'd like to know what sort of standard of suspicion they used.

Just the few people who looked intoxicated?

[Redstone]

36. In fucking TEXAS? Damn, that place has changed since I lived there.

Redstone

[pokerfan]

39. In other news, Missouri trying to ban the sale of cold beer!

http://www.newstribune.com/articles/2006/01/06/news_state/0010606031.txt

“The only reason why beer would need to be cold is so that it can be consumed right away,” Alter, who has been a police offer for more than 20 years, said Thursday.