Mother Jones: Texas' bizarre, racist, homophobic liquor laws

[marmar]

Cop Walks Into a Bar And...Arrests You. For Having a Drink.
Texas’ bizarre, racist liquor laws.

— By Adam Weinstein

March/April 2010 Issue


LATE ON A BALMY Saturday night last June, six Fort Worth cops and two officers from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission went looking for trouble. They had just raided two Hispanic bars in an industrial stretch of town and nine detainees now sat in the paddy wagon (pdf), hands bound with plastic ties. The rest of the city's bars would soon shut down. It seemed like the night was over, except for the paperwork. Then Sergeant Richard Morris had an idea. "Hey," he said. "Let's go to the Rainbow Lounge."

A half-dozen police cruisers, an unmarked sedan, and the prisoner van slid to a stop in front of the Rainbow Lounge, Fort Worth's newest gay club, at about 1:30 a.m. on June 28, 2009—40 years, almost down to the minute, after New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn with billy clubs and bullhorns. Inside the bar, the officers fanned out, grabbing and arresting six patrons for public intoxication. Benjamin Guttery, a 24-year-old Army vet, says an officer told him to put down his drink, then "bulldozed" him through the crowd to the paddy wagon but then let him go. "I'm 6'8", 250 pounds, and I had just finished my second drink," Guttery told a local reporter. "I might have had enough to have a loose tongue, but not a loose walk or anything like that." Another man alleges that he was slammed against a wall, elbowed, and fell on the ground, landing him in intensive care for a week with bleeding in his brain. He was charged with public intoxication and assault.

They say everything's bigger in Texas, and that includes absurdity in law enforcement. Most states and towns have public intoxication laws that allow peace officers to pick up the drunk and disorderly. But in the Lone Star State, the nation's broadest PI law lets cops go virtually anywhere and arrest anyone for drunkenness—even if they're quietly nursing a beer in a bar. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/03/texas-racist-laws-drinking-while-brown

[ProdigalJunkMail]

1. nothing about the LAW is racist or homophobic

but the assholes enforcing it sure seem to be...

sP

[spiritual_gunfighter]

2. This is disgusting

If you're brown and you're around—you're going down. and If you're gay and in the way you're gonna pay.

[Jennicut]

3. In a bar??? When people get out of control at a bar, that is what bouncers are for.

My husband plays in a band, in CT, Mass, Upstate NY and Long Island. We have been in plenty of bars over the years. Bar fights are part of the atmosphere. Boston is notorious for it spilling out in the parking lots later. I can understand the police stepping in there. But when someone starts something, they get thrown out of the bar by the bouncer. That is overreaching and abusive by the police in Texas.

[lovelyrita]

30. I'm a CT native and worked in a bar in college.

Fights were common and people were often arrested. The police actually did a good job protecting people from those who are violent and actually committing a crime.

The police referenced in the above article are gross. They should be helping people not having a racist/homophobic agenda.

[TexasObserver]

4. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has a long history of goon squads.

They're social warriors of the right, always attacking bars they don't approve of - gay or risque, mainly. Or, too ethnic.

They're brownshirts with no real purpose. They're supposed to worry about bars who are overserving or serving minors, but they seem to enjoy pursuing their social agenda.

It's run by the appointees of Rick Perry, so there you are.

[Captain Hilts]

5. Mother Jones uses the term "PADDY wagon???"

[MineralMan]

6. Funny, huh? I guess the kids working there now don't know

the origins of the phrase.

[whathehell]

8. Hell, I'm of half Irish descent

and I didn't know it's origins until relatively recently.

[MineralMan]

12. Well, my heritage is Scottish/Irish, so I'm very sensitive

to such things. The McGregors hate me, and the coppers wanna lock me up. I just can't win. At least, though, I'm not a ginger. Then I'd be royally screwed.

[whathehell]

13. Hey MineralMan..

What is this prejudice I hear about regarding red hair, being "a ginger"?...Everyone in my family had red or auburn hair.

We grew up in Philadelphia (large Irish population) and it was never an issue...I get the feeling that, where it does exist, it's directed mainly at males..Am I right?

[MineralMan]

14. Well, it's a well-known fact that gingers are a separate species.

They may even be space aliens. They have a complex plot to take over the Earth. All of this is absolute fact. Look at movies and television. Gingers everywhere. And advertising? Watch all those TV commercials.

It's not the men, either, It's those beautiful-looking ginger women, trying to steal the hearts and souls of good red-blooded (not red-haired) men everywhere. It's genetic warfare. But...it's insidious. I mean, could you trust this woman? Really?



I'm sure you see my point. We must all resist becoming the captives of the gingers.

[Captain Hilts]

19. Shakespeare, Henry VIII, QEI, Washington, Jefferson, PatHenry, Churchill, Tracy, Hepburn, me....nt

[MineralMan]

23. See...

All those people in important positions. It's all part of the conspiracy. It's so obvious, really...

[Captain Hilts]

24. It was noted in Britain that ALL those voted as greatest Brits of the Millenium

were all members of the Red Headed League.

Historian Richard Norton Smith notes that the US owes its freedoms to redheads.

There you go...

[whathehell]

26. There you go!

[negativenihil]

25. thank you

you've brightened my dreary friday afternoon.

love me some redheads ;)

[MineralMan]

27. Well, Alyson Hannigan is the perfect example of what I'm saying.

That's for sure.

[keroro gunsou]

31. whatever

she can take me to her leader whenever she wants.

[tammywammy]

32. And gingers have no souls

-tammywammy, proud soulless ginger

[Captain Hilts]

20. Men get derided for being redheaded more than women do. That's why

they come out quick-witted, but often kinda weird...it's a Good Thing!

Churchill
Tracy
Sonny Jurgensen, etc.

[Captain Hilts]

22. That's my team also.

With some Welsh thrown in.

Susan Boyle is our Queen!

[Igel]

16. It's only offensive if you know the word's origins.

And think that the origins matter.

A lot of people look for historical traces of discrimination and prejudice and think that by wiping out historically embedded terms they're doing something to actually alter attitudes. Sometimes they get the etymology right ("paddy wagon"); sometimes they get it wrong ("squaw").

But usually they're confusing past wrongs for current oddities or somehow think the etymological fallacy as being sound reasoning. Many who engage in this also have no problem with using derogatory words for other groups they don't like.

I'm mostly Irish. "Paddy wagon" doesn't bother me. Never heard an Irish-American called a "paddy" as an insult--and it's the intended insult, not the perceived insult or even the string of sounds itself, that should be at issue. Most don't even know the word was used that way. Then there's the question as to whether a paddy wagon was called that because of the Irish policeman driving it or the rowdy Irish in it.

[Captain Hilts]

21. Kind of like being 'gyped' or 'Welshing on a bet', folks don't stop and think. nt

[WinkyDink]

29. Hardly. Your examples are pejoratives; "Paddy wagon" is based on a respected job profile.

Irish cops, you know.

P.S. It's "welch".

[WolverineDG]

15. It's okay to use bigoted terms, I guess

so long as the bigoted term refers to white people.

:eyes:

dg

[WinkyDink]

28. So what? I'm half-Irish, and I cannot muster up any dudgeon over this.

[saltpoint]

7. Wait. Those people were drinking alcohol?! In a BAR?!

This observer is appalled.

[w8liftinglady]

9. funny-you don't hear about a whole lot of arrests outside Cowboys..

[mn9driver]

10. Local cops in Texas have done this for years.

I watched it happen in Corpus Christi in the '80's.

[old mark]

11. My BIL and sister are always after me to move to Texas with them.

I seem to always find new reasons to not do this. This would be one of them, and I don't even drink.

mark

[Kievan Rus]

17. Even Pennsylvania's alcohol laws aren't this bad

[sonias]

18. Those TABC agents in the Fort Worth raid were fired

AAS 8/29/09
TABC fires 3 over Fort Worth gay bar raid
2 others disciplined after customer in custody seriously injured during June incident.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission on Friday fired two agents and an officer for their roles in the chaotic late-night inspection of a Fort Worth gay bar that left a patron with serious head injuries, sustained while in the agents' custody. The agency also suspended its Fort Worth district supervisor for three days without pay and reprimanded its regional captain.

In addition to the disciplinary actions, the beverage commission announced a series of reform measures, including modifications to the agency's use-of-force procedures and agents' work schedules, and enhanced cultural diversity training.

The changes are intended "to bridge the gap between our employees and the communities we serve and to ensure that everyone who comes into contact with TABC is treated with respect," Chief of Field Operations Joel Moreno said in a statement.

Just to clarify that after the outrage over the raid, the TABC was forced to act.