Posted on 04/13/2006 8:50:53 AM PDT by Snickering Hound
DALLAS The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said Wednesday it has suspended a crackdown on public intoxication after a public outcry over the program that sends undercover officers into drinking establishments.
The commission announced last week that it was conducting an internal investigation of the program.
Beck said the commission opted to put the program on hold "just to give us time to sift through all the information we've received and pull together all the information and determine the best way to proceed."
More than 2,200 bar patrons or workers have been arrested or issued citations since August. The purpose is to stop the sale of alcoholic beverages to people who are drunk and, as a result, cut down on the number of drunken drivers.
But media reports about the program after a sting last month in the Dallas suburb of Irving prompted criticism that the arrests could prove bad for business if they drive away conventions and other tourists.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Like I said, we are doomed unless things change drastically.
During the big DUI Dragnet, a Highway Patrolman waited outside a popular local bar, hoping for a bust. At closing time as everyone came out, he spotted his potential quarry. The man was so obviously inebriated that he could barely walk. He stumbled around the parking lot for a few minutes, looking for his car. After trying his keys on five others, he finally found his own vehicle.
He sat in the car a good ten minutes as the other patrons left. He turned his lights on, then off, wipers on then off. He started to pull forward into the grass, then stopped. Finally when he was the last car, he pulled out onto the road and started to drive away.
The Patrolman, waiting for this, turned on his lights and pulled the man over. He administered the breathalyzer test, and to his great surprise the man blew a 0.00! The Patrolman was dumbfounded! "This equipment must be broken!" exclaimed the Patrolman. "I doubt it," said the drunk, "tonight I'm the Designated Decoy!"
"Being in a cab doesn't make you safe from Johnny Law."
Even the innocent aren't safe from Johnny Law.
WOW! They might as well just gone ahead and announced a suspension of stings at only the four seasons and the cloak room. I bet this suspension lasts about, well exactly 32 days...
-- lates
-- jrawk
Illegal aliens are cruising around on US highways with no ID, no insurance, no title/license tag, yet NO ONE dares to arrest them and send their lawbreaking hides back to Mexico?
We have become preoccupied with minutia and lost sight of the important issues. "As long as you enforce the small rules you can ignore the big ones."
It's human tendency. Jesus called it straining the gnat and swallowing the camel.
The next step should be putting Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Administrator Alan Steen in front of a firing squad.
The tide of fascism is rising in this country, between the seatbelt laws (which were not intended to protect you but to allow police to be able to pull over more cars), smoking bans, our media, universities, etc.
How did America produce such people?
I'll drink to that.
bump
I got pulled over a couple of years ago for passing a "female" Deputy sheriff on the fwy. She was incensed that I went around her.
I said when I was a deputy, if anybody passed me they were going at least 40 mph over the speed limits. I told her if she didn't like people going around her then she shouldn't IMPEDE the flow of traffic.
Who comes up with this crap!!?? What government moron decided that it would be clever to arrest people drinking in a bar!!?? There's nothing illegal about that and, I would be willing to bet, that the alcohol level required to make a public intox charge stick is highly subjective - and hard to prove in a BAR!!!!
Sheesh!!! We have GOT to find something better than government.
Radio news on KPRC in Houston said that it was "targeting" bartenders who overserved.
The arrest figures don't bear this out. No need to haul in 5 people who weren't going to drive anywhere (because they were staying in the hotel).
The story keeps changing ("well they were loud", "well they were in public", "well we were after the bartenders").
And there was debate when this story first surfaced as to whether a bar was a public area. It was moot when the officers asked the suspects to "step outside a minute". At that point they were in public. Nice ploy.
Seatbelt laws are "probable cause" for a 0.08 DWI.
Meanwhile I see officers speeding and cutting off cars every day. Metro buses run lights, cut off drivers (and run over pedestrians) all the time. Never have seen a campaign to correct this.
"Radio news on KPRC in Houston said that it was "targeting" bartenders who overserved."
Yeah, I heard that too. One criteria they were using for busting patrons was if they were served 3 beverages as well. That was changed to being "obnoxiously drunk".
Since that isn't going to happen, we are doomed.
The frog has been cooked for quite a while.
Here's one for you. I was pulled over for 1 mph over the limit in a residential zone (25). Given a 'stern warning'. Cop followed me home and blocked my driveway after I pulled in. I was told I was driving a stolen vehicle. So I produced all the paperwork-even the sales documents when I bought the car new. Turns out my cities 'finest' punched in the wrong abbreviation for Michigan when he ran a check on my vehicle. He put in MO instead of MI. There was a stolen vehicle with the same letter/number combo in MO. I could hear this cops fellow coworkers laughing at him all the the way in the parking lot at the police station.
The reason I brought up the fact that the legislature is in session, is that they are looking into this issue. You can bet they don't want to be "exposed" as drunks.
Also, the TABC won't be in downtown Austin when the reps and senators are at the bars under the influence as Barrientos was a few years ago and got off scot free.
This entire sting operation stinks like a dead skunk. I heard about several out of state groups who told Texas they changed plans to have conferences here because of this sting. Staying in a hotel, having a few drinks at the bar and getting arrested for "public intoxication" was not on their agenda.
ping
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