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"Bars are public. Restaurants are public. The mall is public. Movie theaters are public. If you are drunk in any of them you are drunk in public."

Well let's see. Kelo says your home can be taken for public good. So, potentially, everywhere is a public place. Besides, you don't need to be drunk, ever. So, from time to time, we'll just stop in to make sure you're ok.

Do you think this is something law enforcement should be doing, going after people in bars who aren't bothering anyone? Who cares if someone is intoxicated in a bar as long as they aren't too intoxicated and as long as they aren't bothering people? Some drunk guy at a movie making noise and making an ass out of himself maybe ought to get busted, as should someone doing the same at the mall or library or whatever. People go to bars though to drink though, and a lot of them, if not most, drink enough to where a public intox charge would stick. Shoot, all police have to do where I live is say the person was drinking in public or appeared intoxicated and the judge will convict. It doesn't seem to take anything hardly for prosecutors to meet the burden of proof in a public intox case. Busting people in bars is like shooting fish in a barrel. It would be easy to do it, but what is the point? People in bars "assume the risk" of being around people legally intoxicated. Most of them probably are intoxicated to a degree themselves. Unless someone is getting out of hand, it makes no sense to bust them. To pick on a few of these people who happen to be unlucky enough to be the ones the cops decide to bust isn't even fair, and it's a waste of taxpayer money. And to use undercover cops who go in there and act like friends to these people before they stab them in the back just sucks. That's the kind of thing that gives police a bad name. If law enforcement want people in their communities to work with them and respect them them they shouldn't do things like this.

"Bars are public. Restaurants are public. The mall is public. Movie theaters are public. If you are drunk in any of them you are drunk in public."

Some bars are private clubs...maybe it's time to convert all our public bars into private bars so we can keep the gestapo and their boot lickers the hell out.