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AUSTIN, Texas Texas lawmen are going undercover to catch people who drink too much.
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission says officers are posing as bar patrons to write tickets or make arrests for public intoxication -- even if the offenders haven't left their favorite watering hole.

Fines can reach five-hundred dollars.

Agency spokeswoman Carolyn Beck says drinking is fine, but people who drink too much can be a danger to themselves and others. The program is also aimed at cutting down on drunken driving.

The group Mothers Against Drunk Driving says Texas had 12-hundred-64 alcohol-related traffic deaths in 2004 -- the most in the nation.

So far, about 22-hundred tickets have been written or arrests made for public drunkenness.

What makes this a little bizarre for me is that the arrests are happening inside the bar and in fact hotel bars where people are staying. If anything, Texas might as well hang up a sign saying, "Dry by 2007". I'm not for drunk driving and those people should be locked up. However, arresting people who haven't left bars may be a little extreme unless they've shown signs that they will hurt people in their condition.

I was wondering how others felt about this, expecially our resident bartending Texan since he probably sees this everyday and has probably a lot riding on this. Or maybe it might to be much ado about nothing - I only caught wind of the story in the NBC Nightly News tonight so my view of the situation may be fuzzy from here in northern Indiana.

This is a poor plan at best. The cops should just wait until they get into the driver's seat of their cars, then arrest them before they can leave the parking lot.

I've been looking for an article on this to post over at Nifty. This is pretty rediculous IMO.

-Des

Although nothing has happened at my bar yet, two bartenders have been arrested in the past month within a few blocks of where I work for supposedly overserving patrons. Witnesses, both employees and regulars patrons, said TABC was overreacting. The patron had only had a few beers, and while it is true he showed no signs of wanting to stop, how does TABC know the server would have kept serving him?

In our case, there are several hotels in the downtown area within easy walking distance that the patron could be staying at. If the patron wants to go home, we'd be more than happy to call them a cab. I'm in no way condoning allowing patrons to get falling down piss ass drunk, but there is nothing wrong with getting a good buzz going as long as you don't plan on driving anywhere and you aren't causing a scene or being unruly.

My point is that until the patron and/or the server start to commit an actual crime, making arrests and writing tickets is just gratuitous legal muscle flexing.

Game On,
fbmf

I remember seeing something about this law when it was first passed. And while I find the very idea of arresting people for drunkeness inside a bar loathsome, Ihave to say it certainly couldn't hurt Texas to sober up a bit.

So much for the land of the free.

Josh_Kablack at [unixtime wrote:1143446264[/unixtime]]I remember seeing something about this law when it was first passed. And while I find the very idea of arresting people for drunkeness inside a bar loathsome, I have to say it certainly couldn't hurt Texas to sober up a bit.

Was that an attempt at humor?

Game On,
fbmf

Only as much as voting for politicans who pass laws like that is humorous. For your sake, I hope most Texans were drunk at the polls these last few years - then at least it would be understandable.

How did we get here from there? You seemed to be implying in your first post that Texans were alcoholics. Did I miss the sarcasm?

Game On,
fbmf

I think that we can say that any state that votes for Arlen Spector (who I endearing term the "Christopher Walken of the Republican Party") must be getting pretty blitzed before going to the polls as well ...

Back to the matter at hand, the thing that kinda stings me is that they're arresting bartenders. It really puts them in a bad position: on one side they get nailed by their patrons with les tips and ridiculed by their boss about not pushing product if they cut people off, but at the same time they open themselves up to being nailed by the TABC if they serve someone.

power_word_wedgie at [unixtime wrote:1143501615[/unixtime]]I think that we can say that any state that votes for Arlen Spector (who I endearing term the "Christopher Walken of the Republican Party") must be getting pretty blitzed before going to the polls as well ...

Hey now, look if I can remember to vote against Spector (aka The Human Jowl), trashed as I needed to be to vote for *anyone* in the 2004 election.....

wait, nevermind.

The best part of drinking is getting so pissed that you can't find your way back home (even if you simply had to follow the tram track) then wandering around town and sleeping on a park bench.

So they shouldn't arrest people for getting drunk (if they want to do that they should simply ban alcohol, and good luck with that.) if they simply walk home. They can wait in the parking lot to see who goes to DUI.

edited for point.

Have none of these people read Julius Caesar? Attacking people for what they might do led to the fall of Rome.

...And arresting bartenders for selling drinks? Isn't that like arresting gun store owners for selling bullets?

MrWaeseL at [unixtime wrote:1143531572[/unixtime]]The best part of drinking is getting so pissed that you can't find your way back home (even if you simply had to follow the tram track) then wandering around town and sleeping on a park bench.

So they shouldn't arrest people for getting drunk (if they want to do that they should simply ban alcohol, and good luck with that.) if they simply walk home. They can wait in the parking lot to see who goes to DUI.

edited for point.

Not in the USA. Being drunk in public is a crime.

As my dad has learned from personal experience, that includes walking outside the bar (Despite the fact he had a sober designated driver and they were both walking towards the car).

And now, it seems they've redefined public to be inside bards in Texas.

Good luck trying to keep a bar open in Texas now, that really blows.

Count_Arioch_the_28th at [unixtime wrote:1143539600[/unixtime]]
And now, it seems they've redefined public to be inside bards in Texas.

I know that it's just a typo, but I have no problem with this law. Barry Manilow can find his lovers elsewhere.

Count_Arioch_the_28 wrote:Not in the USA. Being drunk in public is a crime.

So how do you get from the bar to where you sleep without being arrested? By being really sneaky?

MrWaeseL at [unixtime wrote:1143558255[/unixtime]]
So how do you get from the bar to where you sleep without being arrested? By being really sneaky?

Yup, pretty much.

MrWaeseL at [unixtime wrote:1143558255[/unixtime]]
So how do you get from the bar to where you sleep without being arrested? By being really sneaky?

With the help of good friends. Really helps if they are sober.

Josh_Kablack at [unixtime wrote:1143522781[/unixtime]]

Hey now, look if I can remember to vote against Spector (aka The Human Jowl), trashed as I needed to be to vote for *anyone* in the 2004 election.....

wait, nevermind.

Hey, I'll offer you a straight up trade of Mitch Daniels for Ed Rendell.

Guest (Unregistered) at [unixtime wrote:1143566808[/unixtime]]

MrWaeseL at [unixtime wrote:1143558255[/unixtime]]
So how do you get from the bar to where you sleep without being arrested? By being really sneaky?

With the help of good friends. Really helps if they are sober.

Generally also helps if you are not carrying on and making an ass of yourself. As long as all you are doing is stumbling a bit and you have sober friends guiding you along and baby sitting you, the cops around here will leave you alone for the most part.

Game On,
fbmf

fbmf at [unixtime wrote:1143567537[/unixtime]]

Guest (Unregistered) at [unixtime wrote:1143566808[/unixtime]]

MrWaeseL at [unixtime wrote:1143558255[/unixtime]]
So how do you get from the bar to where you sleep without being arrested? By being really sneaky?

With the help of good friends. Really helps if they are sober.

Generally also helps if you are not carrying on and making an ass of yourself. As long as all you are doing is stumbling a bit and you have sober friends guiding you along and baby sitting you, the cops around here will leave you alone for the most part.

Game On,
fbmf

In my dad's case, they thought they were interupting a dope deal, and when they didn't find any, they arrested everyone involve for drunk in public.

That blows, Arioch.

Game On,
fbmf

So the war on drugs is going so well you guy's are bringing back prohibition over there.

Let me know how that turns out for yah.

fbmf wrote:You seemed to be implying in your first post that Texans were alcoholics

I don't think he was. But he should have been.

e-Texas, 2003 wrote:Texas has the nation’s worst traffic safety problem by almost any measure. More Texans are killed in traffic crashes than in any other state, and more are killed in alcohol-related crashes than in any other state.

That's especially alarming because Texas is not the most populous state in the Union (which is California, the state the accounts for the second largest number of traffic fatalities on demographics alone).

Texas has over 10% of the nation's alcohol related fatalities, and its official census population is only 7.66% of the nation's total. That's a problem. Texas is killing off hundreds of people a year over its demographic quota - which means that poor alcohol management practices in Texas are killing as many Americans as the war in Afghanistan.

---

That being said, ticketing people who have designated drivers will simply cause drunks to attempt to avoid drawing attention to themselves. For example, by not having designated drivers.

The program is obviously a terrible idea, I am actually astounded that it could get the go ahead anywhere. Even in a place as desperate for action as Texas.

-Username17

What would make sense would be to wait for those drunks to leave the bar, and see what they do. If they get in a cab, or get on the bus, or into a passenger seat of a car (and they're not falling down, obnoxious drunk), then let 'em go. If they get behind the wheel, that's when they need to bust 'em - in the parking lot before the fucker can kill anybody.