Here is a scary story right out of the Pre-emptive Strikes file and creepy “Minority Report” police tactics. Only the Red State that gave us the majority of the Bush Administration could keep up the charge toward 1984. In Texas you can now be arrested just for drinking in a bar, what’s next- being arrested for public lewdness for having an erection while watching a stripper? Check this out:
Texas has begun sending undercover agents into bars to arrest drinkers for being drunk, a spokeswoman for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said on Wednesday.
The first sting operation was conducted recently in a Dallas suburb where agents infiltrated 36 bars and arrested 30 people for public intoxication, said the commission’s Carolyn Beck.
Being in a bar does not exempt one from the state laws against public drunkenness, Beck said. The goal, she said, was to detain drunks before they leave a bar and go do something dangerous like drive a car. “We feel that the only way we’re going to get at the drunk driving problem and the problem of people hurting each other while drunk is by crackdowns like this,” she said.
She said the sting operations would continue throughout the state.
So how do you feel about your tax dollars being spent for things like this? So much for prevention through education.
A policeman can now come into a bar and arrest you even if you are minding your business and not even carrying car keys! Are you willing to let “law enforcement personnel” make these kind of random judgement calls? Big Brother indeed. Can you imagine what they can do with this type of behavior racially? This is the state where Tulia and Jasper happened just in the last few years.
Where does this infringement of civil liberties end?
So how do they assess who is drunk — I mean, publically intoxicated — and who is not? Do they administer breathalyzers or just guess? The article does not clarify. You’d expect to hear complaints from the bar owners/restaurant owners association.
I wonder if drinking while black or brown raises your chances?
That’s why I included the link about Tulia especially. If one policemen could have that many innocent blacks convicted for drugs in one tiny Texas town, think of what police can do to minorities statewide.
This is an atrocity and will be consistently be abused. Where oh where is the media on this as well as civil liberties groups?
As the old ad campaign used to say: “Texas – It’s like a whole ‘nother country.” What they didn’t say was that the country was Belarus.
When i grew up in Texas in the 60’s and 70’s it was more like the Southwest, more progressive. Now it’s part of the Deep South, more regressive. I’m so glad I left there by the time it began to change (when Reagan was elected).
oh, and by the way when I grew up in Texas you could have an open container of liquor in the car, it was called a ‘roadie’ as in ‘one for the road’.
That will show you the change in 30 years, from the individualistic ‘the state should leave citizens alone’ to ‘the government knows what’s best for me’. Quite a difference in attitude, the first is a little lax and the second is frightening.