But you shouldn't drink it here:
Texas has begun sending undercover agents into bars to arrest drinkers for being drunk, a spokeswoman for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said 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.
[...]
"There are a lot of dangerous and stupid things people do when they're intoxicated, other than get behind the wheel of a car," Beck said. "People walk out into traffic and get run over, people jump off of balconies trying to reach a swimming pool and miss."
And? People fall asleep on their front porch. People make ill-advised long distance phone calls and break into tears trying to convince ex-girlfriends to give me them "one more chance." People eat a whole bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos and stay up too late playing Halo. I'm glad the TABC is around to protect me from getting fragged by the Covenant.
Apparently some of those busted were in a hotel bar. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't most of these individuals be staying at the hotel in question? What about those planning on calling cabs? I'll be brutally honest with you, I sometimes go out drinking with the express purpose of sloppily forgetting my troubles with extreme prejudice and paying someone to drive me home, is the possibility that I might stumble going up my front steps sufficient to justify the TABC's budget? These guys haven't changed their strategy since I was in high school.
EDIT: What The Fat Guy said.
I just don't see it going all the way to the Supreme Court. I see it getting thrown out of the first court it's brought to. There's just no way a privately owned bar should qualify as a public place.
Here's my issue with this, they are arresting people because they might commit a crime. They haven't yet, but its possible that they could. Okay, maybe its probable that they will, but they still haven't done anything wrong yet. Now if they want to hang out in the parking lot and watch to see which obviously impaired boozehounds stumble into their cars, vainly attempt to start them up, and then bust them, okay. Hell, I've seen HPD doing just that outside of the Marquis II on Bissonet on a Saturday night. I thought it was kind of a cheap trick, but it at least made sense.
As much as this whole tactic pisses me off I think the Supreme Court would uphold the state's right to do this. While it may appear to be an invasion of privacy and have scary precedants, bars are considered public places and therefore if you are drunk in a bar you are drunk in public.
Rob's assertion that the people have yet to commit a crime is incorrect. Section 49.02 of the Texas Penal Code has the folloing to say about public intoxication:
A person commits an offense if the person appears in a public place while intoxicated to the degree that the person amy endanger the person or another.
Now, all that aside I think this is some fairly offensive jackassery on the part of the TABC and to get you guys really spun up according to the Chronicle article I read yesterday there have been over 2,200 arrests in Texas since this programs inception last August.
Totally, Rob! I said the same thing last night when I was watching (of all people to get irate about it) Tucker Carlson raving about this "law." It's like THE MINOIRITY REPORT for drunks or something.
I always thought "drunk in public" was just a "catch all" law so if you're like, stumbling along or say leaning half passed out against the wall of a 7-11 or doing something annoying and drunken, you can get brought in. I didn't know it really was illegal to be drunk in public. Hell, if it is I'm on the FBI most wanted.
I think it's a great idea. They aren't going far enough...they should also ticket anyone who drinks red bull at a bar with the intent to mix it with an alcoholic beverage....or ticket any teacher the moment they wake up on the last day of school knowing full and well they are going to get inebriated that night. Hell just ticket every kid the day they turn 21. They're probably wanting to get drunk and do something stupid that night. What the crap...just declare alcohol cigarettes sex red bull liquid paper and whatever else you could abuse. They could cause danger. Let's also ticket fat people for their potential to have heart attacks at the wheel and kill people. This TABC action sets wonderful precedents.
Sincerely
Uncle Adolf
Everyone, hide your drunkenness! It's the new Prohibition!
Steve and I were talking about this last night. Where is the outrage? I see this going all the way to the Supreme Court. It might seem silly, but this sets a HUGE precedent for invasion of privacy. And I hadn't bothered to hate the TABC in a good 15 years.