Another reason to hate Texas....

[rideit]

(excepting Austin, of course!)
SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) -- 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.

"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.

"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."

She said the sting operations would continue throughout the state.

[stonedhero]

Stonedhero, this is pretty much what everone else sees when the Texas flag is prominently worn outside of Texas..

how did you get a picture of my lover?

this is going overboard now... im sorry for everything i have said

please leave Bubba out of this

[KevinDineen]

Can we give them back to Mexico now? Seriously.

[Lone Star]

(excepting Austin, of course!)

Almost like hating the USA but loving Washington, DC. But, I understand what you're trying to say-- you want to be like the rest of the bandwagon hippie yanks that think Austin is cool because there's a few vagrants on sixth street that share your political ideologies.

Sweet.

[stonedhero]

Almost like hating the USA but loving Washington, DC. But, I understand what you're trying to say-- you want to be like the rest of the bandwagon hippie yanks that think Austin is cool because there's a few vagrants on sixth street that share your political ideologies.

Sweet.

the only time 6th street is fun is when Texas State gets a bar tab=)

Lava Lounge, Taste and Fuel ftw =)

[rideit]

You are WAY off base....It is becuase of the MOUNTAIN BIKING.
City Park, BCGB backtrails, Walnut Creek, St. Eds DK ranch, Reimers, Rocky Hill, and much more. Not to mention the food, the music, and the hot little UT chiquitas.
The rest of Texas blows ass, except for the hill country and Big Bend.
WORD.
Dallas and Houston are pollluted asphalt scumpits.
I can't stand self imposed vagrancy, either.

[Lone Star]

Dallas and Houston are pollluted asphalt scumpits.

Understatement of the year. Though Austin proper is fast approaching Houston in that regard.

[stonedhero]

Texas, the idea, isnt the big cities

its places like King Ranch and yes Big Bend that make it what it is

though living in Dallas has many many great rewards

[Lone Star]

though living in Dallas has many many great rewards

Really? Lived there for 20 years and I really can't think of anything "rewarding" regarding Dallas except for moving the fuck out.

[stonedhero]

well how old are you?

im speaking from a 21 year old standpoint

[rideit]

though living in Dallas has many many great rewards

Like high cancer rates, horrid traffic, low quality of life, terrible cycling, rampant Meth, overbearing religion, neandertholic politics, and strip mall hellification?
Well, there are gay bars and line dancing clubs.

[stuckathuntermtn]

texas sucks how about that. they have no skiing, people. how can we like a state with no skiing...and i'm not gonna share my politics with you. self imposed vagrants are rather annoying, they're all over the bay area in cali, cause there's no cold winters to kill them off

[MSG]

The only reason why anyone ever says anything nice about Austin isn't because there is anything truly redeeming about it. It's because, comparitively, it is the best thing Texas has going for it and they are just trying to be nice.

Being from Texas must be like being a bug. You have some idea that nature has played a cruel joke on you but you lack the intelligence (perspective?) to understand the magnitude of it.

[MeatPuppet]

I heard one of the people arrested was drinking in a hotel bar...







...the same hotel he was staying at!




TABC(Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission) are a bunch of Nazis!

[Particle]

I wasn't going to bite, but what the hell...

Yankees are cold, stuck-up assholes
Southerners are ignorant, underedumucate inbreds
Californians are invading the rest of the West, and drive too many Hummers with spinner wheels and don't give a crap about anybody else
Midwesterners are backwards and too damn nice
Texans lose 75% of their brain cell activity when they drive through the Eisenhower tunnel
Utah is a cesspool of intolerant religion
Florida is hell
...and on, and on, and on...who gives a crap?

Just like in any other place, lots of Texans are great people. Yeah it's a fun state to bash on b/c of the president and cultural stereotypes. And people in other states don't CARE about being from where they grew up nearly as much as Texans. We have pride in our upbringing, and care about our home - b/c it is a place that gives you a real, honest sense of belonging that you never lose throughout your life. It's hard to explain.

That said, I like playing in the outdoors too much to probably ever move back...the West is my house now

[dirtybryan]

Back to the topic...

If they want to stop people from going out of the bar and causing harm, they should wait at the exit of the bar...

[sfotex]

A friend and I were pouring beer at a radio station party in Austin when I was in college. The TABC showed up and busted a minor for drinking, and this fat ass TABC officer hauled him up to the taps by his coller, pointed at me and my friend pouring, and said "Which one served you" to the minor. The minor looked at the TABC ass and said "I can't remember sir, I've been drinking" and the cop got pissed and threated to toss him in jail. The minor looked at him again and said "Sounds good to me, I'll get breakfast in the morning and I'll get time served instead of having to pay a fine"...I nearly bit my tongue off to stop from laughing...

[Sinecure]

I want to know how they figured out that bars would be a good place to look for drunks. That never would have occured to me.

[Woodsy]

I heard one of the people arrested was drinking in a hotel bar...

...the same hotel he was staying at!

All Burton Byers wanted was a burger and a beer -- or six -- at his Irving hotel.

In return, he traded his seat at the bar for a spot in jail -- and unemployment.

Mr. Byers and others are still fuming two weeks after being accused of public intoxication by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, part of stepped-up enforcement efforts statewide in establishments that serve liquor. The campaign, which also involves local police, brought agents to Irving on the weekend of March 10-12.

"I could not believe [it]," Mr. Byers said, recounting that nobody in the bar was fighting or causing problems. "I've been in a lot of states, and you go in a bar to do one thing, and that's to drink alcohol."

Commission officials are defending the actions, noting that being drunk in public is against the law and that any place licensed to serve booze is, by law, a public place -- including restaurants in dry areas that sell so-called private memberships to let patrons drink.

The agency's focus, a spokeswoman said, is to rein in people whose alcohol use could make them a danger to themselves or others -- especially by driving drunk.

In the six months ending in February, the agency issued 2,281 criminal citations, nearly double the amount of the same period the previous year.

Some drinkers, though, say the state is going too far in targeting bar patrons who may have no intention of driving anywhere -- Mr. Byers, for instance, said he was merely going to retire to his room in the same hotel. And some fear that having officers quietly monitor drinkers and make judgment calls about whether they pose a threat could lead to Big Brother-type abuses.

Mr. Byers, 41, said he was relaxing at the Circle Spur Saloon at the Clarion Hotel where he was staying, near the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, when officers approached him. Apparently, undercover alcohol commission agents had identified him as drunk, either by his behavior or by the number of beers he said he had consumed -- key indicators of intoxication, according to the agency. Mr. Byers said he had no more than six beers.

Mr. Byers, a resident of Rogers, Ark., who is the director of maintenance for an aircraft charter company, was taken outside, handcuffed and sent to the Irving jail, where he posted $360 bond and was released. He had traveled to Dallas to help repair a plane and lost his job afterward, in part because of the arrest, he said.

Happy, or drunk?

A Clarion official declined to comment, but a bartender at another location targeted that night said he and his managers share customers' concerns.

"They feel like its violating their rights. How can you give somebody a public intox? That's what you go to a bar for," said Todd Williams, 27, a supervisor at Boston's Restaurant and Sports Bar on Market Place Boulevard in Irving.

Agents might easily mistake the rowdy atmosphere of a sports bar for drunkenness, Mr. Williams said.

"People are just laughing and having a good time," he said, describing the case of an off-duty restaurant employee who was arrested. "He's just kind of a loud and friendly guy. They might have taken him for being drunk."

Carolyn Beck, the alcohol commission's public information officer, said that officers take steps to confirm drunkenness, such as moving the patrons to a quiet location to observe them.

The legal requirements are different for proving public intoxication than for proving a person is driving under the influence, she said. The standard is not whether a person has a blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent; it's whether the person poses a threat to themselves or others.

Officers' observations

So no blood alcohol or breathalyzer tests are required, and convictions -- usually class C misdemeanors, with fines but no jail time often depend on officers' observation of certain symptoms: slurred speech, staggering or loss of balance, bloodshot eyes.

And as with drunken driving, Ms. Beck said, police don't have to wait for a person to harm somebody or themselves to make an arrest.

"Lots of people drive under the influence every day and get home without hurting anybody," she said. "It's the likelihood that you'll hurt somebody if you're driving drunk: that's why they made it illegal."

Mike Lessard, 45, was arrested at Texas Bar & Grill on Las Colinas Boulevard and also spent the night in jail.

He said he was having a pleasant evening, downing a few beers after work, when a plainclothes officer summoned him outside to be arrested.

"I had no idea that some guy could just tap me on the shoulder and say they'd like to see us outside," the Irving resident said. "I was thrown by the whole thing. I didn't know they had any right to do that."

Mr. Lessard said he wasn't sure how much he had been drinking but said he wasn't noticeably impaired and felt in control. He said that if had been drinking too much, he would have found a ride home.

In a memo sent to the city officials this week, Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd said that he had fielded "a number of unverified complaints regarding the reasonableness of some arrests made during this operation."

"In general, I believe it serves the best interest of our citizens to ensure that the premises licensed to sell alcohol in Irving are conducting themselves within the parameters of the law," he wrote to Assistant City Manager Gilbert Perales. He called Irving police's participation "consistent with this objective."

Still, Chief Boyd said, he planned to meet with alcoholic beverage commission officials to discuss concerns about the operation.

In 2003, a similar effort in Virginia was halted after an outcry from officials and the public. Ms. Beck, the Texas commission spokeswoman, said that the department is confident that the arrests are legitimate and that lawmakers approve of the program.

"We've had a lot of contact over at the Legislature, and they gave us additional personnel for this effort," she said.

Pete Slover reported from Austin; Eric Aasen reported from Irving.

[BLOODSWEATSTEEL]

Q: Why doesn't Mexico break off and fall into the ocean?

A: Because Texas SUCKS.

[Hutch]

sounds like you're better off drinking in your truck.

[wiunnbd]

sounds like a case of homeland security gone awry....takin' it to a whole new level there huh George

pretty soon they'll be downour doors, hauling us away cuz we're drunk in our own homes after buying a case of PBR

[snow_slider]

In 2003, a similar effort in Virginia was halted after an outcry from officials and the public.

Yep, and what city in VA would be so stupid? None other than the town where I live - Herndon, VA (Jimmy's Old Town Tavern). It lasted one weekend and people got so pissed it stopped immediately.

[Mcwop]

(excepting Austin, of course!)
SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) -- 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.

"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.

"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."

She said the sting operations would continue throughout the state.

You could use it to your advantage. When some dude is scamming the chick you have been eyeing, then draw attention to the guy. Point at the guy and start yelling "YOU ARE SO DRUNK DUDE! WASTED I TELL YOU! YEAH THIS GUY!"

Then, when the undercovers hassle him, you move in on the girl.

[nealric]

heaven forbid someone getting drunk in a bar


After living in texas for 18 years, I can heartily agree with the statement that the only rewarding part is getting the hell out.

I just feel a little slighted by fate that I can never escape the stigma of being just another asshole texan that moved to colorado. Its like getting herpes- once you are born in texas you can never quite get rid of it...