Cops Busting Drunks IN Bars!

[thedrifter]

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Monday, January 6, 2003
POLICE STATE, USA
Cops go to bars
to arrest drunks
Gestapo-like tactics prompt outrage, complaints among owners, citizenry
Posted: January 6, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern

? 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

In the ongoing effort to keep public places clear of intoxicated citizens and drunk drivers, some police agencies are using a controversial tactic ? going directly into bars and restaurants in order to make arrests.

Such is the situation in northern Virginia, where Fairfax County Police are targeting patrons suspected of having one too many.

"[Officers] were talking to one of the guests, then physically pulled him off the barstool," Richie Prisco, general manager at Champps bar told the Reston Times. "They were really aggressive and nasty."

According to the report, police are hauling customers outside of establishments to conduct sobriety tests, then arresting them for public drunkenness should they fail.

Tavern owner Jimmy Cirrito says it was intimidating and unnecessary to have some ten officers show up in SWAT-like attire. He notes police seemed to be tagging people at random, despite their telling bar owners they had undercover agents inside, calling in to provide specific descriptions of certain individuals.

"They tapped one lady on the shoulder ? who was on her first drink and had just eaten dinner ? to take her out on the sidewalk and give her a sobriety test," Cirrito told the paper. "They told her she fit the description of a woman they had complaints about, and that they heard she was dancing topless."

Cirrito said the woman passed the test and was allowed back in, but soon after, police pulled another woman outside who had arrived shortly before officers did.

"They made her count backward, say the alphabet, tell them where she lived, how she got there, how she was getting home," he said. "She had just gotten there five minutes ago in a cab."

Authorities say such methods are not new, despite protests from bar owners that they've never heard of police coming inside their establishments to enforce drinking laws.

"I've been an officer for over 17 years, and we've been doing it on and off over my entire career," police spokeswoman Sophia Grinnan told the Times. "As much as officers hate to spoil a good time, they hate even more to go out at 2 a.m. and work a death of anybody that is alcohol-related."

Virginia statutes say any business with a liquor license is considered a public place; therefore, police are allowed free access. If they find someone over the legal alcohol limit of .08, or suspect a customer of being intoxicated while still being served or present in an establishment, police can issue a ticket for public intoxication.

In response to complaints the raids were overly aggressive, Grinnan said, "I've had bar owners come up to me [and] ask what is going on, but I've also had some approach me aggressively, telling me I couldn't be there and I was violating their constitutional rights. We love to give explanations of what we're doing because it has an impact, but officers don't have to give up their game plan. That is just a courtesy."

In the wake of the published report, citizens appear to be siding with the bar owners and patrons, gauging from posts in an online messageboard.

"The way police are handling the drink situation is the biggest B.S. I have ever heard of," wrote Ray Williams.

"I lost a son (at age 16) a few years ago, and I most certainly support stopping anyone from drinking and driving. However, this police raid that seems to take place at some local bars is just totally crazy. ... Are we now living in a communist environment where we are not allowed to do anything without being harassed by the military/police?"

Russ Heisinger of Northport, N.Y., asked: "What is next, the alcohol police entering your home on Super Bowl Sunday, and inviting you outside to take a breath test? A solution would be for all the bar and restaurant owners to become 'private clubs,' and charge a very nominal fee for membership. However, the true solution is for the 'Barney Fifes' there to uphold the part of the Constitution about unlawful search, and to remember that we are after all, a free society, unless the cops think this is Baghdad!"

Others, like Don Armstrong, urged people to reject field sobriety tests, and request a blood-alcohol test at a local hospital.

"I have a form of arthritis that often affects my speech patterns and walking abilities," he wrote. "Under their standards of an acceptable set of motor functions, I would fail even if I never had an alcoholic drink."

Sempers,

Roger

[thedrifter]

I agree that drunk drivers must be taken off the road. I agree that drunk drivers are a menace and should be arrested, jailed, and their vehicles confiscated or the vehicle they were driving at the time. I agree that they should never be allowed to drive again, having forfeited that privelege by driving intoxicated.


I don't agree having police going into a bar/ restaurant where I choose to eat and drink and make me do a sobriety test. That is an infringed my rights...Wait for someone to openly violate the law......


Sempers,

Roger

[Keith_Hixson]

I don't drink and never have. But we don't live in a police state. It seems to me that this type of activity falls under unreasonable search and seizure. The minute they step out the door and are in a truly public area it would be different. But coming into a private place should be wrong.

As an old medic I know that most of the DOA's were drunks so I strongly believe we must keep drunks off the road. But there is a place and way to do it which is proper and maintains the rights of the citizens.

Keith

[daniel topliffe]

drifter.. how come i can't bring up or go to the http:// you put up?


dan t

[colmurph]

They'd have a ball with this'un. Give the bast**ds something worthwile to do for a change.

[thedrifter]

Fixed it Dan........

Was in a hurry.....doing to many things....LOL.....

Hell it's hard enough for me to keep the Marines on my site happy.......LOL....

Sempers,

Roger


I will double check my work....
I will double check my work....
I will double check my work....
I will double check my work....
I will double check my work....

and don't ask me to do push ups......because it is to hard for me to get up.....LOL

[Wazza]

In my neck of the woods a liquor license carries a lot of responsibility. We have what is called safe serving practices which puts an onus on the licencee to act responsibly in serving alcohol. It also applies to employees who have to have completed a course to identify when a person should not be served any more alcohol. Our Liquor Lisencing Courts have extreme powers to close premises, disqualify people from holding a licence and anyone with a criminal record would never get a liquor licence.

A record of local resident complaints about behaviour outside licenced premises would also see the hours of trading of the premises changed.

Our pro-active initiatives don't extend to the extremes of cops testing people in the premises but if premises have a record of drink drivers coming from that place the cops make application to the Licencing Court to restrict the hours of trading.

Our alcohol limit was reduced from 0.08 to 0.05 many years ago; and drivers under 25 have a limit of 0.02.

We had 70 road deaths over the Christmas/New Year break. How does that compare to US figures?

[Seascamp]

In this area the Deputies don?t go rummaging around in bars or casinos unless they are called or if there is some sanctioned undercover investigation going down. On the other hand, once an intoxicated or stoned person is on the streets, all restraint goes by the boards and they can and do get rolled up just for walking across the street in a unusual sideways fashion. Nevada DUI laws and penalties are the toughest around and everyone does jail time, no exceptions.
In reality this is a ?resort? area and if the Sheriff?s Deputies get high-handed inside the bars or casinos, the Sheriff will get un elected and the deputies fired out of hand. That?s happened before. Anyone recall the Lake Tahoe Harvey?s extortion plot/explosion? Well, that is in my County the FBI and not our County Mounties took care of that episode. I?m not sure what would have happened without FBI intercession. Probably nothing I want to think about anyway. I still got my ?I survived Harvey?s Bombing? T-shirt. Ya hoo by jingo, I reckon.

Scamp

[masher51]

I agree that drunks should be taken off the streets and out of vehicles.I 've arrested my share of DUIs and picked up a dead 2 year old after he was hit by a woman who was drinking!.
I found it to be the saddest moment in my job,but,come on,
let this type of police activity continue and its "Your Papers Please"
mash

[JeffL]

I must preface this by stating that I don't believe in driving after drinking alcohol, and that most people convicted of DUI should never drive again.

It seems to me that the fact of the matter is that governments don't want to cut into their substantial revenue from alcohol-related arrests. If the overnight mandate became getting all drunks off the streets, the cops could just set up across from the places that serve alcohol and arrest anyone coming out of those places. Presto! No drunk drivers, no drunks on the streets.

Also, there would be no bar/tavern/pub customers, and there'd be no restaurant customers, either. Businesses would be forced to close their doors, and governments don't want that to happen.