Drinkers beware! Cancel your holidays to Texas.

rubadub

Texas arresting people in bars for being drunk

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060322/us_nm/bars_dc

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 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.

"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

They could do the same here too. It is illegal to be drunk in a pub.

connundrum

LOL... no Paddy no! I can't serve ya anymore, the men in black will be round to whup your ass into jail

Wonder what the limit here would be... 10 to 12 pints should do it I'd think :rolleyes:

Binomate

Stupid!

Max_Damage

Ridiculous, what's the point of drinking then?:p

irlrobins

Not surprising. Drink laws in Dallas area are pretty tight with dry counties and the like.

In the city I was resident in you couldn't buy beer in bar or restaurant without a "membership card". And no stores sold beer or wine. In the next city over, you could buy beer and wine in stores but not spirits. (Thankfully I was very close to this city's limits). If I wanted the hard stuff, had to head down until I got within the Dallas City limits to get spirits.

It's slowly changing but North Texas is very much part of the Bible Belt.

Hagar

I'm sure you will find it actually is illegal to be drunk in a pub in Ireland under present legislation.

cournioni

That's shíte for them... Well its another good reason for us to get absolutely locked in pubs over here isn't it?!

Rockee

Theres still a kinda tradition in some of the more local Irish pubs that if a regular is too drunk then the barman will call him a taxi...unlike the superpub and nightclub scenario where you're baically just flung on your ass out the door no matter what state you might be in!!!

Wertz

Lots of fun in 6th St now.
Lived in Corpus Christi for a while a few years back and whilst TABC were bastards for sitting outside clubs and arresting suspect underage drinkers, they had no beef with normal drunkeness. That said, you simply didn't see the shenanigans on the streets after clubs/bars let out that you do here. Conversely there did seem to be a culture of drink driving even in younger drinkers.

This is the neo con christian backlash in Bush's own state...I've never been further north than Austin except for airports, but south TX is great. Don't mess with it.

Mossy Monk

Hagar wrote:

I'm sure you will find it actually is illegal to be drunk in a pub in Ireland under present legislation.

indeed
i dont see what the surprise is

Devious

Sigh. Good ol' Texas. Is this not the same state where its legal to go hunting with a mini gun? Glad to see they've gotten their priorities in order. :rolleyes:

DublinWriter

Hagar wrote:

I'm sure you will find it actually is illegal to be drunk in a pub in Ireland under present legislation.

It's actually illegal for the publican to sell you more alcohol if you're already drunk, and illegal for you to be 'drunk and disorderly' in public.

Funny how many people are polking fun at the Texans when we ourselves have similar laws....

....expect like most other laws here, we don't enforce them.

nlgbbbblth

I have holidayed in Austin, Texas on two separate occasions and it is a great city. Cool music scene, pubs, record shops.

Boggles

Other Weird Texas Laws!

Texas

* It is illegal to take more than three sips of beer at a time while standing.
* It is illegal to drive without windshield wipers. You don't need a windshield, but you must have the wipers.
* It is illegal for one to shoot a buffalo from the second story of a hotel.
* It is illegal to milk another person's cow.
* A recently passed anticrime law requires criminals to give their victims 24 hours notice, either orally or in writing, and to explain the nature of the crime to be committed.
* The entire Encyclopedia Britannica is banned in Texas because it contains a formula for making beer at home.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

you might do something bad?

lol

and on the same logic - we refuse to allow you to be born, because you might grow up and be a drunk and drive

actually no, scratch that

we will arrest any male and female couple who have 'a glint in their eye' because they might have you and then you might grow up and be a drunk and drive

actually no, scratch that

we will arrest your parents parents, because they might have children who will one they meet and get a glint in their eye, and ...

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

btw how difficult is it to 'infiltrate a bar'? i infiltrate bar's loads, and my cover has never been blown - must be the way i open the door and walk in ...

drdre

thats just stupid.:rolleyes:

irlrobins

Boggles wrote:

Other Weird Texas Laws!

Well according the helpful guide in my hotel room in New Orleans oral sex is illegal in Louisanna.

Of course flashing your tits on bourbon street is perfectly ok.

(Not that I didn't mind.... )

Boggles

irlrobins wrote:

Well according the helpful guide in my hotel room in New Orleans oral sex is illegal in Louisanna.

Of course flashing your tits on bourbon street is perfectly ok.

(Not that I didn't mind.... )

From the same website

Louisiana

* It is illegal to rob a bank and then shoot at the bank teller with a water pistol.

Wertz

I wonder how much more sentence time you get for the water pistol part...

SteveS

Most likely, this is a scheme to generate revenue through fines (around $500 per ticket) and not some neo-con conspiricy or bible thumpin' anti-drinking crusade. Pretty much every state has laws against public drunkeness, though I have never heard of them going into bars. I guess if you were looking to bust a bunch of drunks that would be the best place to find them.

MrJoeSoap

Roundtower2 wrote:

btw how difficult is it to 'infiltrate a bar'? i infiltrate bar's loads, and my cover has never been blown - must be the way i open the door and walk in ...

Rofl, post of the day!

the_syco

"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."

America:rolleyes: Need I say more?:D

aidan_walsh

the_syco wrote:

America:rolleyes: Need I say more?:D

Idiots are international.

blu_sonic

well whats the point of pubs? to what degree of intoxication is drunk? i've been drunk but not stupid (edit: should be stupid drunk,) ive been durk (edit:drunk) where ive needed help walking either way i was drunk on both occasions.

its too vague.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

blu_sonic wrote:

i've been drunk but not stupid ive been durk

think we need to call in the Texans for this guy!

blu_sonic

lol i was just about to edit that TYPO but i'll leave it now just for jollies

havana

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZA31Y2003S4.html

.—(1) A licensee shall not, on the licensed premises
c) permit drunkenness to take place in the bar; or

rubadub

havana wrote:

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZA31Y2003S4.html

.—(1) A licensee shall not, on the licensed premises
c) permit drunkenness to take place in the bar; or

wonder if any barmen have been fined here. I know it is taken very seriously in the US. The pubs in stillorgan have no bouncers and just refuse you, I have been refused drink in almost every single one, wasnt particularly drunk either, but it just seems "the thing to do" in that area. They didnt throw me out and gladly gave me water, I wasnt getting up to anything and didnt complain in case I was turfed out.

Never had this in any other pubs, they just throw you out, or strongly suggest I leave.

Jesus I sound bad, maybe because I am...:D

blu_sonic

its down to common sence of the bar staff, if they acess that someone is "over the limit" its their "civic" and profesional duty to refuse them alchol and ask them to leave the establishment

jonny68

:rolleyes: Remind me NEVER EVER to go there

Stark

How do they define what "drunken" is though?

SteveS

I know it is taken very seriously in the US.

Most states have dram shop laws. Basically, if a bar serves a person that is obviously intoxicated, they can be held liable for dmage that person causes. Bars have been sued by the famalies of people killed by drunk drivers.

Personally, the only time I have ever seen anyone refused a drink was at a restaurant. I have seen people that could barely stand up getting served in a bar.

Rockdolphin

Don't scoff at the Americans, last year a number of bars in Ireland were closed down for periods of three days to a week after succesfull prosecutions under new legilslation which allows under cover gardai to detect drunkeness in pubs. In one case they found two men asleep doing no harm to anyone, but still prosecuted the pub which was then fined and closed for a number of days. In case anyone has not noticed this government and it's ministers have been busy talking away your freedom of choice, banning and outlawing everthing from smoking to english signage since they came to power !