Arrested for drinking in a bar?
February 25, 2010
Yep, in the State of Texas. Thanks to Mike Piazza for the link to this Mother Jones article. An excerpt:
Arrested for drinking in a bar? Sounds like the ultimate catch-22. Since 2006, when Texas overtook California as the state with the most drunk-driving fatalities, cops and a beefed-up task force from the state Alcoholic Beverage Commission have used a 1993 law as a pretext to enter any bar and arrest its patrons on the spot. The public intoxication standard, backed by the Texas-based Mothers Against Drunk Driving, is so broad that you can be arrested on just a police officer's hunch, without being given a Breathalyzer or field sobriety test. State courts have not only upheld the practice but expanded the definition of public intoxication to cover pretty much any situation, says Robert Guest, a criminal defense attorney in Dallas. "Having no standard allows the police to arrest whoever pisses them off and call it PI," he says, adding, "If you have a violent, homophobic, or just an asshole of a cop and you give him the arbitrary power to arrest anyone for PI, you can expect violent, homophobic, and asshole-ic behavior."
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100210/NEWS/2100367/-I-never-said-I-didn-t-want-my-baby--Mom-won-t-be-prosecuted
Posted by: Kathleen Wallace | February 27, 2010 at 04:22 PM