Drinking While Brown (or Gay) in Texas Will Get You Arrested!

The nation's broadest public intoxication law gives TX cops virtually free range to arrest anyone for drunkenness -- even if they're quietly nursing a beer in a bar.

Late on a balmy Saturday night last June, six Fort Worth cops and two officers from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission went looking for trouble. They had just raided two Hispanic bars in an industrial stretch of town and nine detainees now sat in the paddy wagon, hands bound with plastic ties. The rest of the city's bars would soon shut down. It seemed like the night was over, except for the paperwork. Then Sergeant Richard Morris had an idea. "Hey," he said. "Let's go to the Rainbow Lounge."

Inside the bar, the officers fanned out, grabbing and arresting six patrons for public intoxication. Benjamin Guttery, a 24-year-old Army vet, says an officer told him to put down his drink, then "bulldozed" him through the crowd to the paddy wagon.

A half-dozen police cruisers, an unmarked sedan, and the prisoner van slid to a stop in front of the Rainbow Lounge, Fort Worth's newest gay club, at about 1:30 a.m. on June 28, 2009.

Arrested for drinking in a bar? Sounds like the ultimate catch-22.

www.alternet.org...

This is absolutely outrageous!! The LEO's are becoming psychopathic, deranged, power hungry nutjobs....

Whenever I see an officer I no longer feel safe....I feel like they are now the enemy of the American people....

I recently did a thread about a Tampa man jailed on charge of wearing an illegal mask.

Leave people alone to enjoy their lives.....If this Country ever does have a revolution I fear that LEO's in uniform will be the first target...

Enough is Enough!

reply to post by rainfall


In any profession you are going to get those that abuse their power and give the profession a bad name.

Unfortunately we pay more attention to those that abuse their power and are negative than we do those that do their job diligently and are positive.

And the more power you have, the easier it is to abuse and the more visible it is. I'm sure there are many gas station attendants that abuse their power and maybe slip a few candy bars for themselves when no one is looking...but it isn't going to make the news.

Don't let the few define the many. I know many police officers and most of them aren't out to get you.


And BTW...your Tampa man in the mask RAN from police. If I were a police officer and you ran...when I catch you I would be charging you with whatever I was about to give you a warning about.

It is sad, that a few bad eggs ruin a whole batch by abusing poorly thought-out legislation. I share your fear that LEOs may be the first target, mainly around the idea that a few well intentioned but highly misguided citizens may strike out against the good ones and bring down a righteous hammer upon the rest of us.

Sensationalist title FTL

Trying to troll?

What is with the TX hate around here lately?

Originally posted by rainfall
The nation's broadest public intoxication law gives TX cops virtually free range to arrest anyone for drunkenness -- even if they're quietly nursing a beer in a bar.

Late on a balmy Saturday night last June, six Fort Worth cops and two officers from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission went looking for trouble. They had just raided two Hispanic bars in an industrial stretch of town and nine detainees now sat in the paddy wagon, hands bound with plastic ties. The rest of the city's bars would soon shut down. It seemed like the night was over, except for the paperwork. Then Sergeant Richard Morris had an idea. "Hey," he said. "Let's go to the Rainbow Lounge."

Inside the bar, the officers fanned out, grabbing and arresting six patrons for public intoxication. Benjamin Guttery, a 24-year-old Army vet, says an officer told him to put down his drink, then "bulldozed" him through the crowd to the paddy wagon.

A half-dozen police cruisers, an unmarked sedan, and the prisoner van slid to a stop in front of the Rainbow Lounge, Fort Worth's newest gay club, at about 1:30 a.m. on June 28, 2009.

Arrested for drinking in a bar? Sounds like the ultimate catch-22.

www.alternet.org...

This is absolutely outrageous!! The LEO's are becoming psychopathic, deranged, power hungry nutjobs....

Whenever I see an officer I no longer feel safe....I feel like they are now the enemy of the American people....

I recently did a thread about a Tampa man jailed on charge of wearing an illegal mask.

Leave people alone to enjoy their lives.....If this Country ever does have a revolution I fear that LEO's in uniform will be the first target...

Enough is Enough!

Seem's to me law enforcer worker's and allowing authority to wrongly jump into their minds and make them think for one second that they are bigger and harder than any of us. Only downfall is when they are then off-duty do we get the opportunity to revenge them.

Seem's to me it would make sense to hire a body-guard at a local supermarket for purchasing beer just for insurance policy's

Originally posted by OutKast Searcher

And BTW...your Tampa man in the mask RAN from police. If I were a police officer and you ran...when I catch you I would be charging you with whatever I was about to give you a warning about.

Just just as bad like the rest of them.

You cannot assume a charge upon an individual for running away from an officer. Just because they as an officer took an oath to become a law enforcement officer gives them no right to chase a person down like a hog.

When that officer's off-duty they are gonna have a hell of a party to deal with.

Now that is worse then Utah where the Mormons control the state government and the drinking laws are ridiculous. It goes to show you what your state or county will do for money.

Originally posted by Lemon.Fresh

What is with the TX hate around here lately?

If you read the article you would know the cops were from......wait for it.......wait for it.......Texas..

reply to post by rainfall

The nation's broadest public intoxication law gives TX cops virtually free range to arrest anyone for drunkenness -- even if they're quietly nursing a beer in a bar.

What is the actual TX law, this article refers to?

Originally posted by LadySkadi
reply to post by rainfall

 

The nation's broadest public intoxication law gives TX cops virtually free range to arrest anyone for drunkenness -- even if they're quietly nursing a beer in a bar.

What is the actual TX law, this article refers to?

I am not a Texas attorney so I do not know...just posted the article...but I will dig through my Texas Law Book and find it for you...

Originally posted by rainfall

Originally posted by LadySkadi
reply to post by rainfall

 

The nation's broadest public intoxication law gives TX cops virtually free range to arrest anyone for drunkenness -- even if they're quietly nursing a beer in a bar.

What is the actual TX law, this article refers to?

I am not a Texas attorney so I do not know...just posted the article...but I will dig through my Texas Law Book and find it for you...

I guess it's too much to ask/expect a thread author to put some time into researching the topic of one's own thread before posting it.

Outrage is easy to inspire without the whole story to base opinion...






[edit on 26-2-2010 by LadySkadi]

Click here for more information.

It's all about sensationalism. The "brown" and "gay" bar incidents are simply news makers.

Afterall, only 3% of the population is gay. Maybe a little more.

Surely there have been crackdowns on straight white bars for their nefarious activities. Such as gambling, running prostition rings, etc. They just don't sell papers.

From what I recall about the Rainbow lounge incident, the police chief came out and apologized afterwards and promised not to be so aggressive against the gay community.

Texas is a great state! They produced Ron Paul. Can't wait to move to Austin. They even have a nude beach at Travis Lake! Can't be all that bad there.

reply to post by OutKast Searcher


I agree, dont let the few define the many. But if thats the case the many should be decrying the few when they step over the line and break the rules. Unfortunately police officers dont have this attitude, instead of prosecuting officers they cover it all up. This issue is not just about the article in this thread, it covers every instance when officers step over the line, like when they tase handcuffed citizens or old ladies.

When officers are copmplacent with the system that allows a few to abuse their power they are just as guilty.

I've said it before and I'll say it again when I see these threads, people claim it's a few bad appled ruining it for all the good cops out there but I was a cop for years and it ain't a few bad apples ruining it for anybody! There's only a few good cops left while most of them are power hungry adrenaline junkies who abuse their power and ignore their responsibilities. I'm tired of people standing up for these people, they don't deserve it. They are bad people! They didn't join because they care about civic duty or taking care of their community, they joined for the rush and the power and most are war vets and being in combat and being a public servant are not even close to the same thing. I saw so much bigotry, hate, and abuses of power it made me sick! I grew up wanting to be a cop, wanting to serve my community and help but after six years, I had seen enough for a lifetime! These men and women are criminals given a gun and a badge and that's the way TPTB like it!

reply to post by DClairvoyant

Just because they as an officer took an oath to become a law enforcement officer gives them no right to chase a person down like a hog.

What would you have them do? If they go to talk to someone and they run...should they just assume they felt like taking a jog? If you run from the cops...I would say it is their duty to chase you.

Originally posted by Ozzy Mandias
reply to post by OutKast Searcher

 

I agree, dont let the few define the many. But if thats the case the many should be decrying the few when they step over the line and break the rules. Unfortunately police officers dont have this attitude, instead of prosecuting officers they cover it all up. This issue is not just about the article in this thread, it covers every instance when officers step over the line, like when they tase handcuffed citizens or old ladies.

When officers are copmplacent with the system that allows a few to abuse their power they are just as guilty.

I do agree...but also see their situation as being hard to fight against the system. Some of this abuse is condoned from the top...so it is kind of hard to fight against that. doesn't make it rigth that they don't...but I recognize that it is hard for them to do it.

Sad that the states are so poor that they now have to resort to illegal measures to arrest someone in order to get another paying customer into their corrupt court system.

Interesting analyzing the analogy of the LOE here as it pertains to the abuse of power by his fellow peers.

Unfortunately, Stealing a few candy bars by a convenience store employee is not quite the same as the abuse of power by LOE.

In both cases it is against the law, but in the case of the theft, it does NOT infringe upon anyone's legal definition of freedom and rights granted by the Bill of Rights and the US Constitution.

The US Constitution is the supreme law of the land/nation and subsequently is what all state laws must inevitably adhere to.
Or else they are deemed as being un-Constitutional.

All LOE pledge to uphold the law and the Constitution of The United States.

reply to post by rainfall


Here's something telling;

Gay brown people arrested for drinking in a private establishment, against all conceivable rights they have: one page

White team nudged to second place in a CocaCola talent competition: Fourteen pages.

I wish I could be surprised.

Originally posted by youryou
Lemon.Fresh, whats your problem?

My problem is all the Texas bashing going on recently. What's yours?

In all of your posts that I read, you sound like a childish backwoods deluded individual.

Why is that?

Is it because you do not agree with what I have to say?

Its because of folks like you that the majority Texas hasnt evolved beyond the dark ages. If it wasnt for smart folks of other states, your state would still be hangin and shooting everyone that is a minority, and everyone who wasnt a christain. And all females would be totally enslaved to their husbands every unreasonable demand. Good 'ol Texas for you.

Really, now.

lol

I think you just got served, plus some

The OP created a very interesting thread in which occurred in Texas.

Whose title had nothing to do with the story . . . pure sensationalism.

There is no need in looking foolish and getting all defensive about your crappy state.

I do believe you have penis envy, and I am not getting foolish. You would be the fool if you do not see the amount of Texas bashing that has been going on recently.

You seem to be acting like a cry baby with every post I read of yours. You sure are representing texas in a positive way there buddy.

How would someone represent their backwoods, homophobic, racist, good for nothing, discriminating, hickville statein a positive way?

Looks like you can't see the forest for the trees, buddy.

Originally posted by Lemon.Fresh
Sensationalist title FTL

Trying to troll?

What is with the TX hate around here lately?

That was my thought. It has gotten to where when a Texas bash thread pops up, i just think "Obvious troll is obvious.'

But this thread is more about a law, and its enforcement, than bashing Texas. I can say that our laws on how to determine Public Intoxication in Texas are ridiculous and stupid. They can take you in for PI for just about anything. It is subjective and requires absolutely no explanation.

RE: those that say that this is an example of a few bad apples, in my town our entire police force is reviled, unless you are related to an officer. It is something that everybody talks about openly. I am amazed that nothing happens like a revolt, but the police generally only push things so far in order to avoid it. We currently have FBI agents working locally supervising the work being done, and Texas Rangers have a few ongoing investigations.

My mother, the devout, saintly woman that she is, can't stand the police. That is all i need to know.

The late radio personality Paul Harvey, back in the 1980's, once referred to my hometown as "the best place to commit a murder and get away with it."

Edit to add: the temptation for criminal behavior among police in this area is profound. we live in a high traffic area, where two major roads meet. 3 hours from Mexico, we get a lot of illegal aliens drifting through, many of them related to Mexican drug crime (Mafioso's). We recently had the head of West Texas Latin King operations captured for, among many other things, a drive by shooting that killed a woman and her unborn baby. This happened up the street from my house, actually. About 3 blocks.

Since he has been put away, the Latin Kings are gone and a lot of shootings have stopped. We were the lynch pin of the West Texas operations, apparently.

You know why he was finally caught? This guy was the liason between the Mafioso's and Latin Kings since 2000, making purchases of several hundred kilo's of coc aine in the previous decade while he built the Permian Basin empire. He was well known to law enforcement. He was alredy wanted for several crimes. He didn't really hide, though.

They caught him because he started to move in on the territory of the local drug families that were established after the Purple Cow raids in the late 90's. During these raids, the old drug families were betrayed by the cops so that the cops could put in people that would provide a larger return. But the Latin Kings would not deal with the cops. Even worse, they started to fight back against the antagonizations of the local drug families. Since they cut into the money that was being paid for "protection" in the local racket, something had to be done to get rid of the Latin Kings.

Out here, the cops and the bad guys work together.

[edit on 27-2-2010 by bigfatfurrytexan]