Fish in a barrel

I’m sorry, but this story made me blink.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is sending undercover officers into bars to look for drunk people…if they find ‘em, a $500 fine and a few hours in jail could be the price. The most recent sting was March 10, when agents infiltrated more than 30 bars in the Dallas suburb of Irving, arresting or citing dozens of people.

What’s wrong? Did they run out of barrels full of fish to shoot?

Mind you, these people were not driving, they were not walking the streets causing a commotion, they were not sitting in the park drinking Jack Daniels and screeching at the top of their lungs…they were sitting in a bar drinking alcohol which, coincidentally, is what distinguishes a bar from the local diner. Bars serve alcohol…shocking, I know, but true. And people in bars sometimes…gasp…drink alcohol. Sometimes a little too much.

But since when did a bar become the “public” part in public intoxication? And since when is it important to give the field sobriety test, the “Drunk Driving Test,” to people who may have no intention of driving?

Of course, Mothers Against Drunk Driving is breathless with delight:

B.J. Hassell, manager of victims services with MADD Texas State, which serves central Texas, said her organization supports the crackdown.

"Can you imagine if TABC had not stopped those people from leaving the bar, how many more drunk drivers we might have had on the road?" Hassell said.

That’s not the point, of course. The point is people should be arrested for crimes they have committed, not ones which they had the potential to commit. If you want to stop drunk drivers, set up a roadblock just beyond the parking lot outside the bars. We’re not operating under the mantle of Prohibition anymore. This is a personal invasion by an overly-zealous governmental body and should be reviled as such.