All Burton Byers wanted was a burger and a beer – or six – at his Irving hotel.
In return, he traded his seat at the bar for a spot in jail – and unemployment.
Mr. Byers and others are still fuming two weeks after being accused of public intoxication by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, part of stepped-up enforcement efforts statewide in establishments that serve liquor. The campaign, which also involves local police, brought agents to Irving on the weekend of March 10-12.
"I could not believe" it, Mr. Byers said, recounting that nobody in the bar was fighting or causing problems. "I've been in a lot of states, and you go in a bar to do one thing, and that's to drink alcohol."
Commission officials are defending the actions, noting that being drunk in public is against the law and that any place licensed to serve booze is, by law, a public place – including restaurants in dry areas that sell so-called private memberships to let patrons drink. The agency's focus, a spokeswoman said, is to rein in people who could be a danger to themselves or others – especially by driving drunk.
In the six months ending in February, the agency issued 2,281 criminal citations, nearly double the amount of the same period the previous year. Some drinkers, though, say the state is going too far in targeting bar patrons who may have no intention of driving anywhere – Mr. Byers, for instance, said he was merely going to retire to his room in the same hotel. And some fear that having officers quietly monitor drinkers and make judgment calls about whether they pose a threat could lead to Big Brother-type abuses.
ing ironic we didn't even have open container laws in motor vehicles until 2001 here in Texas, and now you have to worry about drinking in a damn bar.
