Texas booze police go crazy

I'm not going to open comments up on this thread, because I don't want a repeat of the other day, but I did want to say that I've come to agree with Wick Allison that, in light of the controversial gay bar raid in Fort Worth the other night, it does now appear that the Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission and its enforcers are out of control -- and not just to judge from the Rainbow Lounge incident. When I glossed over the first reports, it looked like a minor, darkly humorous bar fight. But now not only does it seem clear that the police engaged in unwarranted brutality -- I'm going to withhold judgment until more information comes out, because I was too quick to judge the first time I brought this up, and drew the wrong conclusions -- but also the question arises: what business do the Texas booze police have conducting these kinds of inspections in bars in the first place? I hadn't realized until the past day or so that the TABC had a standing policy of going into bars looking for drunks. How completely stupid is that? Regardless of what happens in the Rainbow Lounge affair -- and I'll reiterate that if the cops are found upon investigation to have behaved with unjustified force in injuring the guy who ended up critically ill in the hospital, I hope they're held fully accountable under the law -- I think the state of Texas should abandon its entire policy of spontaneous bar inspections. The idea that any bar, gay or straight, should have to undergo surprise raids by state authorities and local cops looking for drunks is obnoxious.

I post this here in part so people outside of Texas -- and even in Texas -- can understand that this was not simply a "gay bar raid," but business as usual for a state alcohol regulation agency that makes a point of dropping in with police into saloons patrolling for people who have had too much to drink. What kind of completely crack-brained waste of the taxpayers' dollar is that?