Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 20, AUGUST 18, 2008, THE ISLANDER
Don't blame the
blameless
I got carded!
At the package store next door - that
my bedroom window overlooks... I got
carded, for cryin’ out loud.
Saturday before last, I was on my
way to enjoy an evening of Falcons -
Jaguars pre-season football and pizza
with a couple of friends and stopped in
to pick up some refreshing beer.
The clerk asked to see some ID.
I was so shocked that my initial
response was a question that contained
an expletive not appropriate for publi
cation.
The liquor store clerk replied, “Real
ly. I need to see some identification.”
Now, I’ve always looked a little
younger than I actually am - good
genes and chubby faces don’t wrinkle
much - but I’m certainly neither delu
sional nor idiotic enough to think for a
nanosecond that at 551 can pass for 20,
so I knew something must be afoot.
As I retrieved my driver’s license
from my wallet I asked the clerk, “I’m
55!!! What’s up with the ID?”
He told me they had heard there
might be another alcoholic beverage
license “sting” that weekend, similar
to the one several weeks ago during
which local law enforcement officials
collared about 10 people for selling
alcohol to minors.
Well... to an underage undercover
cop.
So, now liquor store owners are so
scared they are carding people who are
very obviously well over the legal age
limit.
And just like the Redford/Newman,
Oscar winning classic, The Sting, law
enforcement sting operations also
require deception.
Do you think a crack dealer is going
to sell cocaine to a uniformed police
officer in a patrol car?
Of course not. That’s why they have
undercover officers who look, act and
dress like drug users.
They do the same thing on the alco
holic beverage license sting operations.
They send in an underage, under
cover officer who can easily pass for 21
years old, the legal drinking age. The
guy may have a beard. They may send
in a couple pretending to be married.
There’s various ways to do it, but
they certainly aren’t going to send in a
kid that looks like a kid, because just
like the drug dealer is not going to sell
dope to someone who looks like a cop,
most bartenders and package store
clerks aren’t going to sell to a someone
who looks like a minor.
It’s not worth it.
My good friend Donnie Cofer has
been in his family’s liquor business all
of his adult life.
He told me recently, “I don’t care if a
kid wants a six pack of cheap beer or a
case of the most expensive 20 year old
single malt I’ve got, I’m not going to sell
to him because it’s not worth my busi
ness, my liquor license.”
Donnie said as far as he knows
everyone else in the alcoholic beverage
business in Glynn most likely thinks
the same way.
“You sell to a minor, you can lose
your livelihood. You’re outta business,”
he said.
But... my ‘use of deception on drug
dealers’ versus ‘use of deception on bar
tenders’ analogy only flies so far.
With the exception of licensed phar
macists working in drug stores, anyone
selling drugs, like cocaine or marijua
na, is breaking the law, period. There
is no one to whom they can legally sell
their product.
On the other hand, anyone over 21
years old can legally purchase alcohol.
If an underage undercover cop goes
into a bar and while in the process of
illegally buying a drink, is the only
underage person in the bar, then the
law enforcement agency is targeting an
otherwise law abiding citizen... using
deception.
It is only through the deceptive
enticement that the underage police
officer can persuade the bartender to
sell them the alcohol when the bar
tender may not do it if they knew the
person was underage.
The cold hard fact is kids are going
to find a way to get alcohol if they want
to drink.
We did it when I was growing up in
the late 1960’s and early ‘70’s. And kids
are still doing it today.
Between finding an older brother or
sister to purchase it for them, stealing
it from mom and dad’s liquor cabinet
and getting a fake ID, kids are going to
find a way to get booze.
And arresting all the bartenders and
package store clerks in Glynn County
is not going to do one thing to stop it
or even slow it down because the right
people aren’t being arrested.
The kids are the ones initiating the
crime, not the bartenders and arrest
ing them just takes the blame off the
people truly responsible, the kids, and
puts it on people who are just trying to
do their job.
Maybe parents should get more
involved.
Think about this... in the recent
sting, a number of bartenders and
clerks were arrested for selling to the
undercover cop. No actual underage
kids were arrested for trying to buy
alcohol. That means not one single
underage drinker was actually stopped
from buying and drinking alcohol.
Did the sting prevent any alcohol
use by teenagers?
Nobody knows because like all ‘vic
timless’ crimes there is no way to keep
track of any aspect of it.
So, beyond arresting a few bartend
ers and store clerks who may well have
never sold alcohol to a minor other than
the underage cop, the police cannot tell
us whether the sting was a success or a
failure in curbing underage drinking.
Does anyone believe that even one
teenager said to his or her buddies,
“Hey, they charged a bartender at
Bennie’s Red Bam last weekend for
selling alcohol to a minor. I guess we
can’t use our fake ID’s to buy beer this
weekend.”?
Get real.
And are these sting operations are a
wise use of our tax dollars? Aren’t there
real criminals out there that our taxes
would be better used trying to catch?
If there is a business that sells alco
hol to kids they know to be underage,
then by all means that person should
be arrested - if they can be caught in
the act of selling to someone that is
obviously a minor, not a cop.
But like my friend Donnie said,
there’s probably very few, if any, of
those in Glynn County.
The idea for this editorial came from
the last Glynn Comity Commission
meeting when Commissioner Cap Fen-
dig proposed some new regulations that
would give the county a legal avenue to
prosecute bars and restaurants who
serve alcohol to people who are later
involved in fatal traffic accidents.
I’ve known Commissioner Fendig
since childhood and I know his inten
tions to be well meaning and honor
able, but with all due respect this is
simply another case of shifting the
blame onto the wrong person instead
of holding the actual responsible party
accountable.
Police Chief Matt Doering seemed to
understand that this is a very subjec
tive issue with far to many variables
to be able to make an objective case
against a bartender who served some
one who was involved in a traffic acci
dent on the way home.
Some people are visibly impaired
after just two or three drinks, while
other people can down much more and
not appear to be drunk at all.
You can’t hold a bartender responsi
ble for someone’s level of intoxication.
Even police officers cannot arrest
someone for Driving Under the Influ
ence without a breath or a blood alcohol
test.
So how in the world can a bartender,
who has to make a snap judgement
without the benefit of testing equip
ment, be held to a higher standard and
charged with more responsibility than
Turn to Page 9
Back Talk
STARTING IN THE LOW $200's | Experience more of Fox Run the Village at:
WWW.foxrunthevillage.com I Call now for an exclusive tour of Phase II
Marketed by: Elizabeth Johnson, Broker
Fox Run Real Estate
912.265.0147 | Located off Harry Driggers Blvd, Brunswick, Georgia