At a football game, a father asks his 15 year-old son to hold beer and is escorted out of stadium by undercover officers. Big Government supporters must be so proud!
Perhaps all public sectors should be forced into “sensitivity classes” where they must repeatedly watch The Lives of Others.
Agents of the Arizona Department of Liquor Licences and Control cited him for a liquor violation that he committed right before their very eyes and escorted him out of the premises where liquor was being sold?!
Say it ain’t so! I am shocked, SHOCKED!!!
An example of what happens when peace officers become law enforcement officers. What next a SWAT team from the library breaking down your door for that overdue copy of 1984?
Why do I get the feeling that the undercover agents are now filing a report stating that the Dept should buy season tickets so that this undercover enforcement can continue?
When agents of the Arizona Department of Liquor Licences and Control are enforcing the liquor laws they are enforcing the very laws that they are sworn to enforce as Arizona Department of Liquor Licences and Control agents. It’s what they are paid to do.
No, they won’t be citing anyone for failing to licence their dog or issuing any parking tickets in case you were wondering.
I wish I had a dime for every time people on this site belly ache about the *capricious application of the law by police officers and judges alike.
*ca·pri·cious (k-prshs, -prshs)
adj. Characterized by or subject to whim; impulsive and unpredictable.
Enforce the laws or repeal them says I.
The Arizona father will have his day in court and it will be up to the judge to determine whether or not the law should be waved in this instance, that’s the judge’s job.
The undercover agents were enforcing the laws they are paid to enforce as law enforcement agents.
The police where being stupid. Doesn’t Police any-more use something called Judgement or a brain . To humiliate a Father in front of his son for asking him to hold a beer while taking a picture is the mind set of thugs not “law enforcement”. Its just plain harassment. Now if he where getting his son drunk I could see it. This though is way over the top.
Its like checking 80 years old’s from Kansas for Bombs.
Even truant officers now have SWAT teams. Its out of control.
Using a chalk made drawing of a 5 year aged kids drawing to arrest a Father. There is no sense or reason behind this. Except being control freaks.
Its obvious authorities have lost any idea of proportion, or reality.
“Enforce the laws or repeal them says I.”
Ok, point taken.
However at some point everyone has to exercise good judgement, even cops.
I mean seriously, if cops stopped and fined EVERY SINGLE TRAFFIC CODE VIOLATION they see, as an example, they’d barely have to leave the the station house.
*I* see metric tonnes of violations every day ( did you use your blinkers when you changed lanes?, What speed is this highway?) and I neither am specifically looking for them nor care.
We aren’t going to be revoking those laws.
I have a huge problem with cops arresting/fining people for technical violations that should be dealt with with a polite reminder and stern look. Or in some cases, situational blindness.
Relax – this is just Big Brother “Co-Parenting” your brood – you didn’t really think they were yours did you – they belong to the glorious collective!
Bet you next years pay check he was white to.
“Enforce the laws or repeal them says I.”
Of course, and I can also form my own opinions on the sort of people who know these laws exist, and then sign up to enforce them for money.
If you can’t hold your beer, don’t drink.
It probably would have been prudent for the rent a cops to wait for the boy to actually drink the beer. That would be a against the law holding one not so much. If this actually goes to court which it will not it will get thrown out which it should. Remember the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath. Wait for it…
To the Javerts on this site, there is a thing called “selective enforcement” and not in a pejorative sense. It means using discretion. De minimus non curat lex! Etc. In five and a half years in law enforcement I most certainly didn’t ticket every violation, or enforce to the letter every law or correct with a citation what could be corrected with a polite request or a brief talking to. Peel’s principles: policing success is measured by the absence of crime, not by the number of charges and arrests. That seems to be getting lost somewhere.
How many times do you see parents who would rather be ‘buddies’ than actual parents. I would not be surprised that this could be such a situation. I have no problem with enforcement as we see little of that in today’s world. I guess they could have waited until the kid took a drink before the bust.
Heh, the Meter Maids at it again…self-important twits without common sense reflecting the rest of society.
University of Phoenix Stadium has a capacity of 63,400.(expandable to over 72,200-78K+ with standing room)
Likely they were at or near capacity and a University stadium to boot means lots of young people.
A lot of people drink beer at NFL football games, the stadium is a venue for the selling, purchase, and consumption of alcohol beer.
The agents of the Arizona Department of Liquor Licences and Control DID exercise judgement in this situation.
They were there to specifically bust underage consumption and possession of alcoholic beverages. That is their entire job and purpose for being there. Get it?
Lots of older people, especially parents in Canada and the U.S. illegally provide alcohol to minors for consumption. Surprise, surprise, surprise.
And what do all these parents/adults say when they get caught?
(remember this is in a football crowd of 63 thousand people)
“You caught me dead to rights agents, I’m sorry, I promise not to do it again.”
Yeah NO, …that’s not what they say.
What they really say is, “You’ve got it all wrong agents, I was just giving my cup *of BEER to my son to hold while I take a picture.”, and try to weasel out of a flagrant public alcohol violation.
Now remember the singular reason these agents are at this game is to bust people for violating the Arizona alcohol statues and providing alcohol to minors is probably the #1 citation they issue.
It is the agents jobs to bust people and it is a JUDGE’s job to determine the intent of the defendant.
Notice the poor aggrieved poppa had two criminal trespass citations.
Yep. When this loser was told by State law enforcement to quit the stadium, because there were still thousands of people there buying and drinking alcohol and loser daddy had just publically violated an alcohol statue, loser daddy parlayed his ‘Get Outta Here’ into a 3rd class felony trespass by arguing with people whose entire purpose for being there that day was to prevent the 1st class misdemeanor he had just committed right in front of their eyes by busting people like him.
*(daddy just said cup in the video to make out the agents as unreasonable)
Lost in all the noise here is the fact that the venue has to make a show of enforcing the liquor laws, because if they don’t, they could lose their liquor license, and a huge source of revenue.
Exactly.
Maybe twenty thousand+ people buying and drinking beer in one huge venue 63,000 capacity venue and these agents are narrowly tasked with keeping the drinking in line while still permitting the public the freedom to have a beer at a football game.
Context people.
Yes, it’s important for the state to undermine parental judgment and authority.
Besides, it makes jobs for self-important twits…undercover, indeed…
I was going to post asking how one might fight against this sort of rank stupidity, but I see that some of you are clearly part of the problem.
Oz, where is the offence against the peace here?
Imagine that your neighbour returns home early from a hunting trip with a broken arm. You say ‘son, get over there and help Jerry unload the truck, it’s what neighbours do’. Your 15 year old son carries a gun case into the house and then a case of beer. Are you and your neighbour now guilty of the offence of unlawful transfer of a firearm and unlawful possession of alcohol by a minor?
Exactly. See Revnant Dreams post above, the link “The Lives of Others”, and the Baltic Way thread above.
Common sense, people, common sense.
I was in Campell River, Vancouver Island, on a recent ride
At a well known eatery-pub a table of 10 souls from 3 generations were asked to leave because one was under 18. He wasn’t drinking and wouldn’t be said one family elder.
The server apologized and said she had no choice.
I shall never forget the puzzled looks on the faces of the expelled souls.
The server told me that the crazy rules were apparently under review.
You do realize that Arizona is a state where people openly carry firearms, yes?
These were agents of the Arizona Department of Liquor Licences and CONTROL at a 63,000 capacity NFL football game where thousands of people were drinking. There has to be enforcement in such a circumstance in order to allow the freedom for people to drink in safety without eroding or rescinding that freedom.
It was BAD judgement on the part of the father to give his son that cup of beer in those circumstances, period.
Go ahead and tell me that father did not have the option of placing that cup under his seat or handing it to another nearby adult instead of handing it to his minor son.
Self important twits? It’s their job to provide an environment in which alcohol is regulated and yet still available. They don’t know individual adults, fathers, mothers, uncles, from Adam. They do know the law and they do know their job is to enforce it, especially at a pro network TV football game.
Some of you people seem not to grasp that these agents are Arizona Department of Liquor Licence and Control, and what that means.
Understand that alcohol is a drug that is known to loosen people’s inhibitions, enhance their emotions, (including anger) and also make them feel indestructible.
I don’t like cops of any stripe, but they are a necessary evil.
“Your 15 year old son carries a gun case into the house and then a case of beer.”
~Al in Ottawa
It depends, Al. Does your house have a license to sell beer, a seating capacity of 63,000 with thousands drinking that beer and getting excited about a contact sporting event unfolding before their eyes?
Additionally, Al, what is the guy with the broken arm doing driving around illegally transporting open alcohol, hmmm?
Context. Some of you say the agents should have used some judgement. How about you folks using some of your own and stop giving me analogies that don’t fit. Use the actual context that was there, the context we’re talking about, the context that requires the State of Arizona to send agents from their Department of Liquor Licence and Control to regulate beer consumption at a huge sporting event.
You don’t have any agents like that at your house, do you Al?
“Oz, where is the offence against the peace here?”
~AL in Ottawa
It’s about maintaining the freedom for all the adults at the football game to continue to purchase and consume the beer. If this guy can give his kid a beer then everybody else there can choose to do the same until the beer vendors are shut down and anyone found in possession of alcohol at the football game gets busted.
Oz has a point but it’s small beer here.
Revnant Dream’s point trumps it.
True, law enforcement shouldn’t be capricious but neither should it be utterly lacking in common sense.
Oz’s point is evocative of I-was-just-following-orders totalitarianism.
Yeah, I’m surprised too.
Question I have is, Dad is taking his 15 year old son to a football game for I father son outing. Dad knows his son is a minor, why does dad have to have a beer?
Can’t he forgo a beer while he is with his minor son? Is the beer that important to him? And he should have put the beer on the ground to take his pictures. And as an ex cop, arguing with the enforcement officers never turns out well.
mid island mike
Ah, the slippery slope argument from Oz. Puhleeze.
I’ve been to that *many* Cards games in that stadium and Oz is talking squarely out of his rectum. It’s “University” in naming rights only, and while there was likely many young people there, trying to make it out that officials were just trying to protect the “innocent youth” is a farce. There’s no doubting that Arizona is tight fisted in its control of liquor sales and consumption, but this is merely a case of overzealous enforcement. Full stop. All that had to happen was enforcement officers explaining the situation (benign as it is) to the father and instructing him not to do it again. You know, like rational human beings. But you put a badge on some people and all bets are off.
I’m sure the Cards are just *thrilled* that they have a po’d season ticket holder now and will need to do some sort of damage control. The NFL is wildly popular, but the Cards do not sell out every game, testimony to the fact that I get at least two emails per week in *Canada* enticing me to buy tickets. I should be careful next game I attend, if my wife asks me to hold her purse I may be accosted by the vice squad for crossdressing.
The only reason those agents were there was to bust people like that father who, although he dissembled about the beer calling it a “cup” instead of a beer or even cup-of-beer, admits that he gave his minor son a beer.
No they were not there to rush up to people and give them warnings, the very suggestion of them being paid to run around warning people about giving liquor to minors is absurd. No giving open liquor to minors is not an obscure law.
The father also stated that the agents were “seconds away”. Did they see that the father intended to take a picture? I say no. I say we only have the word of a dissembler that he even intended to take a picture at all.
Will the Cards need to do some damage control? No. The ‘Cards’ are not the boss of the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control. Rather I’m sure that the ‘Cards’ are happy to continue to sell beer at their football games.
The university has little or nothing to do with the stadium? Irrelevant.
My points still stand.
It’s called discretion, a trait that obviously the State liquor control officers and *you* seem not to possess.
Dissembler? Look in the mirror.
You get the last word because, frankly, you’re not worth any more of my time.
geez some of you… it was just a damn cup of beer not a crack pipe!
This isn’t about you.
Mr Bumble was right, and in the 170 years or so since Charles Dickens wrote “Oliver Twist”, we haven’t smartened up even a little bit.
Me No Dhimmi at 12:12 – was that my family you were talking about? You forgot one detail that I thought was relevant – my grandson was barely six months old at the time. I don’t know if that particular restaurant is still open – we have never gone back.
Oz – it’s dickheads like these guys who, in a generation, have made police work close to impossible because no-one wants to co-operate. Thirty people can see a murder and not one witness comes forward. The police have picked sides and it isn’t on the side of the people.
Oz and the undercover fuzz seem to be lacking in what the old navy called CDF or Common Dog F*ck. Lets see some common sense here folks. If junior had been sipping the beverage then that could be legit grounds to turf the pair but chances are the Beer Nazis thought a quick “bust” would justify their presence at the game and ensure they get to keep on going. If they wanted to get underage drinkers then go back to the beer vendors and wait for the older guy handing off the beer to the youngsters. I have seen it at literally every sport venue I have attended.
What DrD said… mindless goons following an increasingly insane script. The only surprising part of this story is that pops wasn’t tazed and beaten before being hauled off to the clink.
hey Ooze, huffington post is calling ewe
these enforcement types were dickhead, and you are a bigger dickhead. Talk to any good cop and they will tell you that using a little discretion goes a lot farther then strict enforcement to “control” law breaking
Back in the 70’s I spoke to a WWII vet who had driven to Texas. For supper one evening he went to what seemed a popular eating establishment and ordered an American beer (come on now no one thinks that what they serve in the US is beer beer). His order was declined because he was in a ‘dry’ county. Dry county? The guy at the next table was drinking bourbon. He was informed that on that side of the invisible line booze was permitted because it was a private club. However on this side of the invisible line no booze was allowed.
As kids growing up when, which wasn’t very often, Mom and Dad had an alcoholic beverage we kids could have a limited amount too. We raised our kids the same way.
As for selective enforcement get serious. Can anyone tell me when the last time they were stopped and ticketed for doing 5 km over the speed limit? I talked to one traffic cop who says he sets his radar at 15 over.
Joe “Can anyone tell me when the last time they were stopped and ticketed for doing 5 km over the speed limit?”
About 10 years ago. It was the RCMP. The ticket said 15 km over.
Here’s something worse. A co-worker had been out drinking after work on a really cold night and felt he had too many so he left his car for the night a called a cab. As he waited in his car for the cab, a Cop check into his situation and because he had his cars keys handy, he was Charged with being behind the wheel of a car while impared. The cab showed up to confirm his story, but no sir,the proxy tax-collector made the ticket stick and coast a bundle in Court to fight it.
Sadly, we now see the Police as part of the ruling Government because islamofascists and Tamil-Tiger terrorism supporters seem to get away with child-abuse by using children as shields during Rallies and peace marches in Toronto. Even the PRIDE-Police during the Parade in Toronto allow naked males to expose their penis at little girls in public on Yonge Street while the Police become obsessed at threatening any non-muslim that protests the Child-abuse or Pro-Hamas groups as part of this event.