Undercover Police Sting on Underage Drinking (Page 2)

I think we'd be a lot better off with NO drinking age and letting parents teach their children about the realities of drinking as they are growing up.

You can join the military at 18, die and/or kill for your country but you can't drink. That's just wrong.

In response to your question about profiling:

The government can't discriminate against people on the basis of race, ethnicity, or religion, and because of Civil Rights Laws, neither can places of public accommodation.

The government CAN and DOES discriminate on the basis of youth.  That's precisely what this law is intended to do: it targets youth.  It's not a "profiling" issue - "profiling" is targeting a person of a  particular race/ethnicity/religion out of a belief that the person's race/ethnicity/religion makes it more likely they are involved in a crime.  The crime is not related to race/ethnicity/religion.   In your brother's case, his age IS what makes his action criminal.  

So: age discrimination, in this sense, is legal.  (But there are a few contexts in which age discrimination is not legal: refusal to rent or sell housing to families with children; refusal to hire an older worker because of her age.)

We could have an entire thread on this one.  Preaching to the choir with me, brother. 

Marvarnett - 2009-09-09 8:04 AM

newleaf - 2009-09-08 6:28 PM

gearboy - 2009-09-08 6:05 PM

mr2tony - 2009-09-08 3:28 PM 
I once was pulled over and the first question was `Where ya headed today?' to which I replied `Why'd you pull me over.' to which he replied `You were going a little fast. Where ya headed in such a hurry.' to which I replied `Nowhere illegal.' to which he replied `You're making me suspicious.' to which I replied `That's your job, to be suspicious. Are you going to give me a ticket or keep asking me questions all day?' Let's just say I didn't get out of there for a good 45 minutes. But I still never told him where I was going. Small victories. The point is that I knew what I was in for, it was just that I felt he didn't need to know where I was going.
 

Did you get ticketed? I know your goal was to avoid telling the cop your destination, but most people have the goal of avoiding the ticket and the points.  You also made yourself more memorable to the cop, which is usually counter to most people's desire.  I figure the cop makes dozens of stops during the course of the day.  If I don't stand out, I am better off.  Of course, driving a bright yellow Xterra with dozens of stickers on the side rear windows and a personalized tag makes it hard to be annonymous.  (When my daughter had to borrow my car for a few weeks, she told me she felt "cool".  Of course, she kept mis-pronouncing it as "I felt like a tool", so I had correct her slang - "It's pronounced 'cool' honey, not 'tool'")

Yeah, I don't really get the point of jerking a cop around for 45 minutes... the last time I got a ticket, the judge asked the cop for every person that came up, "was there anything memorable about the stop?" (or words to that effect).  The answer to that, affected if the judge reduced your ticket/fine/points, etc.  Seems like this falls into the cutting off your nose to spite your face category.

The way I read this, the cop decided to jerk Tony around for 45 minutes.  If a cop pulls you over for speeding and you don't want to chit chat with him, then that's your right.  If he asked me what I had for Lunch that would be the same thing.  You would ask yourself...what's the point of that question?

Unless if you said, "I'm going to Grandma's house" then he would let you go.  Since that is highly not the case, why did Tony have to tell him where he was going.  Assuming the cop is in the right, then it's 'easier' for you to not be memorable if you're going to fight the ticket.  So if you want to just keep your head down and say "Thank you officer, have a nice day and thank you for protecting everyone" that's great.  But it's not required.

I agree with you.  I know it is their "job" to serve and protect and I wouldn't doubt that sometimes, these tactics work on those that are truly guilty of something.  But when you truly are innocent, or at least not guilty of what they think you could potentially be guilty of (reasonable suspcion?), then it is a waste of time.  Theirs and yours.

I was stopped, when I was about 17.  Pulled over.  Cop tells me to get out of the car and come back to his.  He frisks me, and throws me in the back.  He gets in the front and asks "where did you get the car?"  Ummm... it is my car.  So we go round and round with this line of questioning for at least 10 minutes.  He finally breaks down and says that the expiration date in the computer didn't match what was on my tag!  WTF, so because some idiot down town put in the wrong date, I'm questioned like some perp?  Then he said "Your headlight it out (which I found out had just happened) and you need to get it fixed.  Other cops won't be as nice as me".  The car was a beat up '78 Plymouth Horizon.  I had long hair (shoulder length all around).

Was he doing his job?  Sure.  I didn't get a ticket.  Did I feel harrassed?  Yep.  Do I think he singled me out because of how I looked instead of what I was doing?  Absolutely.  But, he was doing his job.  And all that being said, I think he could have better spent his time focusing on the real problems in the were in that area.