[Winona Online Democracy]
Dean, years ago the legislature did allow, by statute, young people 18 years
of ago to legally possess and consume alcohol. The results were horrific.
Many 18 year olds had friends that were 17, 16 and younger and the alcohol
found it's way into their hands. The other concern was that young people
were losing their lives due to traffic accidents and over consumption.
The Police Department has a responsibility to enforce the laws to include
liquor laws. The law is clear that liquor establishments have an obligation
to check I.D. cards and to reject people who are under 21. When nearly 50
people are taken out of one establishment there certainly has to be a
question concerning how effectively they are carding.
The Police do not consider a bar sting a heavy handed approach. Most of what
we deal with on a daily basis has to do with the abuse of alcohol and drugs.
By the way alcohol kills more young people than all drugs combined. We have
had some recent experiences in Winona with the loss of 5 young students from
Saint Mary's University and a drowning of a Winona State University student
that was alcohol related.
Some years ago the presidents of the universities, vocational tech. and the
high schools came to me and asked for our Police Department to increase it's
efforts to keep alcohol out of the hands of their young students, because of
the devastating effect alcohol has on their abilities to perform as a
student. We have done that and we have cut the crime rate in this city by
nearly 35% by taking the issues of alcohol and drugs seriously in our
enforcement efforts. We are a better and safer city because of those
efforts.
> ----------
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED][SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2000 10:55 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: [Winona] Chucker's and a Public Servant
>
> [Winona Online Democracy]
>
> If ever there was an argument for lowering the drinking age back to 18, or
> at
> least 19, this raid provides it.
> According to the WDN none of the arrested minors
> were less than 18 years old. One can assume that most if not all were
> students at one of Winona's universities out on a Friday night.
> There is nothing in the story to indicate that any of the arrested
> individuals were causing a distrubance, other than the one who was
> arrested
> for obstructin police work, yet the police force found it necessary to
> raid
> this licensed establishment on a weekend to arrest these citizens who were
> of
> legal aid for any other adult activity.
> I am not trying to be critical of the police force, per se, just to
> suggest
> that a) the legal age for consumption of alcholo needs to be lowered to be
>
> more in accordance with common sense; and b) not every technical violation
> of
> the law need be dealt with in such a forceful matter.
>
> Dean A. Lanz
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