You can pretty much blame MADD for that. Originally it started out as an organization with the best intentions but over time it's turned into more or less a modern temperance movement.
The key was figuring out that if you pressure the federal government enough you can get states to fall in line. The federal government doesn't have the ability to set a blanket drinking age for every state. But it does have the ability to withhold federal highway funds from states that refuse to set their minimum drinking age at 21.
The biggest thing for me has been that you're old enough to die for your country -- required enlistment for the armed forces selective service ("the draft") -- but not old enough to buy a beer.
"Contrary to popular belief, since the act (that set the drinking age at 21) went into law, only a few states prohibit minors and young adults from consuming alcohol in private settings. As of January 1, 2010, 15 states and the District of Columbia ban underage consumption outright, 17 states do not ban underage consumption, and the remaining 18 states have family member and/or location exceptions to their underage consumption laws."
Don't forget, you can enlist in a military branch at 18 - so its conceivable you could fight and die for your country before being able to legally enjoy a cold pint at the local pub.
Yeah , the country of freedom when you're not even free to buy alcohol at 18 like in most western countries ... what a joke... and they think they are free...
I've had a similar thing happen to me (I live in Croatia). It happened a few years back so some details are hazy now. It was a rainy evening and I was picking up my brother and we were to drive home for the weekend. His girlfriend was also with him. So, I pick them up and drive to this small parking space to turn the car around. The moment I circled the car around the parking, an unmarked Octavia reverses in front of me, with two bald guys in sport jackets running towards me. I didn't know how to react, in a second or two all sorts of scenarios went thorough my mind. Were they robbers? Then I saw them moving their hands towards their hips. Going for guns? Should I put the car in reverse and try to escape? They pulled out what looked like badges and started yelling to turn off the engine and step out. I still believe t was a leap of faith on my part, trusting them to be the police and I'm afraid of what might've happened if I acted differently. They asked us to empty our pockets, patted us, searched the car and just left, no explanation, no sorry, nothing. They didn't search the girl, I guess it's against the law or something. My brother jokes how one of the officers persistently asked him if he had something in his pants, and all he thought was "yeah, shit, because I almost shat myself". I suppose they were on a stakeout, probably looking for narcotics dealers or something, who knows. It wasn't a pleasant experience at all.
Isn't that what all Americans do when they meet a stranger? I think Heinlein said something about it being good manners, or the polite thing to do, or something. Can't say the quote made much sense when I read it. I'm a Brit though, so maybe it lost something in translation from American. Over here we used to raise our hats, be we don't have those anymore either.
Because the law enforcement officers have to protect their own lives. This is America, where anyone could be carrying an implement that requires two seconds to kill.
Usual stuff, she will have to plead guilty to get suspended sentence. Then permanent record and ruined life. Officers will get bonus points and salary increase. Justice always wins!
The fact that the prosecution isn't pushing harder suggests that the story here is essentially true — "a girl was assaulted by a disorderly armed mob on her way out of a grocery store and managed to escape them, but it turned out that they were plainclothes police who had mistaken her bottled water for beer and were trying to arrest her, so they put her in prison overnight and filed three felony charges (which have since been dropped)." Classy, guys.
You have to wonder whether anyone in the group who performed the arrest has any kind of remorse or has developed any sort of insight about whether they might have done things differently.
It could possibly be worse. The typical response is something like yours, but there's the outside chance they'll pile on more charges for a longer prison sentence. That's good for the economy because the US has many privately run prisons to fill.
Important as these stories are to get out, really they are handled by other news outlets quite well.
Exactly what one learns from one incident, in one state, in one country is hard to say.
The story has no round up of a greater meaning other than the one incident which leads the reader without any cause and effect.
Is this American budgets cuts? Is this the problem with counties having to much power? Is this the militarisation of the police force? What is the trend here if any?
As per news is bad for you, I think this is one of them. High stress, low information.
Budget cuts? Police did weirder things for bonus pay.
Like cause a man a heart attack, by goading him to a bet a large sum (over some federal minimum). Heart attack was caused by SWAT members assaulting his house.
Because they are power-tripping jackbooted thugs, with a paramilitary tendency, and a belief that they have ultimate authority and that citizens must comply with everything they say. An official ABC statement on the incident even says as much ("rather than comply with the officers requests...").
So, when I was 17, I bought some cases of beer. When I came out of the supermarket (with the beer visible in my cart), I walked by some (uniformed and probably armed) police officers. I greeted them and they wished me a nice weekend. Because in Germany, police officers are usually quite polite.
The whole situation is ridiculous but I'm especially interested in this bit:
"They were showing unidentifiable badges after they approached us, but we became frightened, as they were not in anything close to a uniform"
This happened to me when I was travelling in Europe, a cop without a uniform approached to me on the train somewhere between Netherlands and Germany and asked me for my ID. I asked for his ID, he flashed something (obviously I had no freaking idea whether it was legit, no idea what was even written on it since I don't know the language).
What do you do in this case? Do you obey or challenge more? Isn't that dangerous as anyone can flash some random / fake badge and cause you to go with them, gather private information or worse?
When are Americans going to see this as essentially an infringement of their rights as adults? Yes their are adults.
At the age of 20 Americans are old enough to join the army and engage in combat duty, drive, run bank accounts, be tried as adults and even be sentenced to death.
And yet drinking at the age 20 is perceived as an imprisonable offence, and law enforcement officers consider it reason to arrest adults because of that?
Frankly Americans tolerate too much nonsense from their corrupt and hypocritical law makers.
It seems to be one the laws retained to enable their fascist state to criminalize their citizens so they can have something to hold over them.
It will be nice to take my son down the pub on his 18th, buy him a nice cold beer, congratulate him on reaching adulthood and give thanks that we don't live in a backwood shithole like the USA.
To serve and annoy. Thanks for keeping our city safe from the dangerous and out of control 20 year-old college females. They are quite the scourge on our modern surburbias.
"Thanks for keeping our city safe from the dangerous and out of control 20 year-old college females. They are quite the scourge on our modern surburbias."
I'm sure there's a "girls gone wild" joke in there somewhere.
These days, as an anarcho capitalist, I just feel like the entire world is continuously handing me ammunition to justify my position, and I have had plenty for years.
[+] [-] aidos|12 years ago|reply
Wait, am I understanding this correctly? At the age of 20 she's not allowed to buy alcohol but could have already owned a gun for 2 years?
The world is a funny old place.
[+] [-] InclinedPlane|12 years ago|reply
The key was figuring out that if you pressure the federal government enough you can get states to fall in line. The federal government doesn't have the ability to set a blanket drinking age for every state. But it does have the ability to withhold federal highway funds from states that refuse to set their minimum drinking age at 21.
[+] [-] aray|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ry0ohki|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] elmuchoprez|12 years ago|reply
"Contrary to popular belief, since the act (that set the drinking age at 21) went into law, only a few states prohibit minors and young adults from consuming alcohol in private settings. As of January 1, 2010, 15 states and the District of Columbia ban underage consumption outright, 17 states do not ban underage consumption, and the remaining 18 states have family member and/or location exceptions to their underage consumption laws."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_drinking_age#Americas
[+] [-] pezh0re|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bliker|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] samolang|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xhrpost|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] camus|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] caf|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dsego|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Nursie|12 years ago|reply
>> " One jumped on the hood of her SUV; another pulled out a gun"
What The F*ck America?
[+] [-] disputin|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Gigablah|12 years ago|reply
Wait, where did this happen again?
[+] [-] muyuu|12 years ago|reply
Not me though.
[+] [-] pfortuny|12 years ago|reply
Man, that is blind faith in so many untrustworthy sources (remember '41 shots?') that I am trying to recover from the shock. Poor girl.
Seven people. I say: seven. One, two three, four, five, six, seven. They would have scared everything out of me.
[+] [-] gutnor|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hoi|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] simonh|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lucian1900|12 years ago|reply
It should only ever be illegal to sell or (as someone overage) buy for someone underage.
[+] [-] tome|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chris_wot|12 years ago|reply
https://www.facebook.com/notes/virginia-department-of-alcoho...
[+] [-] qwerta|12 years ago|reply
Update: apparently charges were dropped
[+] [-] mherdeg|12 years ago|reply
The fact that the prosecution isn't pushing harder suggests that the story here is essentially true — "a girl was assaulted by a disorderly armed mob on her way out of a grocery store and managed to escape them, but it turned out that they were plainclothes police who had mistaken her bottled water for beer and were trying to arrest her, so they put her in prison overnight and filed three felony charges (which have since been dropped)." Classy, guys.
You have to wonder whether anyone in the group who performed the arrest has any kind of remorse or has developed any sort of insight about whether they might have done things differently.
[+] [-] Ultron|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aaron695|12 years ago|reply
Exactly what one learns from one incident, in one state, in one country is hard to say.
The story has no round up of a greater meaning other than the one incident which leads the reader without any cause and effect.
Is this American budgets cuts? Is this the problem with counties having to much power? Is this the militarisation of the police force? What is the trend here if any?
As per news is bad for you, I think this is one of them. High stress, low information.
[+] [-] andypants|12 years ago|reply
I completely understand their reaction to get away when a group of people suddenly draw their guns and try to force you to get out of the car...
[+] [-] jonahx|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Ygg2|12 years ago|reply
Like cause a man a heart attack, by goading him to a bet a large sum (over some federal minimum). Heart attack was caused by SWAT members assaulting his house.
EDIT: Note it's not a heart attack they shot him through the heart. It's from this article http://www.cracked.com/article_19450_6-laws-youve-broken-wit...
[+] [-] jcromartie|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] samolang|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tjomk|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] killercup|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dsego|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fmavituna|12 years ago|reply
"They were showing unidentifiable badges after they approached us, but we became frightened, as they were not in anything close to a uniform"
This happened to me when I was travelling in Europe, a cop without a uniform approached to me on the train somewhere between Netherlands and Germany and asked me for my ID. I asked for his ID, he flashed something (obviously I had no freaking idea whether it was legit, no idea what was even written on it since I don't know the language).
What do you do in this case? Do you obey or challenge more? Isn't that dangerous as anyone can flash some random / fake badge and cause you to go with them, gather private information or worse?
[+] [-] vfclists|12 years ago|reply
At the age of 20 Americans are old enough to join the army and engage in combat duty, drive, run bank accounts, be tried as adults and even be sentenced to death. And yet drinking at the age 20 is perceived as an imprisonable offence, and law enforcement officers consider it reason to arrest adults because of that?
Frankly Americans tolerate too much nonsense from their corrupt and hypocritical law makers.
It seems to be one the laws retained to enable their fascist state to criminalize their citizens so they can have something to hold over them.
[+] [-] shirro|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alex_doom|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] VLM|12 years ago|reply
I'm sure there's a "girls gone wild" joke in there somewhere.
[+] [-] etherael|12 years ago|reply
Both amusing and sad.
[+] [-] Uchikoma|12 years ago|reply