While the Daily Times drafted TWO articles in the past two days about how they served alcohol to a minor, they still purposely missed the mark, the biggest point of the story.
I sat back yesterday and waited with anticipation of their bigger and better article today and just as I suspected, it was there. Here's what they missed though. THERE'S NO ACCOUNTABILITY!
I'll NEVER forget Councilwoman Stevie Prettyman bringing this up, FACE to FACE with the heads of the Liquor Board, (not afraid to tell it like it is) and stating, when the Dispensary was caught, NOTHING happened to them! No Fines, No Suspension, NOTHING! There is NO accountability!
How convenient of the Daily Times to have missed that statement. It's no wonder Joe "G" is gone. He missed the mark on this article like he missed the mark on so many others. Oh, this makes me a naysayer, right? I disagree with him being a professional and tell the entire story, after all, that's what we pay them for, right?
If you're a Bar, Restaurant or Convenience Store and you sell to a minor, you could be fined, suspended and or even lose your license completely. Ron Alessi is enjoying yet another branch of Government that has no accountability whatsoever! You see, at the Zoo when animals die by the hundreds per year, no one gives a sh!t because they're not accountable by telling you how many died each year. In the Liquor Dispensary, they're not accountable either and Alessi is involved in both.
Alessi needs a swift kick in the ass out of City/County relations and retire, just like we suggested Bill Duvall do long ago. Things will go further down hill, like they have with Duvall, the Zoo and now the Liquor Dispensary. Very poor job there Joe "G."
What says it all is there are only 4 counties left with the dispensary system. WHY? The obvious reasons are accountability and government should not compete with private enterprise. There is nothing fair about the dispensary selling to a minor without action being taken and yet private business will have to pay the penalty. It's wrong.
ReplyDeleteThey sold beer again? Now they are going to again say that the beer is still left over from Christmas? This entity has always acted like it is above the law and local authorities.
ReplyDeleteWhy O'Mally hasn't appointed new board members is also a good question. If O'Mally doesn't do that then these same misfits can run that entity as long as they like.
at least Montgomery county liquor board contributes more than $2 million a year to the county. that says a lot about the hucksters we have running things here. should just close them all and end the controversy and possible conflicts of interest at the taxpayers expense
ReplyDeleteIt's true that the county-controlled dispensaries have an unfair advantage when it comes to underage sale violations,for a simple reason. Independent licensed beverage sellers like quick stop stores and bars are governed by the alcohol licensing arm of county,and the liquor dispernsaries are governed by appointed/elected liquor control boards, as such violations are enforced differently.
ReplyDeleteClerks and waitpersons who sell to minors are prosecuted regardless of where they work,and usually fired, but private alcohol sellers are also penalized by license suspensions.Dispensaries are still permitted to operate after violations and that is why the dispensary system is being challenged by the public.
The most important thing out of all of this is getting overlooked in the debate. and that is that underage sales are STILL a potentially lethal problem in our community.
BTW,I do feel that the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18, because if 18 year olds can serve their country in Iraq or anywhere else and risk their lives,they are mature enough to make smart decisions about drinking.
The legal age for SELLING alcohol is 18 years. That's right, a person who is 18 can sell it, but not drink it.
ReplyDeleteHere is the other question: has the dispensary (or other private businesses) ever been caught illegally selling to an underage person - OTHER THAN WHEN THE POLICE HAS BROKEN THE LAW FIRST? My question goes to the reality of the situation: Is there a problem with underage drinking? If so, how does anyone know? What are the statistics? How many people are caught drinking under age in the county? How important is it, for the police to break laws in order to catch employees selling illegally? Can anyone demonstrate that the employee has ever sold to an underage person - OTHER THAN THE POLICE? It may very well be a fact that this person only sold to an underage person one time in history - and that time happened to be when she/he sold it to a Police officer. Think about it.
There is nothing fair about the dispensary selling to a minor without action being taken and yet private business will have to pay the penalty. The Dispensary or Liquor Board should be fined and the money sent to AA for helping recovering alcoholics or shared with MADD. ALSO tho dispensary that sold to the minor should be closed down for 2 weeks for the first offense.The newspaper said the salesman was fired. Big Deal.
ReplyDeleteYeah right, the only time is when an undercover officer comes in and buys from them. First off the cadets are not cops yet. And they are all not cop wanna-be's either. Recruitment of minors in helping to catch violators is not breaking a law. The police do not give them alcohol, its called a compliance check. What do the police do there thats illegal? Wow. And as for underage and alcohol........Look how a lot of legal people act with booze. Now multiply that by immaturity and lack of common sense.
ReplyDeleteAnon 6:02 "recruitment of minors in helping to catch violators is not breaking a law."
ReplyDeleteThe comment of Cowman was a good one. Why is this person defending the practice of entrapment? What happened to our Country? Why does everyone think our government needs to "watch over us"? Our government treats all of us as criminals.
It is as if people think that the government can police us to a state where nothing bad will ever happen again. If the government polices us enough . . . no one will do anything wrong. Everyone's behavior will be modified, controlled, dictated, even predicted. Life will cease to have any resemblance of possibility. No one will ever be hurt, no one will ever do anything "wrong", everything will be . . . WHAT? Like in Heaven? Utopia? Who wants to live in a police state?
Wake up! Bad things will happen tomorrow - to someone, somewhere, somehow. The police won't PREVENT CRIME. When they try to prevent crime, they become CRIMINAL. Period. Stop policing us. Let us be free. Let us make bad choices.
If people would raise their children, the children would know right from wrong. We don't need police to protect our children. We need to protect and teach our children the lessons of morality, and consequences of poor decisions. Teaching them to accept a police state is very very sad.
We need more secret police. I say we need more cops hiding in bushes, watching us with cameras, and listening in on our phone calls. Then if one of us is about to do something wrong, they can jump out and save the day.
ReplyDeleteI've been in Restaurant and bar business over the last 30 years. I was shift manager for the county liquor stores. Employed there for 6 years. In all my years regulating employees to card anyone under 60, I've not even come close to a violation.
ReplyDeleteThe restaurants and bars in this town serve more individuals in one day than the liquor dispensary, and with a lot less problems. I think when you put accountability on the people that sell alcohol privately, the system will work just as good without county run liquor. If they fail to comply, they are punished in the way of fines and suspension of sales, unlike the county stores.
I will have to tell you all one day how I caught a future general manager that was hired to take over, about when I caught him on video tape sneaking $90 of liquor out the back door for his own consumption.
Of course it was another case of sweep it under the rug, he was asked to resign and did so receiving a letter of recommendation AND severance pay? I caught a few employees with sticky fingers.
To. Anon 9:36 pm
ReplyDeleteAmen !!!!!! this is why we have to many regulations today. Persons thinking the government needs to step in and watch over all that we do. If people would just do the right thing, this world would be a little better. But bad things will always happen, and no law, regulation or big brother watching can stop it.