Gone are the happy-go-lucky days of buying water and then going home as though it were no big deal.
Elizabeth Daly learned the hard way. As she and her roommates walked toward her car in a dark parking lot, she was accosted by a crew of Virginia state Alcohol Beverage Control agents. One jumped on her car, another drew a gun. They thought she was lugging beer instead of LaCroix sparkling water.
You must be 21 to buy alcohol in Virginia. Daly is 20.
“They were showing unidentifiable badges … but we became frightened, as they were not in anything close to a uniform,” she recalled. “I couldn’t put my windows down unless I started my car.… They began trying to break the windows. My roommates and I were … terrified.”
As they made their escape, the women dialed 911.
The ABC agents charged Daly with counts of assaulting and eluding enforcement officers. (“Assault” because the car brushed past agents as Daly drove away.) She had to spend a night in jail.
We hear so many stories of government-empowered bullies using the feeblest of excuses to terrify luckless innocents. Renegade T‑shirt-wearers, estranged husbands of financial-aid scofflaws, barbers … and now water-buyers?
Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, says the ABC agents should be fired.
Yes. But when “law enforcement” thugs blatantly violate the rights of innocent persons they should be more than fired. They should be prosecuted. Let’s also shut down agencies that consistently threaten innocent people.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
7 replies on “Bottled-Water Buyers: Threat or Menace?”
You like freedom, America. That’s understandable. But you won’t handle it responsibly, so now it’s being taken away.
Maybe you’ll learn something, or maybe you won’t.
Sorry to spoil libertarians’ dream, but an ounce of virtue prevents a pound of tyranny.
I will alert ALL of my friends, neighbors and family to stay away from Virginia. Apparantly it has become a police state.
This is just ANOTHER reason why government needs to be cut in half tomorrow! Boy, they sure have been racking up reasons for the past 6 months at an incredible rate!
Honest Questions.
Does becoming a cop, make you a complete A‑hole?
Or … do only complete A‑Holes become cops?
Anyone who does not understand how many of the various “law enforcement” agents are terribly out of control is asleep.
To James
What in the world are you talking about. Freedom, Individual Liberty, Inalienable rights are not allowed us by government. Surely you know better.
Unalienable rights cannot be taken away, only abridged and violated.
Freedom, on the other hand, can be taken away.
The two often go hand in hand, in the form of tyranny. This is what Mr. Jacob writes about often. He rails against the tyranny, but can’t see that we’ve brought it upon ourselves.
“He who will not rule himself will be ruled by another.” Unlike our forefathers, Americans have proven ourselves incapable of governing ourselves. As a consequence, our rights are abridged and our freedom stripped away.
As Independence Day approaches, we’d be wise to examine the colonists to determine what made them worthy of independence.