Virginia Has Been Putting 'Habitual Drunkards' on a Shady Blacklist and Targeting Them

[Liberal_in_LA]

Virginia Has Been Putting 'Habitual Drunkards' on a Shady Blacklist and Targeting Them
A questionably legal program unfairly targets poor residents, sweeping them off the street and into jail.

Virginia cops and prosecutors in four counties are using a bizarre legal code to secretly blacklist and outright ban residents deemed “habitual drunkards” from purchasing alcohol, a Daily Beast report on a class-action lawsuit filed by the Legal Aid Justice Center claims. The penalties can range from huge fines to jail time.

By prohibiting “habitual drunkards” from buying, consuming, or being near alcohol, the blacklist—which appears to target homeless people—sweeps poor residents, many of them with alcohol problems, off the streets and into jails where no one has to look at them. Cops are reportedly making arrests over the mere scent of booze, without even using a breathalyzer to detect consumption. These “drunkards,” the Daily Beast says, “can’t even go into 7-Eleven without suspicion.”
The law reportedly targets the most vulnerable, impoverished members of the community, putting them behind bars and also hitting them with hefty fines. The punishment for “habitual drunkards”—the majority of whom are homeless— is more severe than for unlisted folks committing alcohol-related crimes:

When most Virginians are caught with an open container, they’re given a citation and a $250 fine. But when [a] person on the interdicted list is caught with a brown bag of hooch, the fine leaps up to $2,500 and [they] can be jailed for up to one year for committing a Class 1 misdemeanor.

More than 600 people have been jailed under the statute in Virginia Beach since 2007 and at least 140 have been in Roanoke so far.

If the law sounds antiquated, that’s because it’s from 1867.

Virginia’s Legal Aid Center also says it’s unconstitutional, since the homeless people primarily impacted by it have no legal representation to protect them from a practice that does not even have clear procedural guidelines.
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/virginia-has-been-putting-habitual-drunkards-shady-blacklist-and-targeting-them

[elleng]

1. They should take it up with dear governor mc auliffe.

[Baobab]

5. I would suport this only if they were DRUNK DRIVING.

I could see how racial profiling or - lots of things could be used to abuse this. But frankly, as somebody who has had friends who are alcoholics, smart people who basically ruined their lives, I can see both sides of this. I do tend to think its some kind of neurological - i.e. medical issue.

Also, the body has natural systems that usually self-regulate but toxicants in our environment - of which there are quite a few, can dysregulate those systems and it is quite conceivable that in some situations, people who drink may be 'self medicating' for some underlying medical reason.

But damn, people driving drunk needs to be prevented MORE.

[elleng]

6. Alcoholism is inherited; it's certainly a 'medical' issue.

I've had family members subject to this awful disability. Some handle it better than others.

Drunk driving should be vigorously prohibited.

[SheilaT]

2. I lived in Virginia in the 1970s,

and back then we had the ABC stores: Alcohol Beverage Control stores -- I hope I have the name right. They were actually pretty small. You'd walk in, there was a counter with a person or two behind it, and several signs telling you who could NOT by alcohol. Basically, the more you needed the more you were SOL.

Come to think of it, right around the time I moved there they were transitioning from essentially Prohibition to a normal state. They were in the process of transitioning from a "club" system, where you were a member and kept a bottle of whatever there, purchased mixers, and so could drink.

What I've learned in the years since is that each and every state has bizarre liquor laws, but currently I live in a state (NM) where it's reasonably easy to buy alcohol.

However, because of any number of very high profile drunk driving incidents, many bars cut you off after three drinks. Even if you are not going to be driving. In addition, some stores card everyone, even when the gray hair and the wrinkles (I'm talking myself now) make it incredibly obvious that the purchaser is well over 21.

[angstlessk]

3. You are correct about the ABC stores.

If I get carded at this late stage in my life, my answer is, "I sure am glad I didn't look like this before I was 21"

[FSogol]

7. We still have ABC stores. Only beer and wine can be purchased outside of State-owned stores. n/t

[awoke_in_2003]

4. Note to self:

Don't move to Virginia. They'll have my number in no time.