Good thing that LaCrosse is beginning to face up to its college student binge drinking problem with a first-ever ordinance against public intoxication: Spring is coming and that is the sad time in that Mississippi River town when very drunk and disoriented college students tend to end up drowned in the river after bar closing time.
I wrote a piece nearly three years ago for The Capital Times about what I think is the bigger picture, both for LaCrosse and across the state. Here it is.
While I agree that there is a problem with drinking in LaCrosse, this public intoxication ordinance was not the way to go about it in the least. Under this ordinance, I can be walking down the street, completely sober, without a drop of alcohol in my system: and receive a drinking ticket if a police officer decides that I "must be drinking". Nevermind the fact that if students know that they will probably get a drinking ticket if they walk home from a party; what is the motivation to not drive while intoxicated? On that note, what will prompt any resident of LaCrosse, no matter what age, to walk instead of drive while drunk? This ordinance isn't effective, it's destructive of human civil rights, and dangerously reckless with the lives of LaCrosse's citizens.
ReplyDelete--A Resident of LaCrosse, a citizen with rights, a human being