The
Party
POLICE

By Dennis Kaiser
DANA POINT NEWS

The flier promised fast times for high school students. Beer and band and Tequila shooters for four bucks! Such a deal. And, according to Lt. Paul Ratchford, chief of Dana Point police services, such a bad idea. Ratchford, who is proud to be a party pooper when it involves underage drinking, said the flier is a sign that spring is here. "We get a lot of these starting this time of year," Ratchford said. "This one was for an alternative party on prom night, so a kid who didn't want to spend money on a girlfriend to take her to the prom or who wanted to drink could go to this."

Ratchford said the flier, advertising a party in a Dana Point home, went to 11 area high schools. The surprising thing, he said, is that the party and ones like it are usually condoned by the parents of the children staging the event. He said the parents get the wrong idea that it is okay to allow drinking in their homes by under-age youths (21 years old is the legal drinking age in California).

What the parents don't realize is that not only is it not legal for them to allow children to drink on their property, charging money for an event which promises beer and Tequila violates liquor license laws. On prom night, minutes before the party was scheduled to get underway, deputies arrived at the location and told the homeowners that what they intended to do was illegal. "We shut the party down before it even got started," Ratchford boasted. "The parents were very cooperative. They didn't even realize they were violating the law."

Ratchford said he expects there to be more fliers and attempts to hold similar parties at the homes of unwitting parents. He said the police will probably intercept the fliers. "The way we find out about most of these events is that some responsible young person will bring it to our attention." Ratchford said. "When we hear about it, we'll shut it down."

SOURCE: Reprinted from the 4 June, 1998, issue of the Dana Point News, owned by the Orange County Register. Reprinted in the public interest.
(DANA POINT ON-LINE EDITOR: Is Dennis Kaiser a drop-out from the police academy? Kaiser gives the police a free ride, never questioning the underlying iron-fist being waved in front of the general public. If there was ever evidence that we live under a police state, it is contained in articles like this one. It is ludicrous to imagine that uniformed police -- who are each paid approximately $45,000 per year in salaries and benefits -- are spending valuable law enforcement resources surveilling teenagers in order to shut down their parties. Underage drinking is a problem that must be addressed socially, but the idea that police are serving the public by encouraging people to report each other to the police undermines the very fabric of the community.

Additionally, the police exposed their real attitude of hostility towards the community through these actions by waiting until the time that the party was to take place to act, instead of contacting the family at the time the flier came to their attention. The police were determined to catch the family in the act of the crime, instead of attempting to settle the issue in advance. It gave the family no alternative plan, so that it really only made it impossible for the party to take place, even if no alcohol was served at all. If the police were really a friendly complement to our community, they would not have waited until the party was about to begin before showing up to inform the family of the legal status of their intentions. Every policeman surveilling teenagers' parties is one more law enforcement resource not committed to the real job of finding and prosecuting serious law-breakers, like murderers, rapists, and thieves.)


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