ABC Officers Are Failing To Make A Convincing Case For Themselves
By now, you've seen the photos and video of a bloodied University of Virginia student, Martese Johnson, being handcuffed on a Charlottesville sidewalk. You probably know the 20-year-old student was arrested shortly after midnight Wednesday when he allegedly tried to enter an Irish bar but was turned away.
A college kid who perhaps wanted a drink on St. Paddy's Day. The horror.
You also know by now that the guys with their knees in Johnson's back weren't really cops at all. They were ABC agents. Sworn officers, but not part of the local police force. They charged Johnson with public intoxication and obstruction of justice.
Oh, Johnson is black. The agents were white.
Still, before we go all Ferguson on the case, let's remember that we weren't there. We don't know what transpired before the cellphone cameras came out. It's easy to jump to conclusions when all you have are images of an ugly arrest.
Fact is, most arrests are ugly.
To his credit, Gov. Terry McAuliffe called immediately for a state police investigation into Johnson's case, diffusing some of the student anger over the arrest. Eventually, we should know what went down that left a member of U.Va'.s prestigious Honor Committee on the sidewalk with a head injury.
In the meantime, let's ask a bigger question: Why does Virginia arm Alcoholic Beverage Control agents and turn them loose to enforce alcohol laws?
Really, what's so special about booze? What makes underage drinking, nip joints and moonshining so serious that we need a special constabulary just for those offenses?
When you consider the full spectrum of criminal activities, beginning with murder and ending with parking tickets, underage drinking is way down the list. Above jaywalking, but not much else.
If Virginians seem quick to criticize these Charlottesville ABC agents, they have their reasons. Two years ago, in a story that got national attention, an ABC goon squad in that same city treated a U.Va. sorority girl on a sparkling-water run like one of the FBI's 10 Most Wanted.
Plainclothes agents surrounded her SUV in a supermarket parking lot and ordered her and two passengers out of the car. When the girls hesitated, one agent leapt onto the hood of her car, another drew a gun and another attempted to break out a car window with a flashlight.
Panicked, 20-year-old Elizabeth Daly drove to a nearby intersection, while one of her friends dialed 911.
On her way out of the lot, Daly brushed a couple of these ABC blockheads with her car. She was charged with assaulting the agents and spent the night in jail.
The charges against Daly were dropped, and Virginia taxpayers settled a lawsuit with the traumatized young woman for $212,500.
We got off easy that time.
During the Daly case, many questioned the training and judgment of ABC agents.
It may be time to question their very existence. Or at least giving these officers the authority to make arrests.
State and local police and sheriff's departments enforce the commonwealth's laws. All of them. Surely these professionals are capable of prioritizing criminal activity in their jurisdictions and assigning officers accordingly.
Yet Virginia maintains a special branch of law enforcement with 130 agents with nothing better to do than look for alcoholic beverage violations. Frankly, if the ABC has the manpower to assign seven agents to stake out a Harris Teeter parking lot - as they did on the night of Ms. Daly's arrest in 2013 - they don't have enough to do.
According to a spokesperson, most of ABC law enforcement time is spent on "regulatory compliance." Yet about 30 percent of agents' time is spent on underage drinking and citizen complaints.
Surely underage drinking could be left to local cops. Come to think of it, so could moonshining.