New Haven Independent

posted by: peter on February 8, 2010  4:52pm

why do we always fine the bars? Why don’t we arrest the patrons who always use fake id’s

posted by: WOWNewHaven on February 8, 2010  6:51pm

Arrest the lying cheating minors.
Revoke Toad’s license.
The current permitee has lost all credibility.

posted by: Danger on February 8, 2010  7:03pm

People are getting shot and mugged in my neighborhood on a regular basis. Drivers roar down my quiet neighborhood street at highway speeds. I can’t go outside after dark for fear of street crime.  And New Haven decides the best use of SEVENTEEN OFFICERS is to raid a bar so that 2 adults can be arrested for having a beer?! THAT is why this is an unlivable city.

posted by: nfjanette on February 9, 2010  12:02pm

Revoke Toad’s license.
The current permitee has lost all credibility.

No club the size of Toads will knowingly sell to minors - the small amount of profit from the sales is not worth the cost of even one legal incident.  The video recording will prove if they were carded.

posted by: ctjeepguy70 on February 9, 2010  12:21pm

its going to come down to a town versus gown thing
phelps comment wont help
though im guilty as having drank there before i was 21

posted by: Seth P. on February 9, 2010  12:32pm

Arrest Yalies?!  Who ever heard of such a thing?  Besides, Yalies are exempt from paying parking tickets in New Haven.

87 underage drinkers is a huge problem.  Two is hardly reason enough for anything more than the mandatory per infraction fine.  I agree with downtown being a 21 and over destination.  Toad’s is a concert venue, and the only one in the area.  Straighten up the Crown Street area, leave Toad’s alone (aside from the ococcasionalaid). 

Lawbreakers and people yielding phony identification should be disciplined as well.

posted by: William Kurtz on February 9, 2010  12:51pm

The problem of underage drinking can’t be solved by arresting people, as should have been obvious long ago.  There are too many interdependent factors, none of which, when addressed in isolation, are likely to have much impact.  Part of the problem begins with laws that consider people from 18-20 years old as “minors” when it comes to drinking when in all other aspects of their lives, they’re adults with all the attendant rights and responsibilities.  Another is the positively pathological relationship we have with alcohol in the U.S., where it’s fetishized and vilified by turns.  Another is (you guessed it) automobile-centered transportation policy that makes the problem of irresponsible drinking (underage or otherwise) a matter of concern even for people who would otherwise have no reason to even care. 

Maybe it’s also time to cut Toad’s a little slack, seeing as they’ve already been driven to their knees as it is.  Were the arrested individuals wearing wrist bands?  If so, it sounds like their fake IDs were good enough to fool the officers on the door, too.

posted by: Dot Khan on February 9, 2010  5:23pm

Raiding Toad’s is good publicity for the liquor commission. Toad’s large capacity means that there is bound to be more kids that slipped in with fake IDs. Imagine if they raided the Yale / Harvard game. 2 underage kids in a place holding 750 is not as bad as 2 in a small bar holding 50. The closing of Toad’s for underage kids a few years was the same week another club with a 300 capacity had about 125 violations.
Kids often show the club the fake but show their real one to the liquor agents and get a club in trouble. Its easier to go after the clubs instead of tightening use of fake IDs.

posted by: TopKnotch on February 9, 2010  6:10pm

Clubs in New Haven definitely would go out of business if such a policy is passed. Thousands of teens visit places such as Toads every year and yet that could all that be gone because of something as petty as teen drinking.

Besides, New Haven police officers have nothing better to do. Oh wait, they do! Muggings, shootings, robberies and the like are all rampant in this city, yet 17 officers like to raid a business just because two teenagers. For Christs sake there are children on hardcore drugs in this city with no supervision or direction in life but when two teens get caught drinking all hell breaks loose. The drinking age really should be lowered back to 18, I just don’t see why not.Then New Haven officers would actually have to grow a pair and fight the real crime in this city…

Really? All that for two kids?

posted by: The Professor on February 9, 2010  11:09pm

Dot Khan hit the nail on the head here.  The fact of the matter is that even if Toad’s has an ID scanner that correctly identifies 95% of fake IDs, and only 14 kids show up with fakes, there’s a better-than-even chance (51.3% to be precise) that at least one of them will get through.  How many kids do we think showed up with fakes that night?

Two underage people drinking in a bar that serves hundreds of patrons each night is, frankly, almost a statistical certainty.  It doesn’t mean that the club is doing anything wrong.  Maybe if there were 20 kids, we should be concerned, but by all appearances it looks like Toad’s is playing by the rules and shouldn’t be punished.

posted by: SAM on February 12, 2010  2:55am

FAKE ID DETECTOR WE HAVE THEM