Originally Posted by MSNBC Cops bust teens' root-beer kegger Dozens of high schoolers forced to take breath tests WAUSAU, Wis. - Cars lining the street. A house full of young people. A keg and drinking games inside. Police thought they had an underage boozing party on their hands. But though they made dozens of teens take breath tests, none tested positive for alcohol. That's because the keg contained root beer. The party was held by a high school student who wanted to show that teens don't always drink alcohol at their parties. It has gained fame on YouTube.com. Dustin Zebro, 18, said he staged the party after friends at D.C. Everest High School got suspended from sports because of pictures showing them drinking from red cups. The root-beer kegger was "to kind of make fun of the school," he said. "They assumed there was beer in the cups. We just wanted to have some root beer in red cups and just make it look like a party, but there actually wasn't any alcohol." Zebro purchased a quarter-barrel of 1919 Classic American Draft Root Beer, and by 10 p.m. Saturday, the scene outside his rural Wausau home had all the makings of a teen drinking party cars, noise and kids. Kronenwetter Police Chief Daniel Joling said an officer was dispatched to the home March 1 on a complaint of cars blocking the road. Juveniles began coming out of the house after the officer used his squad car's loudspeaker to warn that cars would soon be towed, Officer Jason Rasmussen wrote in his report. Nearly 90 breath tests were done, and officers even searched locked rooms for hiding teens. "It was a tremendous waste of time and manpower, but we still had a job to do, and our officers did it," Joling said. "If one kid had come there, even hadn't drank there, but had come there and had been drinking and had left and crashed and burned, then what would the sentiment be? Why didn't the police check everybody out?" School Superintendent Kris Gilmore did not immediately return a message Friday. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________- made me laugh
Not just dozens....90 kids!!! Talk about cops having absolutely nothing better to do. I read about that last week. Great story. I say kudos to the kid who had the idea to have this party. I'm trying to think, but I'd imagine I'd have just as much fun at this party, as the ones I went to with alcohol.
Smart kid, I'll give him credit for coming up with it. If they were as smart as it appears they all were, if a kid came drunk, it seems like they would have gotten him home safely. And if he did cause any accidents, you can't blame anyone at the party since they didn't give out any alcohol.
At first I agreed and laughed, but seriously, the Chief was right - they didn't know that nobody was drinking, so even if ONE kid was drunk, and had an accident, it would be bad. Yes, they had a job to do. What do you do if you are a Policeman in that situation ? Come on now, be serious...
i would have had a cold red cup of draft root beer and told the kids to have fun, left and looked for some real criminals.
So, you wouldn't have checked any of the kids at despite that 1 person might have actually brought alcohol with him/her to the other kid's party?
I'll be in the minority and side with the cops to a degree, so long as they were respectful. Given the parties I've seen and what this must have looked like - they likely had probable cause.
haha stupid cops. i was in wisconsin once and was in the same situation when i was 18 at my x gf's prom party. unfortuneatly we were drinking real beer and even worse i only got to drink about 5 and still wasnt having the best time before because most of her friends were ******bags. i got a 300 dollar ticket haha. so it was good that they checked everyone.
Yeah, until they DON'T do the checks and someone runs into YOU or someone you know or love and kills them, then I guaran-frickin-tee you that you or your family will be suing the police department for not doing their job. Why is it nobody likes the Police UNTIL THEY NEED THEM ?
I think what gets missed a lot is that (at least from my experience) teens may drink, but the ones who are drunk generally arent the ones driving. There always are a bunch of dd's or kids who choose not to drink that are willing to take someone else home to keep everyone safe.
Maybe because when you need them they are too busy writing traffic tickets to actually catch real criminals?
I respectfully disagree. Being in high school it is plain SCARY how many times a week that I hear someone was driving drunk. I myself don't drink BTW.
You mean the guys that come after a crime has been committed, make a report and ask if I have insurance? Be it medical, Property or auto? Then they go back to doing nothing? Call a cop, order a pizza and schedule a UPS pickup. Let us know which ones show up first.
A bit of comparing apples to oranges I'd say. I have a better idea: Call the Pizza place, order a pizza, and tell them someone is shooting at you. Call UPS, order a pickup, and also tell them someone is shooting at you. Same the the Police. Let me know who shows up first.
Nice. I get put against these comments all the time. People who complain that I have better things to do than write someone for a speeding ticket or pull someone over for a headlight out and give them a warning, which most cases they're not even aware that the light is out. A lot of the "criminals" don't worry about the small things on their vehicles in my experience, in fact, one of them had 2 pounds of marijuana in his truck when his headlight was out. Another had a car full of flat screen monitors and car stereos. I'm fortunate enough to work for a small town agency with an excellent response time and proactive approach to law enforcement. I don't like waiting for calls, I like initiating them based off my efforts. I like the point that these kids made with their party. Showing that these kids can have a good time without alcohol. As for the officers breath testing everyone....Kind of mixed emotions. It doesn't take long when arriving to a party to determine if alcohol is/has been present. It wasn't past curfew(not according to where I live standards) and seemed that all they really had off the call was parking violations. See the keg, check it out. But then part of me too would worry about the liability of a random teen/person there being drunk and getting hurt later after I made contact with them. But, if I have a supervisor tell me to do something, I'll do it. Vicarious liability, right. Hard to say since I wasn't in the officer's shoes. Last kegger I went to was for a noise complaint. 45+ people in a 1000 square foot apartment. At the beginning of spring break, go figure. I simply confirmed their ages, all over 21, and requested the noise to be lowered. No problem, not a single call back. But, it did take some time to ID everyone, lol.
Typical rationale: "we catch criminals by pulling over speeders" How about actually looking for criminals? Not that hard, there are hundreds of outstanding warrants in your jurisdiction and all you have to do is go pick them up, so WHY DON'T YOU? Because there is no profit in that, and you are busy sitting on the side of the road making a profit.
There's a huge difference between following-up with a legitimate complaint vs. seeing a group of young people and blindingly assuming "somebody must be doing something illegal here" - last time I heard, people have the right to peaceful assembly. That does not imply YOU have the right to get nervous and frisk everyone. Also, unless I'm not mistaken, drinking root beer is perfectly legal, even in a GROUP setting - again, this does NOT give Law Enforcement the 'right' to get nervous and treat everyone like a suspect - seems to me, everyone at the party under 21 is treated as 'Guilty until the breathalyzer proves you innocent'....nice. I guess it really is YOU against US, huh? Too bad nobody at the party had adequate legal representation that could re-educate you regarding the law.
You obviously didn't comprehend what I wrote. I do take a proactive approach in seeking out criminals such as burglaries in progress. I'm not a huge fan of running traffic. I don't sit on the side of the road waiting for speeders. As for warrants, most of ours are Class C warrants(traffic violations). I come across them from time to time through field contacts. Don't think that everyone keeps the same address as the one listed on their warrant, although that would be great if it was the case. There is a department specifically assigned to focus on warrants. Any and every city can spend 24 hours a day hunting warrants and picking people up, but then there would be calls unanswered. Just look at how many people don't show up to court on a daily basis. I don't know what the profit is that you're referring to either. Please elaborate on that. Or is it going towards the usual comment of, "meeting the quota." lol
Re-read my comment, I was even agreeing that the above situation was overkill, I apologize if it didn't read that way as I typed. I can't say exactly how I would have responded as I wasn't there. But I do know how I responded to the situation I was in, which worked out well for both parties. It should have been obvious at that party that there wasn't alcohol. But I guess it wasn't to the officer or supervisor in charge.
