Bullshit. Complete utter bullshit. Is the TABC caught in some time vortex from the 1980s? It's 2009 and people all around the world heard about the shit they perpetrated the very next day, and nobody's going to forget what dicks they were. They're going to get sued, and they're going to lose.

Let's get past the hype and hysteria and consider the facts. 1. TABC was created in 1935 (same as DPS) and functions primarily as a state LAW ENFORCEMENT agency. 2. Law enforcement agencies do not make law. The legislature does that, so if you don't like a certain law, take the issue to the ones who wrote it. 3. Many law enforcement officers, TABC agents included, do not like some of the laws they are required to enforce and would change them if they could, but it's not their call, 4. TABC is attempting to return to it's original mandate which was and still is to function as a small but elite criminal law enforcement agency whose primary mission is to combat organized crime having a nexus to locations licensed to sell or serve alcoholic beverages. That is a broad mandate and it includes offenses like human trafficking, money laundering, drug trafficking, prostitution, gambling, subterfuge ownerships, commercial bribery, etc. It's mandate also requires it to provide assistance to local law enforcement agencies which are also required by law to enforce the alcoholic beverage code. 5. The arrests and injuries are directly attributable to the actions and intoxicated conditions of those who were arrested. The policy violations for which the agents were fired were not causitive factors. 6. Perhaps the officers should have been more cognizant of the significance of the date (doesn't mean they had no right to be there just that they should have been aware and taken it into consideration). That said, another question arises: Might there have been a significant number of persons present that night who harbored latent animosities toward the police and were predisposed to creating an incident? After all, there were other locations inspected and other arrests made that night. If this incident is to be objectively analyzed, let's consider ALL of the possible factors. 7. No agency of government should be permitted to "investigate itself". Even if it is done fairly and with transparency there will always be some suspicion that the agency was covering it's backside. 8. The actions taken against the TABC agents who were ASSISTING FWPD are far more severe than the disciplinary actions taken against any of the other officers involved. 8. Most state employees believe it is long past time for the state to create a civil service style commission whose purpose would be to provide "outside" oversight and review to ensure that state agencies hire, promote and discipline their employees fairly and consistently within the parameters of a LAW that cannot be changed or manipulated by any agency director. That would require legislative action, but it would also serve to reduce the frequency of these types of incidents and ensure full, fair, public and uncompromising investigations when they do occur. Incidently, in case anyone is wondering; yes, I am a TABC agent. Those who know me can attest that I am neither racist, sexist, nor homophobic. I was "out front" for equal rights in state employment when it was neither popular nor in the best interest of my career. I do believe that everyone, the police and the public, should stand equal before the law. No "protected classes", no "free passes".

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