It appears that turning 21 isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Many college students spend their 21st birthday wallowing in a medley of alcoholic beverages. It’s a sort of Rite of Passage. You may not want to drink and you may not like to drink. You may never drink again. But, like voting when you turn 18, it’s something people do because they can. Or they could.
Plucker’s, a small restaurant on Greenville Ave., has made a store policy not to serve alcohol to customers that do not furnish a valid Texas identification card or driver’s license. No matter how old you are, and what you have to prove it, if none of it features the Lone Star, it’s all invalid. While this is their right as an independent establishment, it infringes on its primary patron.
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code states that “a person who sells a minor an alcoholic beverage does not commit an offense if the minor falsely represents himself to be 21 years old or older by displaying an apparently valid Texas driver’s license or an identification card issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety, containing a physical description consistent with his appearance for the purpose of inducing the person to sell him an alcoholic beverage.”
Basically, if the I.D. is an invalid Texas replicate, then the restaurant or server is not in any way responsible. If the I.D. is from a different state and proves to be invalid, the TABC must show that there is criminal negligence on behalf of the restaurant and/or its employees.
An invalid out-of-state I.D. that could even partially pass for the individual attempting to purchase alcohol proves that the criminal intent is on behalf of the patron and not the seller, making for an impossible conviction of the establishment.
It’s Plucker’s call, but logic tells us it’s a bad one. If a minor furnishes identification that is not valid, it’s their responsibility and their criminal act. If an establishment doesn’t trust its servers and employees enough not to mistake a Highland Park Scot for a 25-year-old law student then maybe it should examine its hiring practices as opposed to its serving policies.
Even in Dallas, an ever-growing and diversifying metropolis, everything on and between Hillcrest and Greenville is college town. From Northwest Highway to Mockingbird is our own little College Station where college students fuel much of the economy and the personality of the area. When so many of the students from a private institution are from other states, not taking their I.D.s is not only an unwelcome mat, but it can ultimately hurt your business. While many SMU students are from Texas, they surely have a friend who isn’t. All of them are 21 and all of them would like to have a cold one after taking the hardest midterm their professor could amass. When it comes time to choose the place, the five Texans will go where the lone Oklahoman can order a brew – which won’t be Plucker’s.
As of midnight on their 21st birthday, anyone should be allowed to drink anything anywhere. The restaurant is not refusing service to shirtless trailer rats or rowdy drunkards. They are discriminating against all persons who do not hail from this vast and welcoming state. It doesn’t come off as Texas Pride, but as an injustice and rude gesture to visitors and new residents. They’re trying to cover their bottoms when there is a relatively small chance of the business being found responsible. In a time when patriotism and unity are as important as ever, it seems that not standing up for the rights of your 22-year-old out-of-state brother is a disservice to democracy. Not serving non-Texans is downright un-American.
