Free Thought Project – by Claire Bernish
Habitual drinkers can be fined $2,500 and thrown in jail for a year if they so much as smell like alcohol. Even worse, they won’t necessarily know they’re on the state’s secretive drinking ‘black list.’
The state of Virginia maintains what is known as the Interdiction List — and because people can be added in absentia by a prosecutor in a civil, not criminal, proceeding, they aren’t given the chance to fight back. Once someone is added, the Daily Beast reported, “they’re forbidden to possess, purchase, or consume alcohol” — or be in the company of someone who does.
“This is unconstitutional,” said attorney Mary Frances Charlton of the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville to the Daily Beast. “It’s a civil court and yet a prosecutor can ask the local trial court to slap this label on an individual in the community. They don’t get a lawyer, they aren’t given the right to confront witnesses like they would in criminal court, and often they’re not even present.”
A class-action lawsuit has been brought by the Legal Aid Center against Roanoke and four other cities for the alleged employment of the “habitual drunkard” law to wipe the streets of indigent or houseless individuals.
“Once this label is slapped on them through civil proceedings,” Charlton added, “any possession of alcohol is punished by up to a year in jail.”
Someone caught with an open container would typically be cited and fined $250. But for people on the alcohol blacklist, the fine is an astronomical $2,500 and up to a year in jail for the Class 1 misdemeanor offense.
In just ten years, the State of Virginia has jailed over 4,700 of its 7,020 countable homeless populace — including 600 in Virginia Beach, alone. And the law has such broad application, sitting near an open container or simply “having a detectable odor of alcohol on or near their person” can land hefty penalties. “That means merely napping on a bench by a trashcan full of empties or taking cough medicine could be a crime,” noted the Daily Beast.
According to the lawsuit, the procedural process for deeming someone a habitual drunkard is surprisingly simple — and alarmingly secretive. A prosecutor appears before a judge and declares a person should be added — and that’s all it takes.
Removing oneself from the Interdicted List is…well…no one knows.
According to the lawsuit, “Virginia law provides no clear standards and procedures for removing the ‘habitual drunkard’ label under the Interdiction Statute…Thus, once interdicted, a person often carries the label of ‘habitual drunkard’ for life.”
Of course, the label isn’t only applied to the indigent or houseless — anyone can end up interdicted. Plea deals for even routine alcohol-related offenses often include the stipulation of interdiction. And the list doesn’t work. It hasn’t solved the homeless issue or given hope or help to those with addiction to alcohol.
The Interdiction law has been renewed numerous times, even in recent years, despite being called ‘ineffective’ by experts — it originally dates back to 1873.
Whatever the intent of the law might have been, its anachronistic criminalization of minor alcohol issues has given police almost carte blanche for harassing otherwise law-abiding citizens. Further, it criminalizes those who might be addicted instead of offering treatment or other aid.
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/alcohol-blacklist/#ZiBcEQfGTXht8D8t.99
“… they’re forbidden to possess, purchase, or consume alcohol” — or be in the company of someone who does.”
BY WHAT AUTHORITY???
“Someone caught with an open container would typically be cited and fined $250. But for people on the alcohol blacklist, the fine is an astronomical $2,500 and up to a year in jail for the Class 1 misdemeanor offense.”
Ultimately, it’s ALWAYS about mammon!
You gotta be kidding me.
Then quit selling alcohol and taxing it you rat bassturds.
Gotta generate revenue I guess.
Since there isn’t any decent jobs for tax revenue.
They’re going to start looking for credit or debit card swipes at bars now. Casinos hotel bars are going to just love that!
Were not free anymore people
I can go to a different country , walk around with a beer in my hand, get in a cab or bus , with a beer in my hand , go shopping in the market with a beer in my hand,, how do I know this? I do it every time Im there , and its no problem
I will be thrown in jail and fined for any of this in my own country
What country do you refer? Many more of these draconian laws and I may have to invade another country.
With the way things are going in this country, it might not be long before people start blasting pigs on sight for “habitual assholeness.”
Or loitering within site of a donut shop.
As a Ginny Boy born and raised I can testify from first-hand knowledge and experience that 1/3 to 2/3rds of the state will soon GO TO JAIL, they will not Pass Go and in addition they will loose their firearms if they only have one beer.
Come and take it … Sic semper tyrannis {Death to tyrants; Virginia Commonwealth motto} !!!
I’m the worst person to scare when I’m fkd up.
I loose thought perception and rationality.
Then flight or fight instincts take over.
Then I pull out my psychopath primal killer instinct.
Warning to all you agents and trolls.
Don’t scare me when I’m fked up.
I’ll kill you or die trying on adrenaline.
Virgina is a communist state always has been always will be. The feds told them they couldn’t outlaw radar detectors and they did anyway. When they need road work done they go out on Sat night and arrest as many young men as they can for the chain gang. Get out now while you can.