Back in the sixties a buddy of mine got stopped for weaving.
cop had him get out and up on the sidewalk to walk a straight line.
Picture a sidewalk with a building on one side.
Cop: I want you to walk a straight line.
My buddy: What do I do with my hands?
Cop: I don’t care, do what you want with them.
My buddy places both hands on the side of the building and still could not walk a straight line. The cop was laughing so hard he let him go.
Nowadays, I think the cop would just shoot him on the spot.
If the cop REALLY wants to be a hard ass you can be open container ticketed for having less than a 6 or 12 pack of beers cans or bottles, or even a single unopened beer can or bottle. Turns out the pack counts as a container.:rolleyes:
People used to say things like “good things I had a couple of drinks in me, otherwise I would have had an accident and/or the accident would have been worse.”
To my adult shame, I do remember getting drunk and seeing how many red lights I could run on the way home a couple of times when I was 16. It just wasn’t that big of a deal. Once I got pulled over by campus cops with a carfull of dorm mates who were drinking in the car (I prudently had not touched a drop) and a back full of booze. We were all 18 or 19 and definately underaged. Cops made the passengers pour out what was left of each person’s six pack. I got a fix-it ticket for a brake light problem that caused the stop.
I don’t know how many times in high school I was in a car that was pulled over when we were drinking in the car (in california where such activity was illegal) and had to pour whatever booze out as our penalty. There’s more even worse stuff.
it wasn’t a major issue in the late seventies/early eighties.
YMMV depending on location, but overall, not true.
Unless beer is only sold by the 6/12 pack, and not individually, I don’t see how that could stand up in court.“Your honor I purchased two beers to consume when I got home”
What are you talking about? An unopened beer, in any context, is an unopened beer. I have never heard such ridiculous logic before. So under this logic, one beer gone from a 24-pack would be an “open container”? What comedy.
No, I know that at least in Texas a 6 or 12 pack missing one or more cans or bottles is considered an open container.
In this old thread it is claimed that this is true in all states with open container laws:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-240968.html
Or at least police will write you a ticket for that in Texas, you can argue legal theories to the judge 
Can you give us an official cite to your claim?
I’m not saying it isn’t true, I just want to see a cite to your claim.
FYI, I’ve been a cop in Wisconsin for 30+ years now and it isn’t true here.
Apparently it hinges on the word receptable in the legislation.
Here is a long thread where someone claiming to be a cop in Texas says receptable means broken packs or boxes, but claims he only uses this charge as an add on.
I’m not a lawyer, however I have heard of people being charged with this in Texas. In fact if you google “Texas open container six pack” you’ll find discussions and questions.
Drinking and driving wasn’t always all giggles. I guy I knew in high school did not finish, because while a senior he ran into a car while driving drunk and killed two people. They tried him as an adult. I heard that years later, when he finally got out of prison, he did it again.
Canada has always had the “open liquor” law. One debate that came along with hatchbacks was how to transport an open bottle without a trunk to put it in. (The key is “inaaccessible to the driver”). The consensus - never heard it tested - was that it had to be in the corner farthest from the driver. And yes, the passenger was also liable to be charged with an offense if they were the one holding the liquor. This was the law even when the lax attitude to drunk driving in the 60s was still the situation.
(A famous NB court case had the two guys parked in the car with the key in the ignition. The cop saw the driver had a bottle of beer, asked the non-drinking passenger to pass it to him, then charged the passenger too for handling the bottle. That went all the way to the supreme court to be overturned, IIRC. )
When I was growing up, 60s, I recall that people who did say drunk driving was bad would point to Sweden, where you could actually go to jail for 6 months (!! Horrors!) for being found drunk behind the wheel. “Not like North America where we don’t seem to care…”
I remember talking to a much older guy from Switzerland who had moved to Canada, and he mentioned the european attitude to drunkedness in general was very different - more like it was pathetic, like someone who pissed their pants in public, rather that WC-Fields-hilarious. As a result, drunk was not some hijinks to be ignored.
I’ve been involved in criminal justice in Ohio for 20-some years and have never seen a ticket for this.
I can’t speak for the 50s or 60s, but by mid 70s Germany had REALLY cracked down on drunk driving.
When obtaining our licenses to drive (Hubster was US Army stationed in Germany), we were told that if the German police suspected anyone of driving drunk, the individual could be physically restrained and have blood drawn to ascertain BAC.
~VOW
BTW aside from the driving part, drinking to excess in general in that era was kind of winked at and funny. You know, three-martini lunches, Otis on Andy of Mayberry, comedian Foster Brooks, a hit comedy single called “Ajax Liquor Store”. You didn’t do interventions for alcoholics, you told them to “sleep it off” or poured them a cup of coffee or even poured them another drink just for the sheer entertainment value. Your party wasn’t a success unless you had at least one drunk.
Alcohol opened from the way it is sold is considered “open” under Canada law. I had a cop pull me over and check my passengers twelve pack. He turned it over to see if we were pulling from the bottom, so I told him “good idea, I never thought of that!”
After all, what’s the difference between someone chugging a six pack one at a time and throwing the empties out the window, or chugging from the Southern Comfort and then screwing the cap back on. In both cases you may or may not have consumed it in the vehicle, but the indication is you could have.
That’s because it’s nonsense and nobody has yet to supply an actual cite to a state law that proves it’s true.
Can we see a cite to this law? Canada is just strange enough to have one.
I remember a case where a driver, who had somehow ended upside down in a field beside the road, claimed that the alcohol content in his blood was because he had emptied a bottle of punsch (and believe me, Swedish punsch is a very sweet stuff that you just don’t gulp down) while hanging upside down in his safety belt, waiting for the rescue team to arrive. He also showed the court that he could do it, but for some reason his story was dismissed.
Can anyone explain to me why I, who don’t even drive, would not be allowed to drink a beer inside a car driven by someone else.
They are not trying to prevent passengers from drinking. They are trying to prevent the driver from drinking then handing to the passenger when they pass a cop.
Easily solved. Check the driver’s breath.
I’ve always wondered about this as well. It appears the pendulum has swung too far the other way. The last time I picked up a hitchhiker, I was nervous about the flask he took out of his backpack. I declined his offer of a slug, but still…