# Drunken Disorderly versus Public Intoxication **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 30, 2014, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573 "2014-12-30T22:26:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573/21 "2014-12-31T00:23:29Z")
> [@Canadjun](#): > > Goes along with **driving wrecklessly** and with undue care and attention. Wouldn’t driving wrecklessly be, in general, a good thing? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Grotonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c2a13f/32.png) [@Grotonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grotonian)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573/22 "2014-12-31T00:26:06Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Bars are public places, and are often full with intoxicated people. I have a hard time believing simply being drunk in public is a crime. And, if a crime, I have an even harder time believing any police officer would arrest you for it unless you’re 1) causing other problems, or 2) homeless. I agree with you completely and your logic is unimpeachable. Which raises the question: why are the “Drunken Disorderly” (or for those who obsessively prefer, “Drunk AND Disorderly”) laws classed as “Public Intoxication” laws? Perhaps I should have posted this elsewhere under “Obvious Things I Just Realized”. I know one thing that added to my confusion is that our local paper publishes arrests and sentences and I know that people get sentenced to fines and sometimes jail for “Public Intoxication.” I am now convinced, however, that that only occurs after more serious charges have been pled down. Or when coupled with another charge. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573/23 "2014-12-31T00:28:32Z")
> [@chiroptera](#): > > Wouldn’t driving wrecklessly be, in general, a good thing? > 😃 Yup. That would be a very good thing. As would driving with undue care and attention (rather than without due care and attention). No harm in having more care and attention than is necessary! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573/24 "2014-12-31T00:29:16Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > For all intensive purposes, they’re the same thing. In fact, they’re one in the same. ---
**Author:** ![Grotonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c2a13f/32.png) [@Grotonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grotonian)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573/25 "2014-12-31T00:34:03Z")
> [@chiroptera](#): > > I’m also in Michigan. > A friend’s college-age son was neither drunk nor disorderly, but he was drinking beer in public and got charged under this part of the bill only (or a similar one in a different MI city, I think Grand Rapids.) He was not in a bar, but on a sidewalk outside of one with a bottle of beer. > > It went to court and the kid got some sort of fine or plea bargain. Right, but I think that’s what we call in Michigan, “Open Intox.” The kid’s problem was drinking in public (i.e. on public property), not being drunk in public. It’s also illegal for me to have an open can of beer in my car, but an unopened one is fine. ---
**Author:** ![Grotonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c2a13f/32.png) [@Grotonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grotonian)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573/26 "2014-12-31T00:39:14Z")
[quote=“thelurkinghorror, post:18, topic:708573”] For all intensive purposes, they’re the same thing. I saw what you did there. Intensive indeed! ---
**Author:** ![Grotonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c2a13f/32.png) [@Grotonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grotonian)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573/27 "2014-12-31T00:40:27Z")
> [@Shmendrik](#): > > In fact, they’re one in the same. I saw that, too. ---
**Author:** ![SeldomSeen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@SeldomSeen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeldomSeen)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573/28 "2014-12-31T01:01:38Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I believe the phrase is “Drunk _and_ Disorderly”. > [@](#): > > No, the charge is “Drunken Disorderly” > [@](#): > > Google search for “drunken disorderly” returns “drunk and disorderly.” > [@](#): > > Maybe Drunken Disorderly is a Michigan thing, Etc, etc. Don’t know what the law calls it, but I am _so_ claiming **DrunkenDisorderly** as my alternative handle, should I ever get tired of **SeldomSeen** Loves me some alliteration, I do. SS ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573/29 "2014-12-31T01:06:56Z")
> [@Grotonian](#): > > Right, but I think that’s what we call in Michigan, “Open Intox.” The kid’s problem was drinking in public (i.e. on public property), not being drunk in public. It’s also illegal for me to have an open can of beer in my car, but an unopened one is fine. Ah, you could well be right. I thought it might be a puritanical wrinkle in the law. I’d have to talk to my friend for details. I thought she said it was a more serious infraction but she can get a little overwrought about this sort of thing. > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > For all intensive purposes, they’re the same thing. > \ Intents and purposes. Not “intensive purposes.” /nit pick. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573/30 "2014-12-31T01:53:43Z")
I had a friend in Michigan get pinched for drunken disorderly. He was drinking in a park with his friends after one of them won big in a poker game - that dude was a card shark. Irregardless, when the Rollos came up in him, they all went on the lamb but fell while trying to jump over a bob wire fence. So he got coughed and stuffed, and while on the way to the who’s cow, he complained that his buddies left him behind. The cop told him that’s how you tell your friends in this doggy dog world. Turns out the whole episode was a blessing in the skies, because he went to Alcoholics Eponymous soon after, got cleaned up, and the judge took pity on him and made the whole criminal case mute. ---
**Author:** ![I.Dunno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9f8e36/32.png) [@I.Dunno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I.Dunno)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573/31 "2014-12-31T01:55:25Z")
> [@Shmendrik](#): > > In fact, they’re one in the same. This is the interwebs. That should read “their one in the same.”😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573/32 "2014-12-31T02:07:11Z")
> [@Shmendrik](#): > > In fact, they’re one in the same. Well, _supposively_ they are…:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573/33 "2014-12-31T02:13:10Z")
> [@I.Dunno](#): > > This is the interwebs. That should read “their one in the same.”😃 Whoosh, right? You intended that misspelling, right? ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573/34 "2014-12-31T02:14:56Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > I had a friend in Michigan get pinched for drunken disorderly. He was drinking in a park with his friends after one of them won big in a poker game - that dude was a card shark. Irregardless, when the Rollos came up in him, they all went on the lamb but fell while trying to jump over a bob wire fence. So he got coughed and stuffed, and while on the way to the who’s cow, he complained that his buddies left him behind. The cop told him that’s how you tell your friends in this doggy dog world. Turns out the whole episode was a blessing in the skies, because he went to Alcoholics Eponymous soon after, got cleaned up, and the judge took pity on him and made the whole criminal case mute. 😃 OK, I am slow on the uptake sometimes. Well played. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573/35 "2014-12-31T02:21:49Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > For all intensive purposes, they’re the same thing. The charge is trouble, irregardless. ---
**Author:** ![Grotonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c2a13f/32.png) [@Grotonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grotonian)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573/36 "2014-12-31T03:07:32Z")
> [@Shmendrik](#): > > In fact, they’re one in the same. Everyone understands that this is an eggcorn, right? Because if the expression really were, “One in the same,” and not, “One and the same,” What the hell would that possibly mean? ---
**Author:** ![Grotonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c2a13f/32.png) [@Grotonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grotonian)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573/37 "2014-12-31T03:15:55Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > I had a friend in Michigan get pinched for drunken disorderly. He was drinking in a park with his friends after one of them won big in a poker game - that dude was a card shark. Irregardless, when the Rollos came up in him, they all went on the lamb but fell while trying to jump over a bob wire fence. So he got coughed and stuffed, and while on the way to the who’s cow, he complained that his buddies left him behind. The cop told him that’s how you tell your friends in this doggy dog world. Turns out the whole episode was a blessing in the skies, because he went to Alcoholics Eponymous soon after, got cleaned up, and the judge took pity on him and made the whole criminal case mute. And this, this is just mind-bottling. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573/38 "2014-12-31T03:27:57Z")
> [@Grotonian](#): > > . . .Which raises the question: why are the “Drunken Disorderly” . . . laws classed as “Public Intoxication” laws? . . . I know one thing that added to my confusion is that our local paper publishes arrests and sentences and I know that people get sentenced to fines and sometimes jail for “Public Intoxication”. . . Well, you should distinguish between the “lay terminology” and the actual statute that people get charged with. The media will use that kind of language because usage, tradition, and social norms have come to imply that some kind of disorderly conduct is involved, (and also I think to imply that the behavior is worse and worthy of a citation because alcohol was involved). In the same way, I don’t think there is any law that is literally titled “drunk driving,” or even “driving under the influence.” If you look at DUI statutes, they always include the blood alcohol content connected to vehicle operation in the wording of the law itself, and that measurement of BAC is almost always necessary for a conviction. If a state or city wants to make simply being “intoxicated” in public illegal, it has to define how much BAC constitutes “intoxication” or “drunkenness.” But how can the cops just go up to someone who is, say, sitting on a park bench reading a newspaper and acting perfectly normal, and demand a breathylizer test? They have to have some kind of behavior (or an open container present) to justify that kind of serach. And in any case, if a person is drunk enough, in a way they can’t be orderly no matter how hard they try–they can’t walk straight, they fall down, etc. Even if a person is not bothering anyone, I believe there are laws which allow the police to take someone into custody at least for their own protection, _if that person is perceptibly incapacitated_. In such cases, though, they usually don’t get charged with anything. So I think it’s going to be hard to find a case of a person who in every way is acting totally normal and then getting busted solely for “public intoxication” in the strict sense of the word. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573/39 "2014-12-31T03:45:36Z")
> [@Grotonian](#): > > Everyone understands that this is an eggcorn, right? Because if the expression really were, “One in the same,” and not, “One and the same,” What the hell would that possibly mean? Exactly the same as drunken disorderly. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573/40 "2014-12-31T03:53:48Z")
> [@Grotonian](#): > > I’ve always assumed citations or arrests for “Drunken Disorderly” and “Public Intoxication” were pretty self-explanatory, but I talked to a cop buddy not long ago and he told me they’re essentially the same. That is, no one gets cited for Public Intox without ALSO being some kind of a problem. Being completely drunk in public is not enough to trigger a public intox arrest, or even sustain one. Does anyone know if this is true, that being drunk in public is fine as long as you don’t appear to be a danger to yourself or bothering others? > [@Grotonian](#): > > No, the charge is “Drunken Disorderly” as opposed to just “Disorderly Conduct.” > [@Grotonian](#): > > Maybe Drunken Disorderly is a Michigan thing, it’s not my question anyway. Can you get arrested for public drunkenness? I always assumed you could, at least in Michigan, but I now think you also have to be some kind of a nuisance. Anyone ever been arrested or know of anyone having been arrested or ticketed for public drunkenness? [quote=“Grotonian, post:26, topic:708573”] > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > For all intensive purposes, they’re the same thing. > > I saw what you did there. Intensive indeed! > [@Grotonian](#): > > Everyone understands that this is an eggcorn, right? Because if the expression really were, “One in the same,” and not, “One and the same,” What the hell would that possibly mean? > [@Grotonian](#): > > And this, this is just mind-bottling. You know what an eggcorn is, but persist with the stupidity of your OP _shtik_. Moving this to another forum. Pretty close to trolling. **samclem** , moderator [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunken-disorderly-versus-public-intoxication/708573.md?page=3)