Why must they feel compelled to hide their can/bottle of booze from the world with a discreet brown paper bag that immediatly reveals the drink they’re tring to hide? Why don’t they just fill a soda can with beer instead? Does anyone have a theory as to who they’re tring to fool, why they’re trying to fool them, or any elaborate ideas of how to better conceal their drink?
I think it’s so the cops leave them alone (not that the cops are fooled).
I always thought they just didn’t bother to take the bottle out of the bag. When you go to a liquor store, they often put a single bottle of alcohol in a bag that is just big enough to hold it.
The brown bag absorbs the condensation and keeps your hands from getting wet and slippery. That way, when another drunk tries to steal your booze, you’ve got a good grip on the thing.
I don’t know if there is any truth to this but I was told it was to protect them from the cops; even though the cops know you got booze in the bag they can’t actually look to see whats inside with out probable cause. And since drinking in public’s illegal in most places (u.s. anyway) its somewhat of a loophole they use.
But yeah, they’s aint fool’n me no howz either!
I’ve never seen anyone carrying alcohol in a brown paper bag over here in England, even though it IS illegal to drink outside in public. I’ve done it myself, (even borrowed a bottle opener from the guy behind the counter.) It was dark though, so its not like it would have been easily visible to passing police cars.
Just to say that to the best of my knowledge it ISN’T illegal to drink in public in England. There are certain restricted places (the centre of Bath being one) where alcohol consumption isn’t allowed but otherwise feel free to sup your drink of choice wherever you are (provided you’re over 18).
J.
First, drinking out of a paper bag most likely counts as presenting “probable cause” in any US jurisdiction.
Second, drunks are not exactly terribly smart. Repeated and frequent self-administration of nerve toxins tends to reduce intelligence.
That is absolutely incorrect.
It’s only a $25 ticket and a trip to the courthouse though.
I was having a conversation with an ABC store owner once about the silly laws he has to abide by. This may only apply to SC, but one of them was that the liquor must be carried out in a paper bag. Perhaps it has to stay in a paper bag.
There were a bunch of them but the funniest was that he couldn’t have a Santa Claus display during Christmas. Maybe ditto for a Christmas tree, but I’m not sure. WTF?
No it isn’t. It is not illegal to drink in public in the UK. If it was, the fuzz would be rushed off their feet all summer arresting people for drinking beers in the park, having wine with their picnics, then there’s the beer in cardboard pint glasses at rock festivals, the organic cider in skiffs at the game fairs. Not forgetting the couple of beers on the Underground to tide you over to the next pub on a Friday night, the beers on the side of the Thames on warm evenings.
Everywhere and everytime is a drinking occasion in the UK! This article will enlighten you more:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/dorset/3196973.stm
But I’d do as much street drinking as you can now if I were you, before that nice man David Blunkett bans it. Or makes it a legal requirement to be electronically tagged before opening a can of Stella or something.
Cool, I didn’t realise drunks really did that except in films! And no, it’s not illegal to drink alchohol in public in the UK - if we had a constitution it would probably have something about in it about “the right to bear beer”.
Not like you to parse the sentence wrong. Presumably you meant “…the warm beers on the side of the Thames on evenings…”
And you’re not wrong there - see my comment above re: the centre of Bath. Local politicians first but Blunkett not too far behind no doubt! Mind you, I’m surprised Red Ken hasn’t imposed a Drinking Charge on all you Londoners yet, especially given the hot weather! 
(Yanks: ‘Red’ Ken Livingstone is the mayor of London and he used to be a proper militant communist type. He is now in charge of manking sure that the London Underground completes its descent into decrepitude and that no other means of transport are available)
Martiju, I don’t think that Red Ken would deprive the Workers of affordable beer. If anything, he’s subsidise it. However Mr Brown over in Downing Street will have none of this. Although I doubt that he’s entirely responsible for a pint of London Pride costing two pounds bloody seventy in my local pub.
AngelicGemma, are you really from Yorkshire? Because in my experience, Yorkshire people are pretty clued up when it comes to drinking in public. Or in private. Or anywhere.
This is probably even more common since we have the same law here in Louisiana. I found out last week when I tried to buy a six pack of bottles and declined the bag, only to have it forced on me. We also have drive-through liquor stores, so that gives you an idea of the alcohol laws down here (except in some Northern LA parishes where it’s illegal).
Just out of curiousity, does anyone know the reason for such laws? No matter how I look at it, it just doesn’t make sense.
When I want to fool people and drive around while drinking, I pour Newcastle Brown Ale into a 1 liter clear plastic Coke bottle. Nobody can tell the difference!
How is Rap like Porn? Both are better with the sound turned off.
They had the bag requirement in Washington State, too, for anything except a six- or 12-pack that comes in a box, IIRC.
Having come of age in WA I was much amused to discover that in NY state, nothing stronger than I believe 6% alcohol can be sold in a grocery store; thus, wine is primarily sold in liquor stores, except for low-alcohol wines developed, I assumed, specifically for the state market.
I’m guessing no Santa 'cause he’s mainly for kids, and you can’t market to kids in a likker store. And I also wonder whether any Xmas decorations are OK in a state government place like that.
gatopescado, doesn’t the fine foamy head on your Newcastle give you away? Or do you just say “Ahhh, THAT’s the REAL THING!” a lot to throw the cops off?
Here in NYC, the bodega owners, as a matter of practice, give you EVERY drink, alcoholic or no, in a brown paper bag. It makes the drunks and ordinary citizens look exactly the same walking out the door. Meanwhile, the cops tolerate public drinking; it’s kind of a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy–if they can’t see that it’s booze, they won’t be forced to go out of their way and cite somebody. (When my wife first came to the city, she saw some delivery truck drivers sitting in their cab drinking beer at 8 AM on a weekday. She complained to some cops walking by, who just laughed at her, said, “You must be from out of town, honey,” and kept on walking.)
toadspittle: I don’t know when you were in NYC last, but public drinking will typically get you a summons, nowadays. There are certainly exceptions (New Years Eve, for one), but I believe it was one of the “quality of life” crimes targetted during the Guiliani administration.
Well, it sure fools people in Sweden. Just before New Year’s Eve 2002 I flew to Gothenburg with a fifth of Jim Beam still in the brown paper bag the guy at the ABC store put it in. Went to a show at a fairly big nightclub (Trädgården) the night I arrived and walked in the stage door entrance with my friends, bag in hand. We then proceeded to drink openly from the bottle in the bag while standing in the middle of the floor in front of the stage. None of the patrons or security seemed to cop on to what we were doing. Only the band that was playing noticed because they had toured N. America before and were familiar with the brown bag practice. They cracked up mightily at how audacious and “American” we were being.
(Cans and bottles of alcoholic beverages sold in Sweden are always put in very obvious dark green plastic bags with the Systembolaget logo on them, so there isn’t the anonymity of the brown bag there AFIK)