When the Law Trumps Common Sense

Posted on: March 7, 2009 | Ryan Reynolds | 1 Comment | Print Article | Rate Post:

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Here’s a moral puzzle for you.  The Anchorage Daily News reported today that a man was arrested for not buying beer for a minor.  What was that again?  This man was arrested and charged with fourth-degree theft, for NOT buying beer for a minor.  Here’s how it went down.

The man was walking into a convenience store when he was approached by an underage kid who offered him money to buy booze.  The man takes the money, goes into the store, buys the alcohol, but then walks out of the store and right past the kid.  Not giving him the alcohol.  Well, unfortunately for him, it was part of a larger Sting operation by the Anchorage Police to cut down on people buying alcohol for minors, so he didn’t make it very far before he was arrested.

But really?  A sting operation that seeks to reduce people buying alcohol for minors, arrests a man, who in my opinion, taught that minor a good lesson about hanging around convenience stores and soliciting strangers.  And he’s arrested for theft?  For what?  Stealing beer from an underage kid?

I know there’s a lot of ways to wrap your head around this problem, and certainly supplying alcohol to underage strangers should be strongly discouraged, but why punish a guy who’s part of the solution?  I mean, how many times would a kid go out and try to get someone to buy beer for them if each time they did, that person just took the money, bought the booze and left.  Probably not too many if they were smart about it.

I say there’s a thousand other criminals up there in the Big Wild Asylum that could use some Police attention.  Don’t punish the guy who’s part of the solution, as crude as it may be.  But, that’s just my opinion.

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