Why Do Bars Have Parking Lots?

Let me pose this in the vein of something to which any US resident can relate. How many of us have been at a bar, tavern or saloon? Surely three or four of us have. I wonder if it is just me, or have any of you ever noticed that there are no longer any states in the US in which people can drive while under the influence of alcohol? That's right, none. It is not legal anywhere in any state. Different states have assigned different limits, different penalties and different enforcement tactics, but it is pretty much standard practice that if you drink, then you drive, during which you get caught, then you are in the proverbial defecate creek occupying that paddle-challenged boat.

Has anyone ever looked around upon arrival to that favorite watering hole and wandered thoughtfully outside of the box, and wondered why all those cars were there? In addition, an even more preposterous query, why does a bar even have a parking lot? I mean, honestly, are there really that many sober, non-alcohol using people in that bar? A thinking person has to ask that.

If we were to sit down at a table together and discuss this issue, we would inevitably conclude that we have a problem in our society with the messages that we send. There is no way to justify any bar, tavern, or saloon needing a parking lot. We have grown to accept it, but that does not make it right. That is the only reason esteblishment owners get away with it. We have even made it illegal for a law enforcement officer to sit in view of the alcohol-peddling establishment and observe people leaving who are very likely to be under the influence, especially if the vehicle has only one or two people in it.

That is very much like telling the angler he can fish...and he may even catch one as long as a fish somehow finds its way to the bathtub in which he can fish. We think we are far too sophisticated to apply a subjective and assertive look, and subsequently see that there is no way we are making proper provisions to keep drunk drivers off our streets. We rely on the criminality of the act and haphazard enforcement, while in fact, if the act is a crime, we should be doing what assures us that it will not be handy to do it.

Stealing money from the bank is illegal too, but they still use a safe to secure the stuff. They do not rely on the criminality of the act of theft to be the sole deterrent. When a bar has a parking lot, it is like a bank having no safe. In fact, it would be comparable to the bank leaving money on the sidewalk. And would even further compare to telling the police they can't hang around either because that might actully be entrapment of the would be thief. We are acting like a herd of sheep. There is a huge tax levied and no one actually wants us to stop drinking and driving, they just want to catch us! We do not have to look very hard to see that.

We make laws, and then we send every message that we can send that says, "If you don't get caught, it's OK to drink and drive." The very existence of the parking lot says this and it says it loud and clear. And, as if that is not enough, we further reinforce that conflicting message by the fact that a cop can't do police work where the crime is happening. They cannot work surveillance over an alcohol establishment parking lot.

I have several friends who are police officers, and there are many tell tale dead-ringers for them to use to profile a potential drunk driver. They can drive thru a parking lot and observe and learn and "gain awareness" as they call learning what cars if seen later might be subjects of interest, but they cannot wait in opportune position as that is entrapment. I say, "Junk!" Someone who of his own accord has made his/her self a threat to society and even themselves and then acts in that capacity of recklessness, nail them. It is time to pay the drunk tax!

People will say that if their favorite place is across town then how are they supposed to get there for a Friday, or Saturday evening out? Honestly, that is not a public problem, and I guess it should be up to that club owner or the patron to figure out. The public issue is to eliminate foreseeable dangers to life and limb. If he wants to pedal a product or service, and a buyer wishes to partake, then let them cumulatively worry about that.

I have been places where gas stations cannot sell alcohol, but, a tavern or bar or club two doors away has a parking lot. I cannot ad that up. We are being idiots to accept that set of conditions. It clearly has to do with bar, club, tavern and saloon owners' controlling interests in our government, locally as well as county and state.

Americans have forgotten that freedom was born in the fires of the cauldrons of rebellion, and while we have laws that protect us, we allow special interests to run roughshod right over the top of us. When your husband, or your wife, brother, mother in law or whomever gets a drunk driving ticket in a vehicle after using a parking lot provided by an open alcohol establishment owner, those huge fines, fees and costs and penalties, income and possibly job loss are a product of a message we allow to be sent.

We should never be afraid to rebel and we can never forget that it is our obligation to do so. When good men do nothing is all that is required for bad ones to do whatever they wish.

So, ask yourself, why do bars have parking lots?