For once, the TABC seems to be taking a complaint about its overbearing misuse of police powers seriously. Administrator Alan Steen actually placed a call to the Dallas Voice this week to apologize for the Rainbow Lounge raid. He used that opportunity to announce the supervisor’s well-deserved retirement and the reassignment of the two agents, whose actions are still being investigated. Steen had previously acknowledged that bar patron Chad Gibson had been injured while in TABC custody
Perhaps now the TABC’s disasasterous Sales to Intoxicated Persons program (you just knew they’d have to call it SIP), which was the impetus for the raid, will finally be put out of its misery.  The policy has been roundly criticized for enforcement that is intrusive, subjective, and often violent,  and it has not held up well in the courts. When a joint legislative committee began looking into it three years ago, Steen said he would “delay” any more enforcement. Apparently the delay ended soon after. Maybe now he’ll decide to ax the program for good. (Note that the linked-to article begins “It has been a tough couple of weeks for the folks at the Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission…” and it is dated April 28, 2006.)
