Journalism / Infiltrating the Infiltrators
Its a Thursday night in a bustling central Texas city. All over town hundreds of citizens are enjoying a beer with dinner at their favorite restaraunt or picking up a bottle of wine for a romantic dinner with a loved one. But hidden among them is a liar. Preying upon a gas station clerk, or a distracted young geek at the concession stand of a local bowling alley. A genuinely dangerous menace, a puppet, acting on the will of the local police force. A minor. And a tool of the TABC.
Established in 1935, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (or TABC) is an agency designed to regulate every phase of the production, sale and consumption of Alcohol. According to the alcoholic beverage code, the TABC “shall inspect, supervise and regulate every phase of the business of manufacturing, importing, exporting, transporting, storing, selling, advertising, labeling and distributing alcoholic beverages, and the possession of alcoholic beverages for the purpose of sale or otherwise.” The TABC was founded shortly after the repeal of national prohibition through the 21st amendment in 1930, which allows each state to control the importation and use of alcohol within its boundaries. The ‘about us’ section of the TABC website asserts that this is “probably the only remaining right guaranteed more or less exclusively to the states.” Vague confederate inaccuracies aside, the TABC has been engaging in controversial sting operations involving minors since at least 1995.
I myself had the opportunity to be involved in one of these operations recently and I can honestly say I have never felt more shame and regret in all of my life. I can’t say where or when I participated in this degrading act, but I can tell you that I was very successful in my attempts. I cannot, however, explain to you the wretched feelings of guilt and remorse that assailed me when I realized it would be the individuals who sold to me, and not the businesses themselves, who would suffer from my actions. Sitting in the backseat of an unmarked police vehicle with heavily tinted windows I watched a young fifteen-year-old girl, not even really old enough to be working at the convenience store where she had sold me a 40 oz. an hour before, being arrested in tears for selling alcohol to a minor. Oh how the rotten tentacles of guilt wormed their way into my skull! I just could not come to terms with my actions. I accepted my thirty dollar informant’s fee with red stains of shame upon my brow.
But justification did indeed find me in the end. Sitting in my bedroom that night, I laid awake thinking about the act that I had committed and two circumstances occured to me: I thought of a friend of mine who was about my age. He had recently been involved in a very bad car accident. He broke his leg, lost his job and his family became destitute. He was also responsible for the death of a young woman in an oncoming car. The pain and guilt that he feels will last him the rest of his life, far outliving the momentary agony of a broken leg, and will scar him until the end of his days. It is suspected that he was driving under the influence of alcohol. The second thought that memory that presented to me took place when I was much younger. I was still in grade school when my family moved next door to a family of four children around the same age as my sister and me. Our families got along well and we became fast friends with all four of the children. On the way home from a football game late one fall that family was also hit head on by a drunk driver. Three of the six people in that car lost their lives that night.
I will leave you to draw your own conclusions about the questionable morality of these TABC stings. But I think we can all agree that they have good intentions. Alcohol is a very dangerous substance. I can think of no one who hasn’t seen its effects first hand. It is a substance that very definitely needs to be regulated. And if sting operations by the TABC are what it takes to keep alcohol out of the hands of those who shouldn’t have it, then so be it.
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Hello,
Nice work and interesting subject. I enjoyed reading it because it was not too in depth and it was trying , to paint both sides. It is always best when the reader draws their own conclusion and the writer just presents some ideas to contemplate. To that end, in your last paragraph, you say I will let the reader draw their own conclusion and then go on to offer a conclusion. So perhaps work on that. Strong point was you in the police car, behind tinted windows, watching the person being taken away. And the guilt you felt. One problem with the piece is that everyone already feels that alcohol is a menace so no one really needs convincing of that – so maybe your story should not try to convince, just portray?
Best of luck. Thank you.
Mary
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