Sunday, July 10, 2005
Nanny State Warning
This is really troubling.
A man arrested when police showed up to break up a New Year's Eve party at a friend's house has filed a lawsuit, arguing he had a constitutional right to get drunk on private property as long as he didn't cause a public disturbance.Much as drunkenness is not an attractive state for a person to be in, I cannot quite believe there is a law that allows detention simply for drunkeness. We have massive civil discussion and protest about a person's "right" to die with dignity (remember Terri Schiavo?), but that same person does not have aright to be drunk in their own home when they are not a public nuisance? That's seriously wrong.
Eric Laverriere, 25, of Portland, Maine, was taken into protective custody by Waltham police and locked in a cell for nine hours until the effects of the alcohol wore off.
Legal experts said his lawsuit, filed this week in U.S. District Court in Boston, is the first to challenge a state law allowing police to lock up drunk people against their will for their own protection.
