In order to get a liquor license in Racine, an applicant must appear before the License and Welfare Committee. There the applicant will meet stern faced alderman who will lecture them on the consequences awaiting them if they violate the conditions of the license. The alderman will then look into a crystal ball in order to predict which applicants will run a clean establishment. For prospective license holders, I suggest that you not propose a hip-hop dance club. Anyway, some licenses will be denied because the committee wishes to prevent future problems.
Given this serious approach to eliminating future problems, we can be assured that the committee will address actual present day problems with the utmost seriousness. Lets say a license holder had twentyone underaged drinkers and three loaded handguns on the premises. This tough licensing committee would really go after that bar owner, right?
No. Last night members of this committee were quite deferential to license holder Lennie Hand, who has admitted that the bar was indeed filled with underaged drinkers and three loaded handguns. The committee could have voted to go to due process, which is a legal process which could result in suspension or revocation of the license. Instead, they opted to seek a negotiated settlement with Hand, all while complementing his proactive (actually reactive) steps to address the problems.
What kind of message does this send to the community and to bar owners?
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6 comments:
AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
What the hell is wrong with this committee. They were falling all over themselves to say how serious this violation was and then they all caved.
If a gas station sells some cigarettes to a kid one or two times the owner has to listen two 30 minutes of lecturing from this committee. Lenny Hand sold 21 kids or at least under age people alcohol and he had to listen to 30 minutes of what a good job he was doing being "proactive" by these dipshits. Maybe the problem is that the gas station owners are of Middle Eastern dissent and Mr. Hand white. I actually suspect the problem is not racism, but rather the fact that this committee is made up of little fuzzy kittens.
Mr. Hand holds high level positions in the Racine County Democratic Party and with the Tavern League. Perhaps being intrenched in a political party or a political lobby group gives one a "get out of jail free card" with this committee.
If I am not mistaken the committe of five has three Republicans, Helding, Mack and Kaplan.
Yes, all three support Republicans although I cannot confirm that they are all card carrying members. I don't mean to suggest that it was a case of party members helping out a fellow member. In an attempt to figure out why this happened I simply wonder if it was a case of, people who operate with in the political system, helping out someone else who operates with in that same system. I analyzed the situation like this, what is different about Hand than other license holders, that he should recieve apparently better treatment. I was only trying to offer up his status as a political insider as a possible reason.
You might be right. It must be difficult to come down hard on someone that you know. Even so, I think they should.
I think they should have come down hard as well. I was not trying to give them an excuse, there is no excuse for the committee's behavior.
I thought Republicans were supposed to be tough on crime.
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