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Hey, kids, if you borrow somebody's ID to go drinking, remember to memorize all the info on the card
By adamg on Tue, 10/02/2012 - 12:13pm
A BU student got herself and the Joshua Tree in trouble Sept. 1 because she couldn't correctly recite the address on the driver's license she gave a Boston detective conducting a routine inspection at the Allston watering hole.
BPD Det. William Gallagher told the Boston Licensing Board this morning he would have remained suspicious of the 19-year-old California resident even if she did correctly list the street address on the license in one of her two tries, because the license showed a blue-eyed woman, while her eyes were brown. Plus, he said, after she couldn't remember her own supposed address, he checked with BU police, who had no record of a student under the name she was using.
Once he informed her he was onto her, she admitted her real name and handed over her real BU ID card, he said.
She'll be summoned into Brighton District Court on charges of being a minor in possession of alcohol - a Corona beer - and providing fraudulent ID to law-enforcement officers. Joshua Treet will find out Thursday whether it has to suffer any penalities for the incident - as well as for having a basement filled past capacity and admitting at least one person after its licensed closing time of 1 a.m.
Bar owner Julian Bolger said in defense of his workers that the woman did look like the one on the driver's license and that her true identify emerged only after some grilling by a police detective. Board Chairwoman Nichole Murati Ferrer allowed as how that might be the case, but added Bolger's door staff should have paid better attention to the fact the woman's eye color was different than the one on the license.
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Comments
Good bid, Julian
Because this is the first time your bar has had a problem with not admitting minors. Enjoy getting your license suspended...again. Here's an idea...hire more terrible managers that screw trivia hosts out of pay because they can't be bothered to tell people that the bar is closing for a week.
Also, throw the stupid broad in jail for a week for trying to defraud the bar. Or at the very least, fine her the amount of the lost wages and tips of the employees, since this isn't their fault.
Haha
Sounds like someone might hold a grudge against the Joshua Tree maybe?
I have a long memory
If I like you, I like you, but if you anger me, I really don't like you. Always been my way.
troll
being an uber douche probably has nothing to do with why you got stiffed or kicked out or whatever. get back under your bridge, internet troll.
Hi, Joshua Tree staffer!
Welcome to the internet!
backwater
Chinese dudes right, what a country ass bumpkin city!
HA HA
You should see the crackdowns they routinely have in that 'world class' city, NY. And the cops are brutal compared to Boston.
LA where I lived is even worse.
Was the borrowed ID a Mass
Was the borrowed ID a Mass ID?
If so, shouldn't the bar be safe from trouble? I thought the whole point of bars refusing out-of-state IDs was that doing so meant they were less likely to get in trouble.
Also, are people drinking in bars required to show an ID to a police officer when asked? I thought you don't need an ID if you're not driving (though a bar can require one if it wants), and you just have to tell an officer your name and address.
Was a North Carolina ID
But even if it were a Mass. ID, if it weren't hers, the bar would get into trouble.
Don't know about the legal niceties of declining to provide ID inside a bar to a police officer, perhaps somebody should try that out and see how it goes.
Then what protection does
Then what protection does refusing out-of-state IDs provide?
Just simplicity
If they refuse out-of-state IDs, it's purely so they can train their bouncers/staff on how to identify a MA ID and not have to teach them the watermarks, etc. on 50 different state's IDs to detect fakes. Not too long ago, certain states had IDs with little fraud prevention baked into their design and the laminate was also easy to peel and replace meaning the picture could even match you with little effort. Of course, these days everything is printed directly onto the plastic and there are a dozen fraud prevention methods on the card making fakes a bit easier to detect. But you still need to know what you're looking for from 50 different states and then there's the possibility of accepting passports, visas, etc.
It's just simpler to say "no out-of-state IDs" and hope you still do enough business from the locals at those times.
It's supposed to be more than
It's supposed to be more than that. The law says that bars have some sort of defense to an underage serving charge if they were shown an in-state license or ID, a passport, or a military ID.
Effective October 29th, in-state IDs that are not liquor IDs will be added to the list. http://www.mass.gov/abcc/pdf/idlawchange_with_id_p... . I'm not too optimistic that news of this change will reach every bouncer and liquor store clerk in the state.
A few years back, the non-liquor ID used to be cheaper and last forever, but now they're both $25 and expire in 5 years. The only differences are that you're allowed to get a liquor ID if you keep your out-of-state license, and you have to be 21.
Delaware
was one of those states, at least up through the 90s. I used to live there. Their driver licenses looked like they were home-made, and, in fact, the machine they used at the DMV to make them looked like the same one that my employer through much of the 90s had for making corporate photo IDs. The licenses de-laminated quite easily. More than one person I knew had their license de-laminate after going swimming in the ocean with their license in a pocket.
There are books published with samples of the drivers licenses and non-DL IDs from all 50 U.S. states (and probably U.S. possessions and Canadian provinces and territories as well). I remember in my college years the bouncers at the off-campus bars always had one at the door for quick look-up of out-of-state licenses.
And now they have scanners
Some of which are supposed to be pretty good at distinguishing the fakes from the real licenses. Of course, the Chinese have reverse engineered a lot of the licenses and now sell fake IDs over the Internet that, at least according to some of the bars who appear before the licensing board, are really good.
Scanners also capture and
Scanners also capture and store your name and address.
Bars and clubs could easily set up a system like Vegas casinos, where if you get in a dispute with a bar, you get permanently banned from that bar and every other bar in the city.
Or they could sell your address for junk mail.
It's murky, but you could be arrested
for not giving a proper ID to a cop if requested, until they figure out who you are, if they think some crime is being committed.
Not strictly true
There is no requirement to carry or produce ID; you cannot be arrested for failure to do so.
You can, however, be arrested for a crime. And, when charged with a minor crime, you can, in some cases, be released without arrest if you provide reason for the police to believe you will actually show up at trial; presenting valid ID with a current local address increases the likelihood in the eyes of the law that you're who you say you are and that you'll show up.
It's about making it easier
It's about making it easier on the doorstaff because Mass IDs are nearly impossible to fake but the bar is liable either way because the ID wasnt her, regardless of what state it was from.
Whether you're 21 or 81 legally you need an ID to be in a bar in Mass after a certain time. Obviously detectives can use discretion and arent typically going to ask grandpa for his when the cute blonde fresh out of highschool is also an option but you never know (its actually fairly common practice when trying to get old obnoxious drunkards to leave an establishment).
And yes... show the cop your ID, because if you don't have one you shouldnt be in the bar and he wouldnt be asking you haha
ordering/drinking a Corona at
ordering/drinking a Corona at a bar = clearly under age
I'd agree but
there's not much else to drink at places like Joshua Tree.
Something to take away
GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!
With Joshua Tree screwing up again we can expect another closing and their "regulars" aka douche kingdom to flock to other bars in the area. T.I.T.S and White Horse I'm looking at you.
Another ID/eye color problem
Today someone googled "Our House East sucks" and found my blog and left a comment about how they refused to let him/her in and confiscated a legitimate ID because the license says "blue" and the bouncer decided the person's eyes are green:
http://www.eeka.net/2008/07/stump-trivia-at-our-ho...
I like your suggestion to
I like your suggestion to file a complaint with the licensing board over them confiscating a valid ID.
Does anyone know if the city takes such complaints seriously?