Ocean Beach, roughly around 11:30 pm, two men were awoken for being drunk in public in accordance to California’s Penal Code Section 647, Friday August 11th.

Awoken by my arresting officer with a kick to my chest, my immediate response was a drunken slur, “What the hell?”

The officer, whom started the kicking, immediately started the talking, “Hey douche bag, what drugs did you take?” My response was ordained at first, but due to the content of the specific quote it shall not be repeated in print.

My friend, who had passed out reluctantly on the sidewalk, was taken to the hospital for he was seventeen and had no cell waiting for him. I, on the other hand, was taken downtown, and a semi-destructive conversation erupted between my arresting officer and me, where he claimed I would be locked up ’til Monday.

This was not the case. Although, it wasn’t outside the realm of reality, arresting officers do have the authority to hold you for 72 hours for being drunk in public if they fear you’re a habitual drunk. Under California Penal Code, if you are arrested for a D.I.P. you must be held for a minimum of four hours. Seventy-two hours is a long time to determine if someone is a raging alcoholic. I was kept in the “drunk tank” for several hours, with other drunk-related law offenders. Some of which seemed completely intoxicated, and others who seemed completely sober.

Later that night, one of my follow cellmates commented on my predicament saying, “I had been arrested for sleeping.” If I had rolled over five more feet back on to the beach I would have been fine. Sleeping on the beach, I am homeless; on the sidewalk, I am drunk in public.

Penal code section 647 claims to protect us from ourselves, and also to protect others from our actions. But taking a man who is intoxicated all the way across town, with no means of traveling back, locking him up in a cell full of vomit-ridden strangers, then releasing him into the early morning does not sound like a good system to me. I feel the current system supports drinking and driving. In fairness, in print, the law states one should only be taken in, if one shows the inability to take care of ones safety.

My experience in the drunk-tank was enlightening, there is peace on earth and it is the drunk-tank. I was in a room full of drunken minorities, and people of different social standings, and I had a good time. Either it was on account of the small room reeking of cheap booze and vomit, the fact that we had all been drinking or maybe because of the mind numbing terms we were all arrested on.