Imagine you are sitting down to dinner and drinks with a few friends in your local tavern. Several policemen Gestapo dressed in riot gear show up to your table, and ask you to step outside. Your after-dinner small talk is interrupted while the officer gives you a field sobriety test outside the restaurant. If you blow more than a .08 (about 3 drinks), you are written a citation for being drunk in public.

Sounds crazy doesn't it. You aren't behind the wheel, you aren't out staggering around, you are simply sitting down to dinner and drinks with a few good friends. Well, it is a reality in Fairfax County, VA.

The Fairfax Station Times reports several incidents of Gestapo-like harassment.

Fairfax County Police are targeting Reston and Herndon area bar-restaurant patrons suspected of having one too many drinks.

Jimmy Cirrito, who owns and runs Jimmy's Old Town Tavern, said 10 or so officers who showed up in SWAT-like garb were intimidating and unnecessary. He also noted that police seemed to be tagging people at random, despite police telling bar owners they had undercover officers in the bar, calling in and giving descriptions of particular individuals.

"They tapped one lady on the shoulder--who was on her first drink and had just eaten dinner--to take her out on the sidewalk and give her a sobriety test," Cirrito said. "They told her she fit the description of a woman they had complaints about, and that they heard she was dancing topless."

Police public information officer Sophia Grinnan tries to hide the harassment behind 'good intentions'.

"It has less repercussions than driving drunk and is a safer way to battle DWIs," Grinnan said.

I'm no Rhodes Scholar, but isn't driving a fundamental component of DWI? As long as people have a sober ride home, and aren't getting rowdy, what is the problem?

Hopefully any citations will be thrown out in a court of law. Searches and seizures such as these are invasive and completely unreasonable. Perhaps a good scolding from a no-nonsense judge will set the Fairfax Gestapo straight.

(Article via Jenn with two 'n's, a Northern Virginia based staff writer at Ravenwood's Universe.)

UPDATE: The Washington Post notes that those failing the sobriety tests were "charged with public drunkenness and spent the night in jail."