DOES THE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL (ABC) HOLD INDIAN CASINOS TO DIFFERENT STANDARDS?

The comments below raise pertinent issues about ALCOHOL consumption on Sovereign land.

In Connecticut, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun have created comparable situations by allowing intoxicated patrons who have consumed FREE ALCOHOL on the premises to depart, making innocent people targets.
A few entries:
Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods: DUIs
Massachusetts House Speaker DeLeo jeopardizes public safety
Drunks: DeLeo jeopardizes safety of public for Gambling Industry


What we know is:

Drunken Driving Fatalities and Accidents Increase: Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun have at least 50% more OUI arrests than any other State Police troop in CT. Drunken driving related fatalities almost doubled in the area during 2009 vs. 2008 because the casino revenue to the state decreased leading to budget cuts in police force.

Before “Happy Hours” were outlawed in Massachusetts in 1984, there were 411 drunken driving related fatalities compared to only 151 in 2008.

Casinos in Massachusetts will have Happy Hours 24/7/365!!!



Or the case in New Mexico:
Sovereignty as Protection from consequences

Shouldn't we be asking why Tribal Slot Barns are held to a different standard? If your family member were killed by a drunken patron of a Tribal Slot Barn, wouldn't you be asking?

DOES THE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL (ABC) HOLD INDIAN CASINOS TO DIFFERENT STANDARDS?
By Kathy Cleary, Guest Columnist

On July 5, the Board of Supervisors will be discussing the Santa Ynez Band of Mission Indian’s application for expansion of alcohol sales at the Chumash Casino and Resort. Last year the Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) granted a temporary permit for this expansion, allowing the expansion of alcohol sales while they reviewed the protests filed by the public, sheriff and Board of Supervisors.

There have been numerous oddities about this ABC review process. First of all, I found out that the Sheriff’s Department had not been sending the ABC alcohol and drug arrest reports, as was required by law. I informed the sheriff and the ABC. They now state that this has been corrected and ABC is receiving arrest reports.

Secondly, there was a “miscommunication” between the county’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and an ABC investigator, who told me that the sheriff and CEO had dropped their protests. When I asked Supervisor Doreen Farr, she said this was not her understanding. The ABC investigator disagreed with Supervisor Farr and told me that I needed to contact the sheriff and CEO to find out if they dropped their protests. I did this and later received an email from the ABC investigator saying there was a miscommunication; he should have said it was anticipated that they were going to drop their protests.

He also said it appeared that the ABC would approve this permit. When questioned about how this permit could be approved given more than 1,400 arrest reports, he explained that although there are hundreds of documented incidences of alcohol and drug -related crimes, the licensee (Santa Ynez Band) can only be held accountable for incidences related to the licensed portions of the facilities. In other words, the hundreds of drug deals and drunken arrests made in the parking lot, or in the casino or hotel, may have been because casinos draw drug dealers and users and drunks, versus there being a problem with the Willows Restaurant or other licensed areas that sell alcohol. (To see the crime reports, go to: http://www.santaynezvalleyjournal.com/archive/9/14/8170/.)

I then requested full copies of a sampling of police reports. After reading these reports, it appeared to me that the police may not be attempting, or be able to uncover where the drunk got drunk. After reviewing these reports, it is not surprising that this could be difficult. For example, in one report a female and male patron were involved – the following is from the report: The male kicked a casino sliding door, then said to casino security, “You want to fight me?” Then, “they all went to the ground,” security ended up “scratched in the process,” the female patron’s behavior “was rapidly escalating and becoming violent in nature,” she was placed in the patrol car, the male patron and security then “locked up and went to the ground,” and when on the ground the patron “bit security on the left side of his mid-section.” The wound “was approximately 1.5 inches in diameter...and was red and open.” In addition, the security guard “received scratches on his neck.” While this was happening, the deputy was having difficulty with the female patron in his patrol car, who was “kicking the windows of the squad car with her feet.”

This is just one example. Given the nature of the arrest reports that includes alcohol, heroin and guns, among many other things, this is obviously a complicated situation.

Another recent call to a different ABC investigator confirmed that the licensee (Santa Ynez Band) could only be held accountable for the licensed location, and not people who had arrived drunk or drugged up, or had been partying it up in the hotel, parking lot, restrooms or bushes for that matter. The investigator said that he did not know if the police had any mechanism to determine where the drunk got drunk.

This brings up a number of questions: It appears that determining where a drunk gets drunk is virtually impossible at the Chumash Casino and Resort because of its size. If this review of alcohol expansion is really an honest attempt to protect the public health, welfare, safety and morality, how is this going to be corrected? 1. The Sheriff’s Department is already stretched to the limit. Do they have the manpower hours to track down where a drunk gets drunk?

2. The Chumash Casino and Resort is absolutely not motivated to track this down, as it would jeopardize their license. Would this impede any attempts of getting this information?

3. Why didn’t the ABC figure out the police were not sending the crime reports, and the virtual impossibility of determining where the drunk gets drunk? Is this just a shuffling of paper, as it appears to be? In this case is the ABC doing anything really meaningful?

4. If patrons arrived drunk to the wine-tasting rooms, or partied it up in the parking lot, and the police were called and those patrons were arrested for drunkenness, and this happened hundreds of times, I think it is safe to say that the ABC couldn’t care less if they arrived drunk. They would shut down that wine-tasting room, and maybe all of them. However, the Chumash Casino and Resort owners are not held accountable for drunken behavior and arrests. Is the casino being held to different standards because it is an Indian casino? When is a non-Indian business owner going to notice the different standards and claim discrimination? 5. If the ABC is not overseeing the non-licensed portions of the casino and resort, who is?

Kathy Cleary is president of Preservation of Los Olivos, P.O.L.O., a grass-roots citizens’ group. Visit www.polosyv.org


CRIME ON LAND IN FEDERAL TRUST
By SYVJ Staff

Land held in federal "trust" for a tribal government, and the businesses and activity on land in trust, function outside local and state jurisdiction, and taxation rules, applicable to all other Americans. Decision making by government entities regarding businesses and activity on land in trust appears to be different. The United States Constitution does not apply on land in federal "trust." Tribal governments have their own tribal constitutions. Communities are being harmed by tribal governments that impact them, but these tribal governments have no accountability to them. Casino tribal governments are often very aggressive in expansion of land and authority.

The following crime reports document quantity and the type of crime that occurs on land held in federal "trust." In one example of different decision making for businesses on land in trust, the Alcoholic Beverage Control (having been provided with these crime reports) is moving forward with expansion of alcohol sales at the Chumash Casino. In addition, the Sheriff's Department has chosen to do no investigations (other than responding and writing the reports). Any other business with this level of criminal activity would, in all likelihood, not have been allowed to expand sales of alcohol, and possibly would have been penalized and/or shut down.

Below please find copies of reports written on land in trust at the Chumash Casino and Resort.

Click on Chumash Crime Report Introduction, 5 pages link to view as pdf

Click on Chumash Crime Report for January 2011, 13 pages link to view as pdf

Click on Chumash Crime Report for 2010, 157 pages link to view as pdf

[There is an extensive list of Crime Reports. Click on LINK to review them all.]