2015.53: Get a Grip, Gaas

 Posted on April 15, 2015 in Uncategorized

That's a cop allowing a girl to get out of a minor-in-possession ticket by winning a game of rock-paper-scissors.

Here‘s Burleson County Precinct 2 Constable Dennis Gaas's take:

Gaas says he found out about the incident last night. This morning he told all three officers that they will not be allowed to work security at future Chilfests. He also notified the two departments the officers work for so they can decide whether further action is warranted. Gaas declined to say what departments the three officers work for.Giving the underage drinker a break is not what got the officers in trouble. Gaas says doing so is an officer's discretion. But when they "play games to get someone out of a ticket, I have a problem with that," Gaas said.Gaas said he hired officers from nearly 60 agencies to work security. They issued 113 citations. According to the Burleson County Sheriff's Office, 44 people were arrested at Chilifest.Gaas was upset by the officers' actions saying, "it gives all of us a bad name."

No, it doesn't. Humorless twits like you give "all of you" a bad name. The cop cut a girl a break; he should have. He gave her a few seconds of stress; that's okay too. Texas Monthly's take is smart, but I think they're missing what's really going on here. They're missing it because the girl won the first round.

I think that Gaas and Texas Monthly's Dan Solomon assume that the officer would have written the girl a ticket had she thrown paper the first time. I'm not convinced. Rock-paper-scissors can be played best-of-n, where n is any positive odd number.

I hunch that if the girl had lost the first round the officer would have offered best-of-three, and kept throwing scissors.

If the girl hadn't caught on to the game by best-of-five, then, well, she was intoxicated and probably should have been ticketed.