I'm a teetotaler now...

...but this is almost enough to make me resume drinking, just out of principled solidarity:

More than a dozen armed State Police officers conducted simultaneous raids last week on three popular Philadelphia bars known for their wide beer selections. The cops confiscated hundreds of bottles of expensive ales and lagers, now in State Police custody at an undisclosed location.
The alleged offense: Although the bar owners had bought the beer legally from licensed Pennsylvania distributors and had paid all the necessary taxes, the police claimed that nobody had registered the precise names of the beers with the state Liquor Control Board - a process that requires the brewers or their importers to pay a $75 registration fee for each product they want to sell in Pennsylvania.
Based on a complaint from someone the State Police refuse to identify, three teams of officers converged last Thursday on the three bars, run by Leigh Maida and her husband, Brendan Hartranft. Checking their inventories against the state's official list of more than 2,800 brands, the cops seized four kegs and 317 bottles, totaling 60.9 gallons of beer, according to police calculations.

The only obvious motivation for this exercise in police futility is to protect the State's revenue stream (although commenters on the paper's website point out political connections could also be involved). But several questions immediately spring to mind:

- How much did the State spend to send "more than a dozen officers" to make this example?
- Why are the owners out $7200 in inventory, when they'd fulfilled all their responsiblities?
- Why are the police refusing the name the complainant? Did we lose the right to face our accuser? Or do we now just accept the idea of informers busybodies?
- Most importantly, wasn't there anything more important for these taxpayer-funded enforcers to be doing at that particular time?

The State of Pennsylvania might do well to remember that long before the War for Southern Independence, the first real challenge to Federal authority came from Pennsylvania farmers who didn't appreciate their whiskey being taxed...

Cheers!