By several credible accounts, there appears to have been a second round of “sting” operations last night, seeking to entice Hudson businesses to serve minors.
In January, eight Hudson business owners were astonished to find themselves on the wrong end of an undercover operation. The sting featured mature-looking underage drinkers who attempted, mostly successfully, to get served in local restaurants and bars.
Most of the establishments targeted rarely play host to anyone under 31, let alone under 21, since they mainly serve higher-end drinks that aren’t usually ordered by cash-strapped teenagers. As such, many local bartenders were unlikely to suspect that one of their customers would be too young to drink, especially if they were in the company of other adults.
To be sure, teenagers drink; anyone who claims they never did is either a liar, or a bore... But typically, underage drinking happens in the woods, or in cars, or in the basement of the home of whoever’s parents are away on vacation... not in upscale Hudson bars. Drunk driving is likewise a serious matter. But that’s true no matter what the age of the drinker. In any case, there’s no indication that kids are getting tanked at local establishments. (More usually, it’s a friend’s older brother who gets sent in to buy a case at a convenience store, then passes it along, keeping a six for himself.)
Adding to the business community’s perplexity was the revelation that funding for the sting came via Catholic Charities, a Columbia County nonprofit which had turned over State grant funds for teenage alcohol education and substance abuse prevention to the Hudson Police Department. Local politicians promised to “look into” the situation, and according to several elected officials, no further grants of this type had been authorized.
All this taken together, there was a widespread feeling that rather than having been caught up in a legitimate effort to deal with a problem situation, they were the victims of entrapment. And that the State grant money ought to be spent on genuine education (of both youth and bar staff) rather than “gotcha” operations.
Yet on Thursday night, there were widespread reports that another sting was underway. A bartender at a high-end downtown establishment reported directly to me that a woman in her mid-20s had sat at the bar, acting nervous, and saying that she was “waiting for friends.” After a while, a young man came in and tried to order a Coors Light—something the bar quite obviously did not stock. When carded, the young man proved to be only 20, and left, unserved; the nervous-acting “spotter” left shortly thereafter, with no friends having shown up.
A patron of another establishment farther uptown reported an almost identical story, of out-of-place and ill-at-ease “spotters” leaving right after an unsuccessful attempt by an underage drinker to get served. At this point, any further stings would appear to be redundant—every Hudson establishment is now on the lookout, and carding regularly, and thanks to texting and other social media, word spreads like wildfire if there’s an operation underway.
Given the firm denials by local officials that any new funding has been approved for this purpose, one can only speculate that must have been was some unspent money left over from the prior round of Catholic Charities funding...
Either that, or some local kids have decided that it’s more fun to punk Hudson bartenders than to drink in a musty old van.
