Would continue to apply. If you go looking for trouble you will probably find it. Be cool, keep your head, and things should be fine.
Let's see, an interesting personal story based on this subject...back in the day as an 18-yr-old freshman, I happened to be at a Zeta Psi party (not far from Williams Arena), had an amazingly great time, got wasted on cheap beer, and left the party along with about 20 other people. As I tend to get tired when I drink, I thought that the sidewalk outside of Zeta Psi was a great place to take a nap. So I lay down on the sidewalk, when I hear my buddy yell GET UP GET UP the cops are here! I immediately got up, but not much use, see I had decided to take that nap right near the stoplight on University Ave., and it just so happened that at that stoplight was a cop car, stopped at a red light.
The cops come up to me, I'm so drunk I can barely see their face, but I smooth talk and explain to them that hey, sorry, yes I'm obviously drunk but I'm not driving anywhere, in fact I'm walking back to Frontier Hall only 5 blocks away. Even as a freshman I had partied enough to know that the U cops (or were they Mpls cops?, I really don't know) weren't after the average underage drunkard, you really had to do something stupid. So, as expected, the cops let me on my way, and the cops tell my less-drunk buddy to "make sure he gets home ok". Sly, yep
But the story didn't end quite there, see my buddy wasn't the smoothest dude around, and decided that he would go and grab the plastic garbage bag full of beer that he had been given and was carrying out of the party. Duh! So I had walked about 50 feet or so, when I hear "you better come with us too" as the cops come over and pick me up to take me to the cop shop.
At the cop shop I don't remember much, but I remember my smooth-talking (a simple request to go take a tinkle) not going over as well with the lady cop who obviously couldn't accompany me to the bathroom (but needed to stay with me)...wow that was tough persuasion. I also remember thinking this all was damn funny and when I got my picture taken, I was beaming from ear to ear
. After an hour or so of documentation and them writing us both a couple of $57 tickets, they sent us on our way...to walk home. I thought this was absurd - I was only 5 blocks from home when they picked me up, then they drove me 3 blocks further away, gave me a ticket, and made me walk home anyway. So I got mad, and told them so, they got irritated and threatened to throw me in detox. I shut up and made the walk back to Frontier, only to decide that the lounge chairs looked mighty nice to crash on (instead of walking another 100 feet to sleep in my own bed, of course)...not long after I was awoken by a quite attractive female RA, who was very nice and she didn't get me in trouble, instead walked me to my room, talked for a bit and wished me good night.
In the end, I got a $57 ticket and made an attractive friend. And had a blast.
Hopefully this story shows the lengths it actually requires to get ticketed for drinking by the police around campus. It was typical for the cops to ask you to dump your drink and leave the party...it was quite rare indeed to get in trouble over it...unless you made your own trouble with the guys who really were pretty good people (the cops). [I once carried a bottle of Seagrams right past a cop parked in a car outside a frat house...when my friends at that house couldn't hear their doorbell, I actually asked the cop if I could borrow his phone to call my friends. He courteously obliged, and I thanked him profusely.]
I doubt that they've gotten too much worse in the past 15 years (sounds in other posts like they do the same things now). If I were you all, I'd drink and be happy, you really have to be a dumbass to get in trouble. Amen.
Oh P.S. the female cops are a bit more serious than the male cops. Be extra respectful.
