Drinking down in Five Points has always been a popular activity of South Carolina students. It can be assumed that a decent amount of these students are under the age of 21. As that is the legal drinking age (which I don’t agree with, but we can chat about that later), many of these students are engaging in technically illegal activities.
We all know that underage drinking or possession of a fake ID can result in tickets and MIPs. However, most of us also know that Five Points is pretty lax with these rules. It is extremely easy for underage students to get into most bars. In fact, some bars are so populated by underclassmen that they are known as “freshmen bars” by USC students.
Occasionally, there's a cop monitoring students walking around or even arresting ones who seem too drunk to handle themselves. However, for the most part, it is widely accepted that if you aren’t on the ground, you don’t need to worry too badly about getting in trouble.
Of course, there are always exceptions. Every once in a while, policemen decide to enter a bar and select students at random to issue MIPs. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that it is fully within the rights of the law for the police to do this, but it is doing far more harm than good.
If the police are concerned about underage drinking and want to put a stop to it, they should enforce the law strictly all the time. The random emptying of bars should become a regular occurrence if their aim is to eliminate underage drinking. Bars should be warned about accepting fake IDs. On the other hand, if policemen are merely concerned for the health of students drinking, they should deal only with ones who seem dangerously intoxicated or acting wildly.
The current on-again, off-again enforcement of rules that is going on is simply resulting in unlucky students getting MIPs that will damage their reputation. The police must figure out how they want to deal with underage drinking and stick to it, whether it be a constant strong enforcement of the law or confronting only dangerously drunk students. The inconsistency is hurting everyone.