OPEN CONTAINER ROUND-UP REDUX: Regular readers of this column are familiar with the Open Container Round-Up, a general accounting of recent run-ins between police and those brave souls who take their love of alcohol to the streets. This week, I decided it was time to take a statistical approach, prompted by a continuing mystery: namely, I can't believe how many people get nailed drinking Natural Brand beer — either Natural Light or its hip little brother, Natty Ice.
THE METHODOLOGY: When I request police reports from Tampa's finest, I have almost no idea what I'm going to get. I pull from a master list of all the crimes committed on a given day. Other than the date and location of the crime, and a short, generic description of the offense written in cop-speak ("crim mischief"; "batt-non-ser inj"), it's a crapshoot. But by far my favorite criminal offense to pull reports on is the "Unlaw Poss Bev Conta." In the most recent batch of reports I pulled from T.P.D., I got back six "Unlaw Poss Bev Conta." Of those, three were guys busted with Natty Ice. That's a 50 percent ratio. But wait, there's more. The other three reports (including the gentleman in last week's column who told police he had AIDS "all the way!" and a guy with his beer in a Circle-K cup) leave it unclear what type of alcohol the offender was drinking. That 50 percent could be low.
BY THE NUMBERS: I went back through the last year of Blotters, checking out all the Open Container Round-Ups. I have written this feature five times, chronicling some 22 arrests. Of those arrests, 13 were for Natural Light or Ice. Far and away the champ. Hard liquor got two mentions, beer other than Natty was "disposed of at the scene" on three occasions, and cases where the brand was left unresolved occurred four times. A quick check of Wikipedia reveals that Natural brand is distributed by Anheuser-Busch, the Light variety first available in 1977 followed by Natty Ice in 1996. Wikipedia goes on to say: "Due to its relatively low price and high availability, it is popular at both high school and college parties in the United States." Naturally.
This article appears in Jun 21-27, 2006.