I don't get it how you can be arrested for public intoxication. Who cares if he is drunk or not as long as he doesn't drive.
I'm really lucky that it's ok to be drunk in public in Austria. I would have gotten arrested a lot since I was 14

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I'm sure it's was more to the point of him being an asshole, who was also drunk at the time. Just a guess...

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"Let's just trap Sekera in the caverns underneath HSBC arena." -BlueandYellow

Reporter: "Steve, you guys now lead the league in defensive scoring."
Montador: "It's probably because of how good-looking we are."

In the US you don't get arrested for simply being "drunk in public"...you get arrested for being "an annoying, loud, possibly violent drunk douchebag in public".

I'm pretty sure that law would translate all over the world.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

It sure does, especially the violent part.
I just don't get the reasoning "public intoxication". Is it against the law to be drunk (intoxicated) in public?

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You won't get arrested for being drunk in public as long as you're not making a scene. As long as you're not a danger to yourself or anyone around you, they're not going to take you in.

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Yeah, what Rud said...cops don't go around looking for drunk people, they just take care of the ones that are causing trouble and label it "public intoxication".

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Hold my beer and watch this...

This makes sense, but some part of me objects to the situation where there is technically a law forbidding people from being in public places drunk. Even if it's enforced by the police only in the case that people are being obnoxious. Technically, walking from the bar, to any place outside is illegal?

Like most things in the US it depends entirely on where you are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_int ... ted_States

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Hold my beer and watch this...

That's yet another case of a paper not being accurate about a law. There is no such thing as a law against "public intoxication". Most laws are worded to the effect of "intoxicated and disruptive". That means being drunk in public AND 1)blocking traffic 2)being disorderly with threatening words or actions 3)fighting or assualting anybody.

Nobody in the entire USA can eber be arrested for simply being drunk in a public place. There has to be another action along with it.

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orly? If you're under 21 you sure can.

Yeah...in that case being under age is the "other action".
Drunk and fighting
Drunk and blocking traffic
Drunk and under-age

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Hold my beer and watch this...

Matter of fact, you can't be arrested just for being drunk and under 21. The charge is called underage possession (or whatever equivalent language per state). That means actually having alcohol in a container (can, bottle, etc) in your possession (in hand, in your car). Or, if being charged with DWI, you can be charged for underage possession just for having it in your system, which a breath test or blood test will determine. Shy of a DWI charge, it's not worth the time to test a minor for having alcohol in their system to back up an underage possession charge. The best course of action for dealing with a drunk minor who no longer has the alcohol in their possession is to get them home or with a responsible friend, driver, etc.

I don't mean to start a fight here, but what I'm looking at, many states have explicit laws that state any consumption of alcohol by a minor is illegal.

9 states + DC explicitly prohibit any consumption of alcohol by a minor. By that logic a minor who is drunk must have consumed alcohol, and would be in violation of those laws.

http://drinkingage.procon.org/view.reso ... 591#chart2

Because there are various exceptions that allow underage consumption, it doesn't mean that a minor can or will be arrested for being drunk in public. What that link doesn't get into is the requirements to support a charge for possession/consumption of alcohol by a minor. Possession is easy - they just need to have alcohol with/next to them (which would be confiscated and used as evidence).

Even if a state has a law against consumption only (simply having it in their system), it's most likely not worth the effort to make the charge since portable breath test results are not admissible in court, and any evidence would come down to statements/observations only.

For example, NC even has it in their state statutes explicitly stating that no person shall be arrested just for being drunk in public. http://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation ... 4-447.html

Many/most other states are the same way, but I don't have the time to look up 50 state law websites.