140 Fake IDs Seized
In Raid on Oneonta Bar
ONEONTA – Oneonta police seized 140 fake or altered IDs at in their biggest raid to date at the Sip & Sail bar on Friday night.
“We were planning to go to several bars to conduct checks on liquor licenses and underage drinking,” said Police Chief Doug Brenner. “We went to the Sip & Sail first and discovered a large amount of underage customers.”
In all, they issued 140 tickets, confiscating the same number of fake IDs. “This is by far the biggest raid we’ve had,” said Brenner. “It’s one thing to pick up a person here or there, but we haven’t even sifted through all the tickets yet.”
So large, he said, that they didn’t even have the time to go to the other bars. “This one took up all our time,” he said.
In February 2016, Oneonta Police raided Legends Filling Station and Choice Ultra Lounge for selling underage; at Choice Ultra Lounge, 70 of the bar’s 84 patrons were under 21.
The Sip & Sail remains open, but according to Bill Crowley, spokesperson for the State Liquor Authority, charges may be pending.
Nys laws are the most lenient in the country except to have a beer if ur middle class, as we support upstate NY we r targeted by law enforcement.
Illegal immigrants get a license no more bail and prisons r being emptied , most crimes are being overlooked while middle class kids r getting the law book thrown at them for having a beer. The experiment of lowering the drinking age has obviously failed,it was lowered for DWI
With Uber very few r driving intoxicated,
Europe and the rest of the world except for a few do not have a 21 drinking age nor a problem with fake ids obviously,
They also don’t have binge drinking and other drinking related problems,
Time to rethink what we r doing if we truly care about our kids,
But sadly I don’t think we care it’s about police raids money and our super tough on crime governor Cuomo,-LOL
The drinking age should be raised to 25 years old.
I’m convinced Joe was not of legal drinking age when writing that post
We should remember that it was under Reagan that the Federal government basically forced states to raise the drinking age to 21 under the threat of taking away all Federal highway assistance (so much for states’ rights and allowing local decision-making). It’s very convenient to blame Cuomo (not a great governor but not the bogey-man many make him out to be), but it was a Republican president who created this situation.
I was born in 1959 and drinking age for me was 18. Having said and, with all due respect, my generation was much more mature at 18 that what I am seeing in society today. My granddaughter is 18 and albeit, she is a fine young lady, she is in no way as mature as I was at 18 BUT..I would offer her a glass of wine with dinner if it was legal.I really feel that raising the drinking age would make things even worse. If they want to be responsable adults, let’s call them to task. As mentioned above, other countries don’t have a 21 year old dringking age law and it seems to be working for them.
@Terry
and underage drinking should be illegal…. oh wait…
Good for those cops for taking all those kids id’s, they definitely weren’t breaking the law and drinking under the age of 21 when they were young. Oneonta definitely needed some money this month and why not take it from the college kids that are already broke. How about the police focus on the crackheads roaming the streets constantly and not the people are the only reason this town makes any money.
If they can enlist at age 18 I think they can have a beer.
If they can get married, i think they can have a beer.
Joe..the most lenient in the country??…i doubt that..i will say this and I’m sure many will agree..even 21 year olds these days are not mature enough to drink. The age should be raised..to what I don’t know..a lot of 25 years olds don’t have the maturity level I had at 15..
Looks like SUCO might want to redesign its students’ IDs.
I am a republican, but there are two things I don’t agree with then on. The drinking age and the legalization of marijuana. I am 20 years old and I do not smoke but I do like to drink. As Republicans, we believe in small government and more personal liberties. Then why do republican politicians restrict people of what they can and cannot drink or smoke? If everyone followed the law, college students wouldn’t ever sip alcohol until the middle of Junior year. It’s acceptable in society that college students drink, but this new police chief wants to flex his power and get 140 students in legal trouble. These things will never gain enough support, and the legal age is a national law, so students are out of luck for a long time going forward.
I am also a Conservative, in fact I was one of the students to be involved in the raid… I know that officials care about students and children, but as said by Max, conservatives believe in a small government. I am not fond of cancel culture, or completely banning something. The federal government should NOT have that much power. I say, lower the drinking age to 18, but keep in place the zero tolerance law until an individual is 21 years of age or older
I believe that lowering the drinking age would be beneficial to the majority of us. I’m from a country where the drinking age is 18 years of age for alcoholic beverages under 21% and age 20 for anything over 21%. This works good for us because drinking and driving is not a major issue due to very strict road laws (drinking and driving in the US is what got the age raised to 21). If you blow more than a 0.2 you are at risk for losing your license. Because of this, most people are too scared to drive while intoxicated. If it were up to me, I would lower the drinking age to 18 for anything under 21% and 20 for anything over. The max limit to blow should be 0.2-0.3 because 0.8 is extremely high and most people don’t know how much they’ve had to drink and often believe they’re okay to drive when they’re really not. I also think that Uber should be accessible in smaller towns as well so that people don’t have an excuse to drive while drunk. I know that stricter laws for drinking and fake IDs etc would not really help because college students are not going to stop drinking anytime soon and I think it’s quite important that they’re able to have fun and take a break from all the overwhelming school work. Stricter laws are only going to cause more problems. So yeah, the drinking age should be lowered and there should be stricter road laws and better access to Ubers in smaller towns as well. If you can die for your country at 18, you should be able to have a beer.
I lived and worked in Oneonta for 20+ years. Retired to MD. Low tech solution. Under license is portrait style. Over 21 license is landscape. Very cheap. Highly effective. No way you can make a vertical format into horizontal.
It really doesn’t matter if you agree with the law. It is the law. It was broken. There were consequences. That’s how the real world works. Don’t like it? It takes more than being a keyboard lobbyist to change things.
There may never be a solution to this problem. Everyone says, “If you can die for your country, you can have a beer!” I don’t see any of these 18 year olds wanting to sacrifice their life for their country, I see a bunch of children who want to party. Kids are definitely not as mature as they used to be and it’s getting worse. There’s no responsible drinking and honestly, going to the SIP was one of my favorite places, but I stopped going because of all the young children in there. They aren’t going to “take a break from overwhelming school.” They go out drinking EVERYDAY. College is not supposed to be about drinking, but the majority of the students that go, go for the parties. Maybe they should have a place on campus that they can drink at so people aren’t out drinking and driving and being obnoxious. Maybe there will never be a solution. Until then, at least I can go to the bar without worrying about children being in there 😂
Derek, if college students have money for a fake ID and money to go out drinking, they should take responsibility for their actions. If you don’t agree with the law, that’s one thing, but don’t make up silly reasons why 140 young people (who should be focusing on their expensive tuition they will likely spend 20 yrs paying back, rather than drinking) shouldn’t be fined for breaking the law. Laws are laws, and they pay the consequence.for breaking it.
If you do some research folks on the number of deaths from binge drinking, frat initiations, and drunk driving or riding in a car with a drunk driver. As for the no problems in European countries. Check those facts as well. They have problems with young people’s drinking. Deaths, over doses, drownings, car crashes, rapes, assaults etc. The data is all on line.
The drinking age should be lowered. We’re calling 18-20 year olds adults, but still regulating what they put in their bodies. I propose we lower the age to 18, but have Zero Tolerance Driving Laws enforced until 21 or lower the age to 18 but they can only drink alcohol in a controlled setting like a restaurant. Other countries don’t criminalize alcohol and you’re allowed to drink at 18 and even earlier in countries like Germany, where it’s 16. Teach responsibility and educate rather than criminalizing legal adults.
Some of the comments on here are clearly from older residents that are just straight up ignorant. The quality of students at SUNY has gone up dramatically over the years, I myself receive fantastic grades. Do you really want expect us to spend every waking second hitting the books? I hate to burst your bubble but college students drinking will never go away. Bars are a much safer space than private residences. Also, keep in mind that student spending is what keeps this city alive, I would be very careful about going after students. We are not any less mature than older generations.
I agree on two points: the drinking age should be lowered to 18, and kids are much less mature than they were 20 years ago. I ran a local convenience store many years ago, and we were one of the major beer distributors in Oneonta. The kids ~ as we referred to them ~ were much more mature, and polite, and we enjoyed them for the most part. We had the occasional problem, but generally they were a great bunch. We remained friends with a few of them for years after they graduated. Raising the drinking age has done nothing to stop underage drinking ~ the raid on one bar demonstrates that! Lower it back to 18 and hold them accountable. And parents, how about ~ instead of being friends with your kids ~ you raise them, teach them manners, and school them in being responsible adults!
It never ceases to amaze me how you people place blame and criticize others for their actions when you know damn well that you did the same things in your youth.
Oh its his fault, or her fault… how about this… IT’S NOBODY’S FAULT? Each one of those students knew the consequences of their actions, yet they deemed the risk acceptable anyway, as did I at their age, as did you. So they got caught, SO WHAT? It comes with the territory. They’ll pay the fines and get new IDs and be back at the Sip ‘n Sail Tavern on Friday night.
I work at the college and trust me the kids are alot less mature then when I grew up .. Christ half of them dont know how many quarters are in a dollar and that you cant take money from the ATM machines when u have negative 80 dollars in your account . Can only imagine them drinking at bars PLEASE….LOL
You really cannot in good faith feel bad for “The Sip” I graduated from O-State in 2009, and it was always way overcrowded and that they would only ID Male patrons.. This is has been a persistent problem, the state seemingly gave them multiple chances and they blew it..
In response to comment number 1 from “Joe” it’s not the act of consuming a beer, it is the act of defrauding not only the State of New York but also the owner of the Sip. Unless the Sip was complicit in knowingly allowing people to walk in with false identification
They can get married, have children, die for their country and vote but can’t have a beer?
Oneonta’s economy rests on its colleges. kids will continue to drink to excess. the city should provide an alternative indirectly or directly and enjoy a direct revenue stream. you need to reverse engineer the problem and come up with possible solutions.
class of 87
The reason “kids” as everyone is calling us, are not as responsible/mature as you believe you were at our age is because as time goes on we take more and more responsibilities away from children because we don’t trust them and don’t want then to turn out like you. If you don’t think your kid is responsible or mature, then either they have a problem or you didn’t raise them right. Just reading your comments made me believe 75% of you, aren’t as mature as you claim you were at my age. To finish this off and to put the minds of all the parents at ease, I’m not old enough to buy any addictive chemical, I’m 10 days into being 20 years old. Guess what, I still get my items. Everyone knows somebody that’s 21 and I’m addicted to nicotine. What’s one to do in this situation? Maybe if you gave me the responsibility to choose for myself if I want to buy these chemicals I would’ve had more free will and less temptation when I was first offered, but instead I thought, “well if I don’t try it now I may not get another chance (it’s not like I can buy it)“ maybe if you gave us more responsibilities, we’d be able to show you that being responsible isn’t hard. I’m a lineman, I put fiber optic cable on countless telephone poles and left home/New York state at 19 and am currently living on my own 1,500 miles away. So with all due respect your comments on a lack of responsibility are completely without warrant, you’re irresponsible/wrongly taught children can’t speak for an entire age group.