51-Percenters Unite to Fight Shutdowns Targeted businesses call to “defund” the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. “This was never about bars. This is about freedom.”
What started as an effort by struggling small-business owners known as “51-percenters” to safely reopen under government-ordered coronavirus shutdowns has grown into a unified movement to take on the state agency that regulates the alcoholic beverage industry in Texas.
That movement was recharged Thursday by yet another shutdown that destroys their ability to make a living, feed their families, or support their employees—prompting their spokesman to announce a plan to “defund” the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. 51-Percenters Unite
The 51-percenters—business owners who hold a permit from the TABC and receive more than 51 percent of their revenue from alcohol sales—have been among the hardest hit by Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive orders that declare which businesses are “essential” and can remain open.
They say TABC has abused its enforcement authority under Abbott’s orders, not only setting arbitrary rules and applying them unequally, but using their power to harass, intimidate, and extort certain sellers of alcoholic beverages, blatantly violating their constitutional rights in the process.
“Never has an industry received more persecution than now,” said Chris Polone, a former hazardous materials specialist who now owns The Rail Club Live, a live-music venue in Fort Worth that until a few months ago sold alcohol under a 51-percent permit from the TABC.
TABC suspended his permit at a July 4 protest held at his club to demonstrate how 51-percenters could operate with strict safety protocols, just like similar businesses that were allowed to reopen under the governor’s July 26 executive order. Polone says that event “created the spark” that started the movement.
-- excerpt, rest at link above --
“We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent people.” ― George Orwell
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
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