<p>NH33 points out some interesting statisitics. During the month with the highest rate of arrests there were 9 citations for underage drinking. JMU has an undergraduate population of over 17,000 students. Assume that 75% of those are underage, you have at least 12,750 underage. CHammy points out that most kids do drink on all college campuses. For the sake of this analysis let’s assume it’s ony 50% leaving us with 6,375 underage drinkers in any given month. That leaves us with the month with greatest risk of being cited having a .14% chance of being cited for doing something that although common is still technically illegal. Multiply that highe rate by all the time the students are in school and you get a worst case 1.0% citation rate of estimated underage drinkers. I’m not going to do the research, but my guess is that is well within the norm for college campuses. </p>
<p>Speed traps are just that entrapment by changing the rules abrubtly and citing people quickly. Underage drinking has a 21 year warning. If you are going to do it, keep it out of sight. I suspect more than 9 speeders a month are collected at speed traps. I’m sorry your child was unlucky and got cited. It’s frustrating to be one of the 9 caught while thousands get away with it.</p>
<p>I think your efforts would be better utilized by joining the effort to lower the drinking age. I agree that it should be lowered. The majority of college presidents and many high school principals have already communicated with congress and the public their desire to lower the drinking age. A law is a law whether speeding, drinking or bank robbing and they are all enforced. Work to change the laws you don’t like.</p>