Summertime boozers who show they’re real losers

You won’t find them celebrated in glossy tourism brochures.

And they don’t come to mind when conversation turns to idyllic aspects of summer in the Inland Northwest.

But drunken yahoos are a part of the season, too.

Sure, alcohol abuse and the resulting dimwitted behavior are with us year-round.

“But there’s something special about summer,” said Officer Wayne Downing of the Spokane Police Department.

It was late on a Saturday night. Cruising like a civic-minded shark, he had just driven away from one downtown Spokane bar where police had broken up a fight. The air smelled of car exhaust and cologne. A block away, a girl yelled at a guy to wait up.

In a few minutes, Downing would be outside a different bar, talking to some wobbly, speech-slurring young men about another scuffle.

At the moment, though, he was trying to pinpoint just what made summer arguably the premier season for alcohol-addled conduct.

“I think the weather has a lot to do with it,” he said.

For one thing, heat and hormones can be a combustible mix. Pour on some liquor and watch the moment ignite.

And then there’s the simple lure of being outdoors at this time of year.

When the taverns and clubs close for the night in winter, patrons don’t just mill around out on the sidewalk and engage in an impromptu fiesta. It’s too cold.

In July, though, it’s different. Police officers see it night after night.

A well-lubricated crowd spills out the door and unwittingly puts on a public demonstration of classic beered-up behavior.

A young woman with a bare midriff who thinks she’s being elegant and alluring totters ridiculously in her high-heeled party shoes.

A young man in a Hawaiian shirt yearns to impress her with his toughness. He tilts his head back in an attempt to make his neck seem muscular. He juts his jaw in a neon-belligerent way and looks around for an opportunity to take offense at something, anything.

There’s nothing new about this. But any cheery characterization of summer in Spokane that starts with pup tents and ends with sailboats leaves out a double-shot of sorry reality.

“Noise, public urination,” said The Davenport Hotel’s communications director, Tom McArthur, when asked what behaviors the hotel’s guests encounter that he attributes to inebriated revelers exiting nearby establishments.

They’ll stumble up to the hotel and look for a convenient place to unzip and pee, he said. “And they’ll do that in our planter boxes, not realizing there is someone on the other side of the glass trying to eat.”

That’s not an asset to the ambiance. (And if happens often enough, it’s not so great for the plants.)

Of course, that brand of debonair charm isn’t restricted to downtown.

Drunken yahoos get around.

Earlier this summer, a carload of obviously tipsy boys clambered out of a vehicle west of the Spokane city limits and started urinating just beyond Gerald Ray’s tall fence.

Ray’s dog barked, and one of the young men threw a rock at the pet. At that point the retired educator and coach started walking toward the fence. He carried a shovel.

Failing to recognize that there was no gate there and that the 69-year-old man had no way to actually reach them, the young men panicked. Even before they had finished with the business at hand, they scurried back to the car and fled.

“They probably had to clean that car’s interior,” said Ray, who eventually retrieved a pair of sunglasses left behind.

Now the idea of intoxicated drivers on the roadways is no joke. But area law enforcement officials say excessive drinking is associated with all manner of faulty decision-making — from absurdly loud backyard parties to reckless boating.

If you never go out, especially late at night, there’s a chance you won’t encounter drunks. If, however, you go to plays, concerts, sporting events or beaches, there’s always the possibility that you will witness the signature staggering, vomiting and bellowing that are their singular contribution to our culture.

Spokane County Sheriff Mark Sterk said he understands the situation. And new rules or legislation isn’t the answer.

“We’ve got all the laws we need,” he said. “We don’t need any more.”

But filling the jails with unlucky 21-year-olds doesn’t strike him as the way to go.

What he’d like to see is an education campaign aimed at heightening young people’s awareness of the long-term consequences of having an alcohol-related arrest on their records.

Here’s a hint: It’s not exactly a jump-start to a glorious future.

“If I had the money, I’d love to launch a huge media blitz targeted at some of those risk-taking age groups in regard to summertime activities and alcohol use,” said Sterk.

Such a campaign might persuade a few young people to act more responsibly, said Erica Austin. But many would, in all likelihood, ignore the warnings.

“A lot of kids are smart, and they’re smart in a lot of different ways,” said the professor of communications at Washington State University. “The thing is, many of them are not really thinking about the future. They’re just thinking about now.”

Let’s face it. Certain impulses and desires can be inherently short-sighted. The longing to impress peers and be viewed as attractive by the opposite sex has gotten more than one person into trouble over the years.

Austin has studied uses of media in influencing decision-making and social development. She noted that even the best public-service announcements are seriously outgunned by the inescapable advertising paid for by beer-makers.

Still, when young people are encouraged to skeptically analyze alcohol marketing, it can prompt reflection about personal behavior, she said.

“But you can’t lecture them,” she said. “It has to be a process of self-discovery.”

Young adults aren’t the only problem drinkers, though.

“Most of our arrests have been people who are 35-plus,” said Sgt. Andy Boyle of the Kootenai County Sheriff’s marine division.

The weekends are especially volatile, he said. Middle-aged guys cooped up all week in dead-end jobs try to recapture their carefree youth on Saturday and Sunday.

Sometimes that gets ugly.

So who causes most of the trouble — obnoxious twits who get wasted and become exponentially bigger jerks, or reasonably normal folks who simply make a mistake and imbibe too much?

Boyle, who worked for years as a bartender before his law enforcement career, considered the question.

“There are certain people,” he said. “They are jerks and alcohol just brings more of it out.”

Then there are others guilty mostly of bad judgment. They sally forth on a powerboat and start tossing back beers early and often. Then they get hot and dry and try to quench their thirst with still more cold ones.

Before you know it, they’re singing “Louie Louie” and yelling “Hang on — I’m going to see what this baby can do.”

According to informed observers of summer in the Northwest, though, you can add up all the outright obnoxious types and besotted miscalculators and they still amount to a small minority.

“The vast majority of people just want to enjoy themselves and behave appropriately,” said Steve Frost, a senior manager with the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation.

So remember that next time you come across someone who appears willing to fight for his right to party.

Experts say that, because of their erratic behavior, it’s wise to give a wide berth to intoxicated individuals whenever possible. If, however, they appear to pose an imminent danger to themselves or others, contacting the authorities may be prudent.

It’s a judgment call, often depending on the probability that the soused person is in the company of a designated driver.

Now no one suggests that our region faces unique problems in coming to terms with alcohol abuse. It’s a national issue.

But not every part of the country promotes itself as a pristine playground.

The local slogan is, after all, “Near Nature/Near Perfect” — not “Nearly Killed This Bottle/Nearly Passed Out.”

Dr. Bruce Wright is a psychiatrist who heads WSU’s department of health and wellness services.

He acknowledged that there’s something special about the atmosphere of summer that puts people in a mood to let the good times roll. For many, that includes alcohol.

Some use moderation. Others binge and make 100-proof asses of themselves.

Of the two choices, Wright recommends the former.

“It’s not necessarily a good time if you can’t remember it,” he said.