Cinco de Mayo in L.A. – Music, Fun, Celebration … Arrested?
April 30, 2009It’s a warm day in spring; summer is right around the corner. Take in the delicious aroma of mouth watering Mexican food, the guitars and trumpets of the Mariachi music; bright colors, streamers, and beautiful traditional Mexican dancers in costume. What better way to celebrate with family and friends than getting together for the annual Cinco de Mayo celebration?
In Los Angeles, the Cinco de Mayo holiday has quickly become the leading Mexican holiday. It has surpassed Mexican Independence day which lands every year on September 16th.
The Cinco de Mayo holiday also comes with the connotation of heavy drinking, wily crowds and numerous arrests. There are millions of dollars spent annually on this day of celebration, most of which plays into the marketing of alcohol as one of the most important elements of the holiday. With television commercials from beer and tequila companies, commercialism has played a major role, coining it one of the ‘biggest drinking holidays’ of the year.
So revelers beware. In Los Angeles, law enforcement agencies will be out patrolling in force. There will be sobriety checkpoints set up in different areas of the city. You may also need to be aware even if you’re not over the .08 legal limit, at the officer’s discretion, if found you’ve been impaired at all, they will take you to jail.
If you are arrested, as Tonya has pointed out in a previous article about what to do if arrested:
- Never argue with the arresting officers.
- Don’t run away from or touch the officers.
- Keep your hands in view at all times.
- Be polite.
- Give your real, true name; because bailing out somene from jail named “John Doe” or “Sue Z. Cue” is next to impossible.
Landing in jail is not a very fun way to end the day while celebrating… freedom. So, as you toast your first “salud” on Cinco de Mayo and start to forget the rest of what I’ve said, remember: Call 1-888 BAIL BOND if you do get arrested. We’re here for your 24 hours a day.
Photocredit: © Alexei Ryskin – Fotolia.com
April 30th, 2009 at 8:57 am
That is true….So many folks out here wouldn’t end up w/ severe fines or jail time if they just followed that advice. Although police are not perfect, they go through a certain amount of unnecessary abuse, so I get why they do what they do.
May 5th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
[...] Mariachi is a type of musical group, originally from Cocula, Jalisco, Mexico. Usually a mariachi consists of at least three violins, two trumpets, one Mexican guitar, one vihuela (a high-pitched, five-string guitar) one guitarrón (a small-scaled acoustic bass) and occasionally a harp. They dress in silver studded charro outfits with [...]