Lagniappe Mobile Blog

It was not shocking or surprising when I read Boozie’s coverage of the Widespread Panic show arrests (aka Christmas for Orange Beach PD). I did have some serious deja vu from 2002 with Birmingham law enforcement’s “Operation Don’t Panic” where 200 people were arrested. Orange Beach PD are infamous for being hard-nosed, merciless law dogs that live to bust for anything and everything. Once upon a time in the long long ago, I thought I was going to be a chef and spent the summer before my senior year in high school doing my apprenticeship at Zeke’s. One of my memories from that experience (besides meeting Boudoir Soirees CEO Donna Bryant) was a four-lane roadblock on Gulf Beach Highway on the Fourth of July after I had worked a 12-13 hour shift. After waiting in line for an hour, I was then taken out of my vehicle, interrogated, and given a DUI test. At the end of the DUI test, I was asked to say the ABC’s backwards to which I replied, “Look, I just got off work, I’m tired, and I have to get back up in a few hours to go back to work. I cannot say my ABC’s backwards. So, just call my father, and he’ll come over here and get me out.” They let me go after that. So, I reiterate that the widespread (yeah, it’s a pun) drug arrests were not surprising.

What is shocking and surprising to me is that this didn’t happen the first time the Spreadheads invaded Orange Beach. I assumed that they would let everybody enjoy the show and set up roadblocks immediately afterwards. Since I am a betting man, I would have bet some serious money on this, and I was dumbfounded when they didn’t. I thought, “Well, maybe they used their financial sense to realize that the revenue generated from the show, The Wharf, the restaurants, the hotels, etc. overshadows the money they made busting a couple of hundred NON-VIOLENT offenders on minor possession and paraphernalia charges.” I guess I was wrong.

It is also shocking that The Wharf is kowtowing in this situation by reports from the local news saying that they are asking Widespread Panic not to return. I know that they must cooperate with local officials, but didn’t this three-day show put some money in the Orange Beach pockets? They may be using their smarty brains, word of things like this get around Stonerdom pretty fast, and they might see a lackluster turn-out at the box office if the have them back. At least we know that the next time Widespread decides to play the area, then it will be in the Port City, and the drive will be shorter.