ABC gets Award from Alcohol Industry?

You couldn’t make this stuff up.

It seems the agency responsible for the enforcement of alcohol laws in California (ABC) received an award from the Neighborhood Market Association, where a good deal of their 2,500 members include shops selling alcohol. The award lauded the ABC as their Law Enforcement Agency of the Year also lavishing praise on the ABC’s director.

The association’s mission stated on their website includes “Make Sure Members’ Interests Come First!” and “After all, NMA is “your family in the industry.””

The irony is that the ABC should be the enforcement agency keeping all these alcohol-selling establishments in line. Couldn’t receiving awards and hearing praise from so many business owners cloud one’s views when deciding how much or little to enforcement laws in place? It seems to me that even if there is a hint of a conflict of interest these kinds of acknowledgments should be avoided but hey, that’s me.