According to Grand Forks Herald city editor reporter Tu-Uyen Tran that’s exactly what could happen.

The fine the Grand Forks City Council wants to levy against the crime of loud partying is $750 on the second offense.

That’s stricter than the fine for being caught driving drunk for a second time. Stricter than possesion of marijuana. Stricter than the fine for a minor in posession of alcohol in many cities in North Dakota. That’s according to the testimony of attorney Alex Reichert, who’s defended some UND students who got fined $250 for their first offenese.

The city council is pretty worked up over it.  They’re pretty hostile to any criticism of this, so read Tu-Uyen’s whole post to get the whole scoop on that.

I can understand the concern of some in the city over having their lives disturbed by loud, partying college kids.  That said, does it really make sense to make the crime of being noisy more serious than drunk driving?  Or possession of marijuana?

That seems needlessly draconian to me.

Raising the severity of punishment for a crime isn’t always the best way to go about stopping the commission of that crime.  Maybe instead of whopping fines our political leaders need to look at what’s causing all this wild partying.  Namely, the fact that kids are restricted from consuming alcohol until an age when most of them are in college and living on their own for the first time.  Maybe if these kids were allowed to drink while they were younger, and still under the control of their parents, the boozing would be less of a novel experience once they hit college.

I know such a change in policy is beyond the scope of the Grand Forks City Council, but in solving any problem like this we should look to root causes rather than heavy-handed enforcement measures.