Ott's bar and restaurant, in Washington township, New Jersey is all one could possibly hope for from a local bar and restaurant in south Jersey. Quick friendly service and an environment reminiscent of the show "Cheers" with, of course, a few modern renovations. Unfortunately however, no night out is worth the amount of harassment and terrorizing one is likely to experience upon leaving this bar, located conveniently adjacent to the Washington township police station. Essentially, police in this small south Jersey township enjoy the convenience of monitoring activity at this bar whenever they choose, from the comfort of their station, and to harass and hunt down anyone leaving the bar, drunk and sober drivers alike.
There's no need to reiterate that drunk driving is a serious crime that should be dealt with seriously. The problem, however, is that the arbitrarily set legal limit of .08 percent blood alcohol level simply is not drunk driving by any stretch of the imagination, as evidenced by the statistic that fatalities conclusively linked to drunk driving have never occurred beneath a blood alcohol level of around .18. Despite this fact, however, thousands of hard working New Jersey citizens are arrested for having a blood alcohol level far below any statistically dangerous level, and almost universally persecuted by the Legal Industrial complex in the form of thousands of dollars confiscated, confiscated property, imprisonment and forced re-education training, and other legally brutal treatment that are oftentimes more harsh than our treatment of child molesters. For many, it is startlingly obvious that the purpose of setting these limits unnecessarily low is not to promote safety at all but rather to provide the excuse for revenue generation and other forms of unconstitutional harassment for towns and cities across the country.
Even if one finds the current legal limit, of slightly less than a full glass of wine with dinner, to be a reasonable basis for taking one's license and money, and damaging one's public reputation, there is still great cause for concern regarding the behavior of money hunting police in Washington township. According to several Ott's customers, harassment by police got so bad in the past that the business' owner actually contacted the Washington township police to object to the virtual "lock down" of the bar. One patron of the bar told Save The World Radio that it's not uncommon to be followed aggressively for more than a mile by police upon leaving the bar's parking lot.
"It was truly scary.. I knew I was below the limit but it was scary being hunted like prey when I didn't do anything wrong." - Mike, 31, Washington township resident
Another customer told us that she's almost entirely stopped coming to Ott's On The Green, due to the incessant harassment.
"A few years back, when I started coming here it was really fun, but now it almost feels like it's just a trap, set to rob people who aren't really drunk or a threat." - Lisa, 28, from Washington township
All patrons interviewed requested to be quoted on a first name basis only.
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