State Troopers to set up seat belt check point on Cinco de Mayo

May 04, 2015 at 02:08 pm by bryan


Additional law enforcement will be out on Cinco de Mayo (the 5th of May) this year in Rutherford County. Officers will be looking for impaired drivers. The stepped up enforcement will begin around lunch time on Tuesday.

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As most realize, Cinco de Mayo is Spanish for "fifth of May." The date is observed to commemorate the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín.

In the United States, Cinco de Mayo is sometimes mistaken to be Mexico's Independence Day--the most important national holiday in Mexico--which is celebrated on September 16 and not on May 5th.

Regardless of the origin, it is a date where historically, increased alcohol sales take place in the U.S. The Distilled Spirits Council reported in 2013 that on-premise Tequila sales more than doubled on Cinco de Mayo.

In 1999 Vicky Gonzales, coordinator of the Coalition for Community Development in the La Colonia neighborhood of California, wrote in the Los Angles Times, "But in stark contrast to 1862, the real message of Cinco de Mayo is getting lost in a blitz of marketing tactics of the alcoholic beverage industry."

Again, that checkpoint will be on South Rutherford Blvd. near South East Broad Street in Murfreesboro, TN.

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