Tuesday, March 31, 2009

There oughta be a law...

I don't know if it's human nature to avoid things that annoy us. Some people seem to seek those things out.

But the Brighton, Michigan, City Council decided to make it easier to avoid being annoyed by adopting a ban on being annoying in public.

The new ordinance makes it illegal “to insult, accost, molest or otherwise annoy, either by word of mouth, sign, or motion, any person in any public place.” It also forbids people “to engage in a course of conduct or repeatedly commit acts that alarm or seriously annoy another person and that serve no legitimate purpose.”

Some towns and states, perhaps heeding the warning that "crack kills", are considering adopting legislation making it illegal to wear your trousers to low. I can only assume, and hope, that the legislation is aimed at the current fashion fad among some of our younger citizens, and not our plumber friends, who have already been the butt of to many jokes on the subject.

I don't know why people feel the need for so many laws. Like the chicken and the egg, I'm not sure if government has grown larger because we depend on it so much, or if we depend on it so much because it has grown so large. I know most people can't name three things that the government doesn't tax or regulate, and still Congress seems to spend a lot of time making new laws. They don't seem to spend a lot of time repealing laws we already have.

There are things our neighbors might do that annoy us, and there are things our neighbors might do that we find repulsive. But for the sake of living in a free society, if something doesn't break your leg, or pick your pocket, or violate somebody's rights, do we really need another law?

Although I could just about go along with that pants thing.

And then there's this loud-mouthed guy that comes into the coffee shop once in a while...

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2 Comments:

Blogger Mike Kole said...

I find that law annoying. I suspect that had I attended that council meeting, I would have found the councilors highly annoying, and thus in violation of their annoying law.

9:37 PM  
Blogger Bob G. said...

I dunno, gentlemen...
In MY neighborhood on the south side of Fort Wayne, I could get onboard with a "ban" like that REAL easy.

Then again, it is a "blighted" area, rplete with the typical human flotsam.
Just saying...

9:56 AM  

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