Friday, June 06, 2008

The Gift

Just a quibble over definitions, perhaps, but is it really "using the restroom" when one defecates in the back seat of a police car? And while I've no doubt such behavior should be punished, it also strikes me as funny that Athens police charged the fellow under a law penalizing those who create "a noxious odor by chemical means."

“He didn’t want to go to jail,” declared Athens PD's Captain Obvious.

9 comments:

Michael said...

Gee, Grits, thanks for sharing!

kbp said...

Will they need a lab expert to testify exactly what "chemical[s]" it was?

Wonder if they kept a sample for testing?

Gritsforbreakfast said...

My gift to you, Michael! ;)

Good question on keeping a sample for testing! One can also imagine the intriguing expert biologist's testimony on the "chemical" means of the sample's creation.

Big Tex said...

LOL! I'll bet I could get 20-to-life for the load I dropped this morning.

W W Woodward said...

I was teaching the Texas Penal Code to rookie police in basic academy classes when this portion of the disorderly conduct statute was added.

We all had a good time with the "noxious odor by chemical means" discussion. Many of the comments would not pass politically correct muster by today's standards.

If I remember correctly, and I'm sure I do, the legislature at the time did not intend that odors created by the natural functions of the human body were to be punished as criminal acts.

Shortly after the statute became effective a campus police officer in Waco (you guess the university) arrested a student for a flatulence exhibition in a campus elevator. The case went nowhere, as will this case.

The defecation charge should have been written up as criminal mischief.

Anonymous said...

Ahhhh, you gotta love my hometown.

Anonymous said...

Everything is made of chemicals. "Odor" is a word describing the sensation of detecting chemicals with the nose.

What a silly law.

Anonymous said...

Is the back seat of a patrol car a "public place?"

And to rage, I guess that explains the rage. Congratulations.

Anonymous said...

My late brother-in-law was a K-9 officer for a Chicago suburb. When his dog found a hiding suspect, the suspect quite often had soiled himself. To preserve the dog's valuable olfactory capabilities, Al would not let the soiled suspect ride with Al and the dog to the station.