Lawmakers: Public Urination Shouldn’t Lead To Sex Offender Status
“Starting next year, urinating in public could land you on the sex offender registry. But two state lawmakers are trying to make sure that doesn’t happen. ‘People who are caught in a situation of public urination, as part of the complaint they’re charged with indecent exposure,’ said Rep. David Welch, R-Kingston. This year, that isn’t a problem. But starting next year, when New Hampshire complies with a new federal law, anyone convicted of two indecent exposure charges within three years will have to register as a sex offender. Welch and Rep. Stephen Shurtleff, D-Penacook, think that’s wrong. ‘I know there are many homeless people in New Hampshire,’ Shurtleff said. ‘There are older people with medical conditions … and also young people may have too much to drink in a bar.’ While there should be a law against public urination, he said, the penalty should fit the crime. Sex offenders must live with numerous restrictions: they’re not allowed to live near schools, they often can’t coach youth sports, and they’re not allowed to stay in homeless shelters, Shurtleff said. Beyond that, a number of people have been forced, at one time or another, to relieve themselves outdoors, Welch said. ‘I don’t think it’s a major crime wave,’ he said. ‘I think what happens is, in most cases, these things happen if the individual might have a medical reason, he just can’t help himself; hunters, there’s no bathroom in the woods.’ That’s why the two lawmakers have offered a different law — one that prohibits public urination. Violating the law would result in a violation — a fine that wouldn’t leave a permanent criminal record.” — Eagle Tribune (US)
(Thanks to Peter for the link.)
Evidently this whole brouhaha stems from the passing of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. The purpose of the act — protection of children — is entirely noble, but like much of the Bush Administration’s legislation it has a “far-reaching scope and breadth” that can lead to absurd consequences. For example, there is the case of the homeless sex offender now facing life imprisonment because he couldn’t register a home address with Georgia officials. Another example is the application of this federal act to public urination, which lawmakers in New Hampshire are rightly trying to circumvent.
After all, how many of you have never taken a leak in a public place? Of course, a lot depends on how you define “public.” It’s one thing to wander up to an elementary school and urinate on a seesaw. It’s another thing to be out in the woods and water a tree. Both are potentially public places but in each the risk of being seen — and the consequences of being seen — are dramatically different. The first case might be a sex crime. The second suggests a koan more than a crime… If you pee in the woods but nobody is there to see it, have you exposed yourself?
Or here is another conundrum. Though New Hampshire lawmakers may be doing the reasaonable thing by crafting a law that separates public urination from sex crime, do they not thereby open up a new loophole for creeps? Imagine a flasher who approaches a little old lady, whips open his trench coat, reveals his penis, and urinates on the sidewalk in front of her. Is he a sex offender? Or just a man who could no longer control his bladder?
please….label it something else aside from sex offender.there’s always some stupid law(s) on the book.let’s not add anymore…
The whole concept of “sex offender” gives me the creeps. The potential for abuse with something like that is immense.
I agree with Krovas. People carry the term “Sex Offender” too far these days. What if you are a man who desperately has to drain the lizard?! I had a number of situations at my work in which I desperately had to drain my lizard, and there wasn’t a bathroom nearby so I thought of using a bottle in an enclosed space. Once, while at work, I was working in an abandoned building and I didn’t know that there was a bathroom there, so I went inside a disgarded shampoo bottle and and empty Red Bull can and threw them in the building’s trash receptacle system down the schute. Anyway, I digress. If a man needs to go, and seeks out a spot reasonably away from onlookers like in the woods, and he happens to get caught by some law enforcement official, but made every reasonable effort not to be caught he shouldn’t be prosecuted as a sex offender. At most, he should be fined for disturbing the peace or crating an unsanitary condition, and even that is too much. When ya gotta go, ya gotta go!
All comments become the property of PervScan. You must use an email address to post a comment. However, PervScan disallows email addresses in the text of comments.
Jailbait