We have all giggled about Concord’s more absurd initiatives (state-funding for adult diapers, fines for losing your helium balloons) and cringed at its devious ones (repealing the parental notification law, civil unions). But this latest legislative push—which occurs as state spending continues to climb out of control and with no solution to the school funding crisis anywhere in sight—is another silly example of Concord’s misplaced priorities:
A New Hampshire lawmaker says peeing in public exposes a flaw in the law.
Strange as it sounds, Democratic Rep. Stephen Shurtleff says making public urination a separate crime could really help people out.
Currently, there is no state law specifically addressing public urination; it’s prosecuted under a patchwork of local and state laws, indecent exposure among them.
Shurtleff says because indecent exposure is a sex offense, multiple convictions could land habitual public urinators on a sex offender registry, a penalty he feels is too severe for the crime.
It bears underscoring that Rep. Shurtleff wants to pass a statewide anti-public urination law because he doesn’t want public urinators to be punished too harshly! Do public urinators have a lobby groups that I am unaware of? If anyone is listening, we strongly urge our, uh, leaders in Concord to knock this stuff off and get to the difficult work of fixing some of the states real problems, of which a patchwork of local peeing ordinances is not one.