From Reason:
Springfield, Virginia resident Eric Williamson was arrested and charged with indecent exposure yesterday for failing to put on any clothes after getting up at 5:30 am to make some coffee. A woman and her 7-year-old daughter had cut across Williamson's front yard and saw him through his kitchen window.
If convicted, Williamson could be fined $2,000 and spend a year in jail.
Fairfax police say Williamson wanted to be seen naked. Which I guess means Williamson's front yard is a pretty popular spot at 5:30 in the morning.
Head-shakingly idiotic. Will the woman be charged as a peeping tom? Once the PC idiocy of elevating the wish to not be offended (where what was offensive could be defined by you) to the status of a legally-protected right is combined with the continued degradation of property rights, idiotic actions by the police like this are inevitable. Under any sane system of justice the officer the woman summoned would've told her "Lady, if you don't like seeing naked people don't look in their windows, now move along before I arrest you for invasion of privacy and illegal trespass".
A few of the comments from Reason:
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The woman and her kid were cutting across his front yard? I suppose if they broke into his house to use his bathroom and he had just gotten out of the shower, it'd be ok to charge him then too?
will he be on the sex offender registry as well?
Wait around naked in your house, hoping someone will look in your windows?
WTF difference does it make even if he wanted to be seen naked?
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Let's change a few things in this story to see if it makes sense.
ReplyDeleteLet's say that a lady was naked while making coffee and a guy came by and looked through a window into her home and saw her naked and called the police.
Who would they arrest?
Me thinks the guy for peeping.