It's Legal to Spit in Sarasota Again
For the first time in over 100 years you can now legally spit on the sidewalk in Sarasota, Florida. In a vote of 4-1 on December 15, 2008, Sarasota city commissioners rescinded the county ordinance that banned such behavior. According to the Sarasota Herald Tribune, over the past 24 months, Sarasota police officers have been enforcing the law as part of a crime suppression tactic. Officers will observe someone spitting on the street and then confront the individual. After arresting them for committing a second degree misdemeanor, they would then search their pockets or person and would sometimes find drugs or paraphernalia. That would allow the police to charge the individuals with more serious felony crimes. The city commissioners realized that the ordinance was open to subjective enforcement and most of them decided that the ordinance should be repealed. The lone holdout was commissioner Ken Shelin who somehow was able to make the argument that his background in public health prevented him from voting in favor of repealing the ordinance. Are you kidding me? So would Mr. Shelin feel that every baseball player who spits on the floor of a dugout or while chewing in centerfield should be subjected to the law? Thankfully the Sarasota City attorney Robert Fournier was able to advise the city commissioners that the law was archaic and should be repealed.
