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Louisiana State Police at work
Ticket for Monday Haircut Draws National Laughter
by
findingDulcinea Staff
A rare enforcement of an archaic Louisiana law evokes other strange ordinances.
30-Second Summary
Clyde Scott was ticketed by Houma city police for breaking a 1966 city ordinance that bans barbershops from doing business on Sunday, Monday and certain holidays, reports WWLTV.
Scott says he was doing a favor for a local kid, who needed a haircut before his graduation ceremony, when neighbors complained that customers were loitering in front of the shop. “About 30 minutes into what I was doing, I had a Houma police officer come through and ticket me because I was open on a Monday," said Scott.
Terrebone Parish, La., District Attorney Joe Waitz said he’ll dismiss the citation, and mocked the existence of such a law. He wasn’t the only one, as the story inspired laughter around the country and discussion of other silly laws still on the books in American municipalities.
According to the Web site Dumb Laws, the state of Louisiana also bans fake wrestling matches, stealing an alligator and biting a person while wearing false teeth.
Various Web sites and e-mail chains are devoted to lists of wacky laws that seem to make no sense, though Dwight Otwell of the Smokey Mountain Sentinel suspects that some of them have been repealed or even made up.
One example is the ubiquitous myth that sororities are banned in some cities due to laws that say that a certain number of women living together constitutes a brothel. There is no reliable evidence that such laws exist, says myth-debunking Web site Snopes.
Scott says he was doing a favor for a local kid, who needed a haircut before his graduation ceremony, when neighbors complained that customers were loitering in front of the shop. “About 30 minutes into what I was doing, I had a Houma police officer come through and ticket me because I was open on a Monday," said Scott.
Terrebone Parish, La., District Attorney Joe Waitz said he’ll dismiss the citation, and mocked the existence of such a law. He wasn’t the only one, as the story inspired laughter around the country and discussion of other silly laws still on the books in American municipalities.
According to the Web site Dumb Laws, the state of Louisiana also bans fake wrestling matches, stealing an alligator and biting a person while wearing false teeth.
Various Web sites and e-mail chains are devoted to lists of wacky laws that seem to make no sense, though Dwight Otwell of the Smokey Mountain Sentinel suspects that some of them have been repealed or even made up.
One example is the ubiquitous myth that sororities are banned in some cities due to laws that say that a certain number of women living together constitutes a brothel. There is no reliable evidence that such laws exist, says myth-debunking Web site Snopes.
Headline Link: Ticket dismissed
A barber in Houma, Louisiana, was given a ticket for cutting hair on a Monday, which is technically against the law. District Attorney Joe Waitz said he would dismiss the case. “I don’t know why this type of statute is even on the books,” he said.
Source: WWLTV
Related Topics: New Jersey's wacky laws
New Jersey is the capital of foolish laws, says Neil Genzlinger, with rules such as "it is against the law to slurp your soup in a public eating place in New Jersey" and "to buy ice cream after 6 p.m. in Newark unless you have a written note from a doctor.”
Source: The New York Times
Opinion & Analysis: Stupid laws
Dwight Otwell provides a list of "Stupid Laws" and says, "I suspect that some have been repealed and some may even be made up. But I know that crazy laws sometime get on the books in various cities, counties and states."
Source: Smoky Mountain Sentinel
Reference: Sororities and brothels, Dumb Laws
Snopes debunks the popular myth that there are laws in some cities outlawing sororities because having a certain number of women living together constitutes a brothel.
Source: Snopes
Dumb Laws is devoted to "bringing you the largest collection of stupid laws available anywhere." According to the site, recent examples in the news are a law requiring taco truck vendors in Los Angeles to move their trucks every hour, and a recently passed Georgia bill that lets people carry guns into restaurants.
Source: Dumb Laws
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