Excessive legalism

When I was a kid, one of my friends used a stepstool to dunk a basketball.

Showing off, he hung on the rim. Because NBA players did not go to our school, the rim was not reinforced to handle the weight: it broke and the bolts pulled out of the goal.

My friend told us all that he didn't think he would get in trouble. He said that he checked the student rule book, and - low and behold! - there was no rule against breaking basketball rims by hanging on them.

Of course, he was wrong. The school had an all purpose rule against destroying school property, and he got in plenty of trouble.

It is a pity that national legal systems don't work as efficiently.

A case in point: A Dutch man has been making a nuisance of himself, licking women's toes on a beach:Proposed Dutch law would ban unsolicited toe-licking

He's been doing this for quite some time, but he could not be prosecuted, because the Netherlands had no rule forbidding uninvited toe licking.

Well, they do now.

My question: why couldn't "toe licking" be viewed as simple assault?

What would be wrong with that?

Why do they have pollute the legal code with a stupid law forbidding one individual's weird obsession?
- posted by total @ 8/09/2004 05:43:00 AM .