Unfortunate Laws Part Two

Here is part two of state laws that some might find peculiar. Part one was put up a few weeks ago. Today will will look at California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, and The District of Columbia. These regulations are borrowed from Bored. Pictures are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library” . California // Alhambra: You cannot leave your car on the street overnight without the proper permit // Animals are banned from mating publicly within 1,500 feet of a tavern, school, or place of worship. // Arcadia: Peacocks have the right of way to cross any street, including driveways. // A server in California can be convicted of selling to a minor if the purchaser uses a false or altered ID to buy the alcohol. // Baldwin Park: Nobody is allowed to ride a bicycle in a swimming pool. // Bathhouses are against the law. // Belvedere City Council order reads: “No dog shall be in a public place without its master on a leash.” // Blythe: You are not permitted to wear cowboy boots unless you already own at least two cows. // Burlingame: It is illegal to spit, except on baseball diamonds; Carmel Ice cream may not be eaten while standing on the sidewalk. (Repealed when Clint Eastwood was mayor); Women may not wear high heels while in the city limits. // California only fairly recently legalized the sale of alcoholic beverages in nudist colonies. // Car wash attendants in San Francisco, California may not use old pairs of underware to wash or dry vehicles. // Chico: Detonating a nuclear device within the city limits results in a $500 fine. // Downey: It is illegal to wash your car in the street. (Passed 1995). // In 1838, the city of Los Angeles passed an ordinance requiring that a man obtain a license before serenading a woman. // In Los Angeles courts it is illegal to cry on the witness stand. // In Berkeley, Calif., you can’t whistle for an escaped bird before 7 a.m. // In 1930, the City Council of Ontario passed an ordinance forbidding roosters to crow within the city limits. // In an animal shelter, lizards and snakes are treated under the same guidelines as cats and dogs. // In Baldwin Park, California nobody is allowed to ride a bicycle in a swimming pool. // In California, community leaders passed an ordinance that makes it illegal for anyone to try and stop a child from playfully jumping over puddles of water.// In California it is illegal to have caller ID // In California it’s against regulations to let phones ring more than nine times in state offices. // In California you may not set a mouse trap without a hunting license. // In California, selling a gold piece without tooth marks in it is considered forgery. // In Los Angeles, years ago it was legal to cook in your bedroom, but not to sleep in your kitchen. // In Los Angeles a man is legally entitled to beat his wife with a leather belt or strap, but the belt can’t be wider than 2 inches, unless he has his wife’s consent to beat her with a wider strap. Consent should be given prior to the event, as is carefully stipulated. // In Los Angeles, you cannot bathe two babies in the same tub at the same time // In the 1940’s, California law made it illegal to serve alcohol to a gay person. // In Riverside, California, kissing on the lips, unless both parties wipe their lips with carbonized rose water, is against the local health ordinance. (Someone needed to be kissed!) // In San Francisco it’s illegal to play poker in public or gamble in a barricaded room. // In San Francisco, it’s illegal to beat a rug in front of your house. // In Ventura County, California, cats and dogs are not allowed to have sex without a permit. // It is a misdemeanor to shoot at any kind of game from a moving vehicle, unless the target is a whale. // It is a violation of the California Alcoholic Beverage Control Act for producers of alcohol beverages to list the names of retailers or restaurants that sell their products in advertising or even in newsletters. // It is illegal to drive more than two thousand sheep down Hollywood Boulevard at one time. // It is illegal to eat an orange in your bath tub // It is illegal to pile horse manure more than six feet high on a street corner. // It is illegal to set a mouse trap without a hunting license. // Lafayette: You are forbidden to spit on the ground within 5 feet of another person. // Lodi: It is illegal to own or sell “Silly String”. // Lompoc: It is illegal to posses, own or raise roosters. This is considered disturbing the peace. // Long Beach: Cars are the only item allowed in a garage; It is illegal to curse on a mini-golf course. // Los Angeles law forbids hunting moths under a street light. // Los Angeles: You may not hunt moths under a street light; ; Toads may not be licked; It is a crime for dogs to mate within 500 yards of a church (Breaking this law is punishable by a fine of $500 and/or six months in prison); Zoot suits are prohibited. // Many animals are illegal to own as pets, including snails, sloths, and elephants. // No alcohol beverages can be displayed within five feet of a cash register of any store in California that sells both alcohol and motor fuel. // No vehicle without a driver may exceed 60 miles per hour. // Oakland, Calif., makes it illegal to grow a tree in front of your neighbor’s window and block his view. However, you’re off the hook if the tree is one that town officials consider an attractive tree, such as a redwood or box elder. // One may not carry a lunch down the street between 11 and 1 o’clock. // Pacific Grove: Molesting butterflies can result in a $500 fine. // Palm Springs: It is illegal to walk a camel down Palm Canyon Drive between the hours of four and six PM. // Pasadena: It is illegal for a secretary to be alone in a room with her boss. // Prunedale: Two bathtubs may not be installed in the same house. // Redlands: Motor vehicles may not drive on city streets unless a man with a lantern is wallking ahead of it. // Riverside: One may not carry a lunch down the street between 11 and 1 o’clock. // San Diego: It is illegal to shoot jackrabbits from the back of a streetcar; The owners of houses with Christmas lights on them past February second may be fined up to $250. // San Francisco has an ordinance prohibiting “cane games.” City officials have no idea what cane games are. But when revising city laws recently, officials decided to keep the prohibition on the books, in case someday, somehow, cane games came back, they were deemed improper and the city needed the law. // San Francisco is said to be the only city in the nation to have ordinances guaranteeing sunshine to the masses. // San Francisco: Prohibits elephants from strolling down Market Street unless they are on a leash; It is illegal to wipe one’s car with used underwear; Persons classified as “ugly” may not walk down any street; It is illegal to pile horse manure more than six feet high on a street corner; Giving or receiving oral sex is prohibited. // San Francisco bans any “mechanical device that reproduces obscene language.” // San Francisco prohibits kerchoo powders and stink balls. // San Jose: It is illegal to have more than two cats or dogs. // Santa Monica: You may not play percussion instruments on the beach. // Temecula: Ducks have the right of way to cross Rancho California St. at all times. // The Chico, California, City Council enacted a ban on nuclear weapons, setting a $500 fine for anyone detonating one within city limits. // The city of San Francisco holds a copyright on the name “San Francisco.” It is illegal to manufacture any item with the name without first getting permission from the city. Since the Supreme Court upheld the copyright, San Francisco has had an annual $300 million surplus every year. // The Santa Monica, Calif., City Council recently proposed that men be allowed to use women’s public restrooms when there’s a line of three or more at the mens’ room, and vice versa. // Women may not drive in a house coat. Colorado // Car dealers may not show cars on a Sunday. // Colorado law requires that wine be sold in containers of at least 24 ounces and spirits in containers at least a fifth of a gallon. But, at the same time, it also decrees that no alcohol beverage can be stored in hotel minibars in anything larger than miniature containers. // Colorado Springs: It is permissible to wear a holstered six-gun within city limits, except on Sunday, Election Day, or holidays. // Cripple Creek: It is illegal to bring your horse or pack mule above the ground floor of any building. // Denver: The dog catcher must notify dogs of impounding by posting, for three consecutive days, a notice on a tree in the city park and along a public road running through said park; It is unlawful to lend your vacuum cleaner to your next-door neighbor; It is illegal to mistreat rats; You may not drive a black car on Sundays. // Durango: It is illegal to go in public dressed in clothes “unbecoming” on one’s sex. // Have you ever had the urge to rip the tag from a pillow or mattress, despite the warning of dire penalties? Well, it’s perfectly legal now, if you live in Colorado. The Governor formalized the law by gleefully tearing a label from a pillow at his office. “I’ve been worrying about the mattress inspector jumping through the window for years,” he said. // In Denver, Colorado it is illegal for Barber’s to give massages to nude customers unless it is for instructional purposes. // In Denver, it is unlawful to lend your vacuum cleaner to your next door neighbor. // It is against the law in Pueblo, Colorado, to raise or permit a dandelion to grow within the city limits. // It is illegal for a man to kiss a woman while she is asleep in Logan County, Colorado. // It is illegal for a woman wearing a red dress to be out on the streets after 7 PM. // It is illegal for liquor stores to sell food or grocery stores to sell any alcohol except beer that is at most 3.2% alcohol. // It is illegal to ride a horse while under the influence. // It is illegal to mistreat rats in Denver. // Logan County: It is illegal for a man to kiss a woman while she is asleep. // No liquor may be sold on Sundays or election days. // Pueblo: It is illegal to let a dandelion grow within the city limits. // Sterling: Cats may not run loose without having been fit with a taillight. Connecticut // A local ordinance in Atwoodville, Connecticut prohibits people from playing Scrabble while waiting for a politician to speak. // A pickle is not officially a pickle unless it bounces // Balloons with advertising on them are illegal in Hartford, Conn. // Bloomfield, Conn: It’s against the law to eat in your car. // Cattle branding in the United States did not originate in the West. It began in Connecticut in the mid-nineteenth century, when farmers were required by law to mark all their pigs. // Devon: It is unlawful to walk backwards after sunset. // Druggists in Connecticut must pay $400.00 each year for a license in order to use alcohol in compounding prescriptions. // Guilford: Only white Christmas lights are allowed for display. // Hartford: You aren’t allowed to cross a street while walking on your hands // In colonial times, Hartford, Conn., had an ordinance that allowed any resident to rent the town chain for 2 pence. // In Connecticut any dogs with tattoos must be reported to the police. // In Connecticut it is illegal to pirouette while crossing the street // In Devon, Connecticut, it is unlawful to walk backwards after sunset. // In Hartford, Conn., it’s illegal to plant a tree in the street. // In Hartford, Connecticut, it is illegal to kiss your wife on Sunday. // In Simsbury, Conn., it’s illegal for a politician to campaign at the town dump. // It is illegal to discharge a firearm from a public highway. // It is illegal to dispose of used razor blades. // It’s illegal to clam at night in Connecticut. // New Britain: It is illegal for fire trucks to exceed 25mph, even when going to a fire. // No one may use a white cane, unless they are blind. // Southington: Silly string is banned. // Strangers in Simsbury, Conn., were required, under an ordinance enacted in 1701 and only recently repealed, to leave town within a month unless they had at least 20 shillings to their names. // The marriage of imbeciles and feeble-minded persons is prohibited. // This state still retains an old law forbidding any kind of “private sexual behavior between consenting adults.” // Under the Code of 1650 in the New Haven Colony (in what is now Connecticut), a 16-year-old boy could be put to death if he “cursed, struck or disobeyed” his parents or was “stubborn or rebellious.” // Waterbury: It is illegal for any beautician to hum, whistle, or sing while working on a customer. // You can be stopped by the police for biking over 65 miles per hour. // You cannot buy any alcohol after 8pm or on Sundays. // You may not educate dogs. Delaware // Delaware prohibits horse racing of any kind on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. // In Delaware you may not sell dead people for money without a license. // It is illegal to fly over any body of water, unless one is carrying sufficient supplies of food and drink. // Lewes: It is illegal to wear pants that are “firm fitting” around the waist; Getting married on a dare is grounds for an annulment. D.C. // A D.C. federal judge has ruled that begging is a form of free speech protected by the Constitution. That means that mugging is free speech too, only more persuasive. // In Washington D.C. it is illegal to post a notice in public which calls another person a ‘coward’ for refusing to accept a challenge to duel. // It is unlawful for small boys to throw stones, at any time, at any place in the District of Columbia. // The only acceptable sexual position in Washington D.C. is the missionary position. Any other sexual position is considered illegal. // The U.S. government says it’s a crime to give false weather reports.