Weird Laws of the Crittersville Area

Unlike Cobb County (home of Newt Gingrich and Bob Barr, just south of my home), Cartersville doesn't outlaw homosexuality or make you own a gun (Kennesaw, GA). These are kind of cute.

From the Daily Tribune News, my source for reading up on who has been arrested in town ("The Bartow Blotter" has been a mainstay since high school):

Weird laws: Have you broken any?
Profanity, spitting part of laws still on the books

Monica L. Burge Staff Writer Published October 16, 2005 10:13 PM CDT

Using profanity is prohibited in Cartersville; all Acworth citizens must own a rake; and fornication is banned in every county in the state.

It is illegal to tie any animal to a telephone pole in Emerson, and spitting on the sidewalk in Cartersville is prohibited.

Emerson Police Department Interim Chief Kevin McBurnett verified some of these bizarre ordinances and statutes but made assurances that laws like the anti-fornication and adultery laws "that have been on the books for years" are "overlooked" by most law enforcement officers.

Even though violations such as playing marbles in the street, "loud talking" outside a church during Sunday services and removing a shopping cart from a store are hardly ever enforced, ignoring violations of these seemingly insignificant offenses "is at the discretion of the officer," McBurnett said.