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 A man out of Charleston V.A was arrested on a DUI charge when the police found him driving with his lights off. When they got him to the police station they started to take his finger print when the man moved closer to on of the police officers and farted on him. The police department is now charging him with battery of the officer that he farted on. Crazy huh. 

      Battery, huh? That will make an interesting court precedent. If this guy gets convicted on that charge, I he'll probably never ride an elevator again. And I bet at least one member of the jury will be put in contempt of the court for laughing every time the attorneys say "fart."

yeah I'm not really sure what to say about that. what are you going to say that the man was trying to hurt the officer with a fart. I don't care how smelly the fart was its not really going to hurt anyone. It sucks that the man got farted on but I think that the officer should have given him a little splat on the face and called it a night.  

It's a tough one to prosecute I'm sure. I realize the flatulence in question was intended to be offensive and hurtful to the officer's nose. Sure, it's great to set an example out there because who wants people thinking they can get away with passing gas on policemen. I would personally say the humiliation alone is bad enough on that account. I mean he's never going to live that down and will probably be remembered for all eternity as the guy who farted on a policeman.

Legally this could actually be a very serious case. While the man certainly merited jail time for his DUI and ingenious blind driving, there isn't a legal precedent in place for passing gas (to my knowledge anyway). No matter how pungent and disrespectful it was, how do we determine the line between what is and isn't permissible? Could this lead towards people being charged for disrespect, or perceived disrespect? Could this be a step towards police having too much power? Or is this just a very well learned lesson to not pass gas on policemen?

So I read that they dropped the charges on the farting man. Just thought that you guys might want to know.      

 Dude,

Your thinking way to much about this. Its a non issue. come one, you're going to actually talk about  prosecuting something like this? farting is a natural and normal bodily function. it may be gross and smell bad but give me a break. whats next? prosecuting someone because they have bad breath and breathed on you? You say that legally this could be a serious case? not in the courtroom of any sane judge. To begin with, it does not qualify under the law as battery in any state in the US, and barely could be called an assault, like spitting on someone could. I think the cop should be charged with abusing his position of employment and wasting the valuable time of the district attorney that had to actually take time to read the complaint before dismissing the charges. it is not a social issue requiring someone to blog about it as if it is some alarming trend. your comment about his "ingenious blind driving" is brilliant, though.

There was a similar case recently about a man who got in trouble for hugging a police officer. Cases like these seem so trivial, and I agree that with the state of our world today, we have better things to worry about than offensive actions committed against police officers. What does concern me about it is the precedent it sets.

Police interface with people constantly and I'm sure there is often tension between them, especially when dealing with people who are wasted enough to get so up close and personal with them. There's a delicate balance between discouraging people who would abuse and attack them (even with things like spitting and passing gas on them) and giving the police too much control (leading to them abusing their power). I do agree that battery is going way too far, no matter how offensive and pungent the crime may be.

I think this kind of crime is perfect for the I Was Stupid Sign punishment.