Ah, summer in Charlottesville. A perfect time for outdoor concerts, evening strolls on the Mall and the sort of public profanity that causes bystanders to ask, “You kiss your mother with that mouth?”
Public swearing/intoxication arrests totaled 22 in the city two weekends ago. But Charlottesville Police Captain Bryant Bibb says those arrests were mainly for public drunkenness, not cursing.
In the Virginia Code, swearing and drunkeness are joined at the hip. Any person who “profanely curses or swears, or is intoxicated in public” is guilty of a Class 4 misdemeanor, which carries a fine of up to $250.
But careful, sailors. There’s also another law that prohibits using bad language toward others. You can’t use any “violent, abusive language” to someone “or any of his relations.” Swearing about somebody’s mother or cousin Jeb can fetch you a Class 3 misdemeanor, which ups the fine to a potential $500.
Virginia has had public profanity laws on the books since 1950. Popular curses back then included “Aw, H-E-double-hockey-sticks!” and “gosh darnit.”
Habitual trash-talkers can relax, though. It’s tough to get arrested for merely swearing. Captain Bibb says, “Just because a police officer hears somebody swear, we’re not going to put the handcuffs on them.”
The real trouble comes if you swear while trying to remove the cap of your 15th Zima.
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