The French are inexplicable. The only thing they seem to love more than Jerry Lewis is peeing in putlic places. According to this Wall Street Journal story, in 2007 the Bad Behavior Brigade (
) ticketed 1,200 adults for public urination; in 2008, 1,800; and in the first half of 2009, 1,100. Fines can run as high as 450 Euros. “There’s a lack of civility,” says the head of the Brigade, who is charged with flushing out violators. Meanwhile, the pipi continues to flow. Liberte, egalite, fraternite, and pipi…
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Helsinki had a special brigade, the Pissa Poliisi, for a short time in the 1990s. But it didn’t have much impact on the numerous, leaky drunks abound. The project was scrapped…and rightly so ’cause you’d just as soon see a cop or city bus driver peeing on a tree in the park as you would a drunken bum.
Peeing on someone’s doorstep should be considered bad behavior, but in other, uninhabited places it should not pose a problem. After all, there isn’t always a public toilet nearby for people to use. And dogs do it anywhere, so obviously public hygiene isn’t the main concern here, or dogs would get fined, too!
On the other hand, the entire population of America forms a prudish Bad Behavior Brigade of special sorts, so why even talk about Europe?
Aren’t there gender issues involved?
Someone else just blogged about the problem. Coincidence? Or social change a-comin’?
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