A Honolulu City Council bill that would ban stinky people and mandate good behavior on buses was defeated Sept. 3.
According to the Associated Press, the Council's Transportation Committee shelved the bill after American Civil Liberties Union and City lawyers testified that the bill's language was vague and could force police to make "unconstitutionally subjective judgments". Members of the public also testified that personal odors could be the result of disease or an occupational hazard.
Voting on the bill was delayed Sept. 2 due to "technical problems". One such problem was that only the Hawai`i legislature can pass criminal statutes. The bill's authors wanted to allow Honolulu police to be able to charge the ordinance's violators, according to the Honolulu Advertiser.
Councilmen Nestor Garcia and Rod Tam say they may rework the bill's language and reintroduce the bill at a later date.
See also:
Ordinance would ban stinky people from buses, vote delayed (9/3/09)
Comments
This is a good call on the part of the City Council. You meet some seriously stinky people on long distance highway buses in North America--people who weren't stinky before they started a 50-hour bus ride. It's all just part of the human experience, folks!
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