Miscellaneous Offences

This week I have mostly been dodging the law, not because I have done anything particularly bad, but because the New Year has been heralded by what appears to be an upping of the tension in the upholding of the law. The highly illegal morning crossing of Orchard Rd fills me with a sense of excitement as I fly in the face of the jay walking laws. However the other day, just before I set off the curb I looked up to narrowly miss being hit by a bus and spotted the cops hiding in the bushes and some across the road booking some other thrill seekers. Lucky, crossing the road within 50 metres of a crossing attracts a $500 fine and that would have been a particularly crap way to start the working week.
Why are the cops wasting their time on such trivial matters I hear you ask? Well they’re not, they are also upholding the pretty vague Miscellaneous Offences (Public & Order & Nuisance) (Assemblies & Processions) Laws. Some time ago a fair amount of drama erupted over a call made to 911 to complain about a white elephant being strapped to the railing of the Buangkok MRT.
The station opened recently, to even more controversy. Some bright young things at the Raffles Girl’s School printed a run of “Save the White Elephant” T shirts and were planning to sell them to raise funds for charity at the gala opening. An unusual display of outspoken initiative was dampened somewhat when police reminded the girls they could face prosecution if they failed to obtain a permit to sell them. They then went further to warn them they could be arrested should they wear the shirts en masse. Nice
But the most interesting abuse of the Miscellaneous Offences laws was the unfortunate incident where the neighbour of Mrs Wong of Woodlands was spotted nude in his bedroom getting ready for work each morning. Mrs Wong called the local press followed by the cops and them man was promptly embarrassed and then arrested.
At the time of prosecution he was facing a 3 month jail term and a $200 fine. I don’t actually know how this unfortunate incident panned out, but I did hear the officials were delaying sentencing, instead recommending he undertake a psychiatric assessment.