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Virginia Beach has WAAY strict obscenity laws. I lived there for sometime and DJ'ed there often.
It's a crime to use 'vulgar' language in public. You can be arrested if you say something in public if a cop hears it.
You could be walking along talking to yer mates ansay 'thats fucking crazy dude' and the next thing you know your up against a wall being patted down.
Don't laugh, this has happened. More than once.
It gets worse. On the beach cops can arrest you for showing too much skin. No thongs or other swimsuits they consider 'too revealing'. Whats 'too revealing'? It's whatever the cop wants it to mean. They arrest anyone who looks too sexy in a swimsuit, fine them, and if they do it again they put them in jail and get an order to keep them off the beach.
Most of Virginia is like this. Really right-wing Bible thumpin' wack-jobs. I spent many year around them.
From my personal experiences...
A mate of mine worked at a graphic design shop in Roanoke. We used to party in Blackburg - he went to VaTech and I came down from Radford to drink with him on the weekends. He stuck a sticker he made of the Album cover for the single 'Pussy' by Lords Of Acid in the back side window - you know the small triangle shaped window in the back of cars? It was no more than 4"-5".
I was coming home from work one night when I was pulled over by a state trooper. As I sat there, more state troopers and local Blacksburg police arri ved. They came over to me, got my license, registration, etc. went back to their car rang it in. After a few minutes they come back and ask 'do you know why we pulled you over'?
I said 'no'
They said 'you have an obscene sticker on your window. That is illegal in this state. If you do not remove it, we will have to impound your car and arrest you for breaking the obscenity laws'.
I was like that sticker? And just grabbed a corner and pulled it off the window. They then gave me a 'warning' and told me not to be putting 'obscene pictures on or about my vehicle, and that I had gotten my 'free pass this time' so next time I would be facing a much harsher penalty if they saw me doing that sort of thing again.
True story. I wondered why I took half a dozen cops to do this, and why they couldn't have just like pulled up and asked me politely to remove it instead of making it look like I was being arrested for a bank-robbery or something.
The ironic thing is that album was selling IN THE SHOPS with the same cover. It was being advertised in magazines! I didn't want to sit there and take the chance of them just arresting me anyway, which is what you DON'T want. Because of the vagueness of the laws, the arrest comes down to the discretion of the officer. If he 'feels' it's obscene, he is within his duties and right to arrest you. The judge could throw it out, but you would have no legal recourse to get back any compensation because the officer technically did not violate the law.
Thats exactly what happens every time they enforce the VaBeach laws - you go to court for saying 'poo' in public, the judge throws it out, but you can't sue them nor get your legal fees covered or anything else because the officer 'felt' it was offensive, therefore he and the state is protected under the same statue of law.
That being said there are still DOZENS of cities IN AMERICA where DANCING is ILLEGAL as is playing loud music. Don't get me started on that...
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