Attention, all potty-mouthed parents! It seems that now, peppering your speech with some choice expletives could land you a cozy spot in jail. Danielle Wolf, a mother from South Carolina, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after dropping the F-bomb while grocery shopping with her kids and husband in a local supermarket. Apparently, Wolf was scolding her kids for squishing the bread and, in annoyance, let the cuss word slip out. A fellow shopper, who clearly was easily shocked, overheard Wolf and took it upon herself to report the mother to the North Augusta Department of Public Safety. Officers showed up shortly thereafter and handcuffed Wolf, informing her that she was under arrest for disorderly conduct. The squishy bread was clearly no longer a concern as Wolf found herself doing the perp walk in front of her husband and kids.
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In North Augusta, South Carolina, disorderly conduct has a very strict definition, and even says it's "to engage in riotous conduct of any kind or to declaim or cry out in a noisy, scandalous or abusive manner in any taxicab, bus or other public conveyance, or in any place of public worship or amusement, or on any street, sidewalk or other public place." So pretty much anywhere…
By the strictest reading of the law, then, I suppose it's possible that the charges against Wolf will stick when she goes to court in September, but the judge would have to be a conservative extremist for that to happen. After all, the woman was hardly rioting in the supermarket or brawling with any fellow shoppers.
Perhaps because I live in New York City, where you can barely leave the house (or, more likely, the overpriced, tiny apartment in which you live) without hearing someone cussing at the top of their lungs, the idea of someone being arrested for using foul language is baffling. Now, I'm not saying it's classy to walk around using profanity but we do live in a country in which Freedom of Speech is held as an ideal to be revered and respected, so the issue of swearing in public becomes more of a decorum issue.
As a mom, I try to never swear in front of my child but, truth be told, it happens entirely too often: when I trip while walking outside, cut myself in the kitchen, have an important call drop on my uncooperative cell phone, receive an irksome text message, and so forth. After years of being a foul-mouthed twenty-something, it's been difficult to turn things all the way around post-baby so that, even a decade into my parenting experience, I still occasionally slip up and let a cuss word out. But should I be arrested for that? F*** no!
Image via Mike/Flickr
