I glanced back at some of my most recent editorials and discovered that a lot of the recent ones had to do with laws: passed laws, overturned laws, and harmful laws. Serious stuff.
So, I decided to lighten up this week. I’m still going to talk about laws, but I did a little research and have decided this week I would highlight some laws already on the books that might be considered a little odd.
I got information from several sources, but started with a story from March 2022 in Uncover Colorado, and a story by Mack Babcock of Babcock Law Firm.
I don’t know about you, but when I think of weird and Colorado in the same sentence I think of Boulder.
In Boulder you are permitted to ‘insult or taunt or challenge’ police officers until they ask you to stop.
The Fighting Words Ordinance in Boulder says, clearly, that it’s perfectly legal to insult or taunt an officer until the officer “requests the person to cease and discontinue the conduct.”
Some old saying about playing with fire and getting burned comes to my mind.
Aspen Code of Ordinances makes it illegal in the City of Aspen to throw snowballs in public. This still leaves the option of throwing snowballs in the privacy of your home, but I think I would rather deal with the City of Aspen than my mother. You?
Our neighbor to the north (Pueblo) declares that people are not legally permitted to keep dandelions on their property taller than ten inches. Other weeds included in the law are bindweed, leafy spurge, Canada thistle, and Russian knapweed.
An entire lawn of bindweed, dandelions, and those two foreign bushes are okay if they are only 9.5 inches tall.
My daughter went through a hair dying decade; or was it several decades?
Anyway, you can dye your hair as often as you want to in the state of Colorado.
However, be aware that in Sterling it is illegal to dye a pet. I guess when old Muffy goes gray they just have to stay gray, in Sterling.
Of course, it is a statewide law in Colorado that disallows car sales on Sunday.
However, if you are in the market for tires or any car accessories it is legal to purchase those on Sunday’s.
The law strictly applies to dealerships, premises or residences.
It’s actually legal in Colorado to modify the weather as long as you have a permit. For years, Colorado ski resorts have paid companies to burn silver iodide on the slopes to stimulate precipitation.
Logan County, a rather remote area on I-76 has a law on the books saying that if a woman is asleep, it is illegal to kiss her. How would you like to be the law enforcement officer assigned to prevent the kissing of a sleeping woman. Would peeping Tom laws apply to an officer working on enforcement?
In a law that certainly fits in Colorado, Vail will cite you for skiing while intoxicated. Are there variations to regular DUI protocol? I’m not sure. I guess they could ask you to ski in a straight line after you’ve been pulled over.
In my research, not all the laws reported in some articles were actually laws at all.
In several sources it said that letting your neighbor borrow your vacuum cleaner in Denver was against the law.
Not so.
In Alamosa you can’t project missiles at cars. A missile is defined as “an object which is forcibly propelled at a target, either by hand or from a mechanical weapon.” Yep, it comes out a little funny, but doesn’t every town make it illegal to throw things at moving vehicles? Or parked ones?
Let’s end with one more from Boulder. It’s illegal to roll, throw, or otherwise move a boulder on any public property in Boulder.