Posted on 08/24/2007 9:02:08 AM PDT by finnman69
Peeping Toms beware. You could soon face harsh punishment for looking up a woman's skirt or spying through holes in bathroom and dressing room walls.
Sometimes a look is just a look. Sometimes, it's not. Just ask the women of New York City.
"I would feel violated," Queens resident Amy Dannenmueller said.
Topacia Petraglia of Queens agreed.
"No one wants to be observed when in your natural being walking around," Petraglia said.
Added Coleen Lloyd, also of Queens: "It makes you uncomfortable, but people do gross things."
"Anyone's trying to look up my skirt, I want it prevented," Erin Downhour of West Harlem said.
And that's just what Councilman Peter Vallone, D-Queens, is trying to do. He's introducing a bill that would go after Peeping Toms.
"We trying to keep women safe from perverts," Vallone said.
The councilman says he's introducing the bill because of complaints he got about a man with a coffee cup who would stand by a subway stop on warm mornings. He would apparently wait for a woman with a short skirt to come by and when she walked up some stairs he would look up her skirt.
The bill also goes after people who drill holes in bathroom walls and dressing rooms to spy on people.
"They're invading someone else's privacy and people have a reasonable right to expect privacy for their intimate areas which are not otherwise visible to the public," Vallone said.
The New York Civil Liberties Union thinks Vallone is off base. His bill is too vague.
"We're left with a piece of legislation that leaves it to police officers to figure out what kind of a glance is the wrong kind," said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman. "What's the creepy and illegal glance? What kind of ogling is going to become a crime in New York City?"
If Vallone has his way, convicted Peeping Toms would face 90 days in jail and a $600 fine.
Vallone says he will also consider making it a crime for people using telescopes to spy on their neighbors.
Call it the Anti-Baby Herman Act.
“We trying to keep women safe from perverts,” Vallone said.”
So then they go home to their Manhattan high rise and parade around naked with the lights on and no shades on any of the windows.
You New Yorkers know its the truth.
Lemme guess...61st St. on the 7 line.
The Texas leg. passed an *improper photography* law which included taking photos of underaged girls in public.
These kinds of law can get pretty sticky but, there have been a lot of cases where these photos showed up on Internet sites.
Well there are lots of voyuers in NYC, from the poorest moop in the subways looking up dresses, to the richest billionaires buying $100,000 telescopes so they can spy on other penthouses across Central Park... And all of this has been going on for decades.
I think it was Astoria Blvd
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.