Jonathan Peters
Middleborough is a quiet town in Massachusetts known for its cranberry bogs and profanity problem. It's located in historic Plymouth County and … wait, what? A profanity problem?
Absolutely, says Mimi Duphily, a former Middleborough selectwoman who runs a small business in the downtown area. She and other business owners are taking a stand against public profanity that can discomfit customers.
"[People will] sit on the bench and yell back and forth to each other with the foulest language," Duphily told WBZ, the CBS affiliate in Boston. "It's just so inappropriate."
Indeed, it's so inappropriate that Middleborough residents voted Monday at a town meeting to approve a bylaw, proposed by the police chief, to issue $20 citations for public profanity.
"We have a lot more important things to do," said police chief Bruce Gates. "But these are things that are quality of life issues—community and policing issues that a lot of people don't want to see downtown."
Well, Middleborough has not only a profanity problem but also a couple of constitutional problems. Let me explain.
Read the explanation
Jonathan Peters is a media lawyer and blogger for the Harvard Law & Policy Review.