Obeying the law may be more difficult than you think

There are tons of downright stupid laws in the state of Mississippi, but I’m pretty sure no one gets in trouble for breaking these anymore.

The one peeve I have about these laws is the fact that they’re still laws.

Why won’t anyone remove these laws?

They’re obviously outdated. Is there some sort of huge bureaucratic process in removing a law from the books?

Here’s a law that bugs me and is also kind of cruel, if you ask me: “Vagrancy is punishable by either 30 days in prison or a $250 fine.” First off, vagrancy is usually done by the homeless.

It’s basically wandering around in public areas or illegally living in a public area. If someone is poor and homeless, I’m pretty sure if they had the opportunity to not live in the streets they’d take it. Luckily, vagrancy laws have been repealed in most developed countries, including the United States.

That also leads me to something else about Mississippi laws that bug me: the tendency to not update our laws. Some Mississippi legislators didn’t find it necessary to ratify the 19th Amendment (women’s right to vote), following the state votes that were required for it to become a federal law, which, of course, supersedes all state laws.

Mississippi became the last state to ratify the amendment in 1984, after rejecting it in 1920.

The ratification was purely symbolic, since women’s right to vote became the law of the land in 1920.

Still, that’s quite a distinction to have: the last state to ratify the 19th Amendment.

Here’s one that’s valid, but it’s also slightly disturbing: “Cattle rustling is punishable by hanging.” Cattle rustling (stealing cattle) has actually increased since the Great Recession.

Cattle theft has actually tripled in the state of Texas, and yes, there are some recent cattle theft cases in Mississippi.

I just can’t wrap my head around why anyone would be hanged for a crime like theft, cattle theft at that. Stealing cows must have been a huge problem when that law was written.

Here’s a silly one: “It’s illegal to teach others what polygamy is.” By the simple virtue of that law, that means the person who suggested the law should have been thrown in jail, because they told someone else what polygamy is. I’m sure the law means it’s illegal to instruct on the values of polygamy, but if you explain polygamy to anyone, you’ve still pretty much broken that law.

This law is probably the dumbest to date: In Tylertown, it’s illegal to shave in the center of Main Street. Seriously, how many guys (or women, for that matter) have ever shaved in a very public place? This sounds like some random person simply wanted this on the books.

Who carries a razor to shave with in the case that their facial hair grows while they’re out on the town? Seriously, that one is the dumbest of them all.

Here’s one that I’d actually like to see enforced: “One may be fined up to $100 for using ‘profane language’ in public places.” Profane language doesn’t necessarily bother me.

Living on a college campus, what does annoy me is how comfortable some people are with using bad language in public. If you want to say every one of George Carlin’s “seven dirty words,” that’s fine, but no one should hear you say any of that in public. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been in a public area and heard someone say something incredibly crude and thought to myself, “Did she/he just say that!?”

While these may not be the worst laws in the nation, Mississippi definitely ranks high on the list (which is a rarity for us).