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In American constitutional law, a statute is void for vagueness and unenforceable if it is too vague for the average citizen to understand or if a term cannot be strictly defined and is not defined anywhere in such law, thus violating the vagueness doctrine. There are several reasons a statute may be considered vague; in general, a statute might be called void for vagueness reasons when an average citizen cannot generally determine what persons are regulated, what conduct is prohibited, or what punishment may be imposed. For example, criminal laws which do not state explicitly and definitely what conduct is punishable are void for vagueness.
BERLIN (AP) — A man in Vienna has been fined 500 euros ($565) for breaking wind loudly in front of police — a move that the Austrian capital’s police force was at pains to defend on Tuesday.
The Oesterreich newspaper reported that the fine stemmed from an incident on June 5 and that the offender was fined for “offending public decency.”
City police wrote on Twitter that “of course no one is reported for accidentally ‘letting one go.’” They added that the man had behaved “provocatively and uncooperatively” during an encounter with officers that preceded the incident.
He got up from a park bench, looked at officers and “let go a massive intestinal wind apparently with full intent,” they said. “And our colleagues don’t like to be farted at so much.”