Proposed Dutch law would ban unsolicited toe-licking
It is a violation of one's privacy and one's physical integrity. The norm...is that no one should touch your body if you haven't asked them first.
- Peter van Heemst
Having apparently solved all of the other problems facing their country, Dutch lawmakers have now turned their attentions to a more prosaic cause- preserving the virtue of toes belonging to Dutch women.
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) -- Unsolicited toe-licking would be banned in the Netherlands under a law sought by the Dutch Labor party after police were unable to prosecute a would-be Casanova with a taste for female toes because he had committed no crime.
A police spokesman said Friday a man had been detained after women sunning themselves in Rotterdam's parks and beaches claimed he had snuck up on them and begun to lick their toes.
"The officers had to let him go. Licking a stranger's toes is rather unusual but there is really nothing criminal about it," the spokesman said.
Dutch press reports said the man, who is about 35, had been licking the toes of strangers for about three years but was only recently caught by police.
Peter van Heemst, a Labor member of parliament, asked Christian Democrat Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner Friday to explain why Dutch laws forbid littering but not uninvited toe-licking. Van Heemst demanded an amendment prohibiting it.
Mr. van Heemst has a valid point, but I'm wondering if this is something that really needs to be codified as the law of the land. I agree that uninvited toe-licking is offensive and inappropriate (not to mention a MAJOR turn-off), but should it be illegal? To me, it seems a bit excessive, but then I haven't been the victim of an uninvited toe-sucking episode. Is is really that traumatic that it needs to be criminalized? Or can we just hold the creep responsible up to general and very public ridicule and call it a day?
