# Punishment for peeing on a police officer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 18, 2008, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765 "2008-05-18T17:46:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gozu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gozu/32/6615_2.png) [@Gozu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765/1 "2008-05-18T17:46:43Z")
I know state and local laws may differ but I was wondering what kind of sentence a man (I doubt a woman could pull it off) who willingly pees on a police officer would get? Say someone pees on a police vehicle stopped at a light, then continues peeing on the officer’s lower pant area as s/he exits the vehicle. Is it assault? One could argue it causes a mental trauma, if not physical harm (urine is sterile). Or is it just annoying civil disobedience? One could argue it is peaceful and does not endanger anyone, by most definitions? ps: I read a NYT article about an AIDS-infected homeless man who got a 15 year sentence for repeatedly trying to infect others (by spitting, biting) and the officer was his latest victim (nobody ever got infected iirc). I hope that’s what prompted this question in my mind 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Gozu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gozu/32/6615_2.png) [@Gozu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765/2 "2008-05-18T23:28:24Z")
I take it from the lack of answers that nobody knows. Well! Only one way to find out then! Be right back. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765/3 "2008-05-18T23:44:14Z")
I’d be very surprised if you could pee on a peace officer without some kind of indecent exposure happening at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765/4 "2008-05-19T00:16:24Z")
[QUOTE=Gozu] I take it from the lack of answers that nobody knows. Well! Only one way to find out then! Be right back. [/QUOTE] [Check out my awesome Google-fu!](http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/mca/45/5/45-5-214.htm) > [@](#): > > 45-5-214. Assault with bodily fluid. (1) A person commits the offense of assault with a bodily fluid if the person purposely causes one of the person’s bodily fluids to make physical contact with: > (a) a law enforcement officer, a staff person of a correctional or detention facility, or a health care provider, as defined in 50-4-504, including a health care provider performing emergency services, while the health care provider is acting in the course and scope of the health care provider’s profession and occupation: > … This is Montana, but it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that “assault with a bodily fluid” is a crime in other jurisdictions as well. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765/5 "2008-05-19T00:45:24Z")
It would likely qualify as assault under most state laws. Also battery, which is variously defined as an unwanted touching with the intention of bringing about harm or offense. “But I didn’t touch him!” Not a free pass. There are cases in which an “extension” of a person can serve as a proxy for flesh to flesh contact (the anecdote I remember was a case about the desegregation period when, in an attempt to keep a black dude from crashing the whites-only buffet, someone wrenched away the plate the black guy was holding, and the court found that even though he touched only the plate, it was effectively the same as touching the hand holding the plate for purposes of evaluating battery). Public urination is also a criminal offense in many or all jurisdictions. As is interfering with a peace officer in the proper performance of his duties. So yeah, don’t try this. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765/6 "2008-05-19T01:07:41Z")
I can say without fear of being wrong that if you piss on me during the course of my duties you will be charged with aggrevated assault. Assault because you’re fucking peeing on me and aggrevated assault because it is always upgraded when the assault is against a police officer. Not because I am aggrevated. Even though I would be quite aggrevated. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765/7 "2008-05-19T01:12:38Z")
In NY, there is a specific law about pissing on a law enforcement officer but it only applies to prisoners: > [@](#): > > Section 240.32 Aggravated harassment of an employee by an inmate. > > An inmate or respondent is guilty of aggravated harassment of an employee by an inmate when, with intent to harass, annoy, threaten or alarm a person in a facility whom he knows or reasonably should know to be an employee of such facility or the division of parole or the office of mental health, or a probation department, bureau or unit or a police officer, he causes or attempts to cause such employee to come into contact with blood, seminal fluid, urine or feces, by throwing, tossing or expelling such fluid or material. > > For purposes of this section, “inmate” means an inmate or detainee in a correctional facility, local correctional facility or a hospital, as such term is defined in subdivision two of section four hundred of the correction law. For purposes of this section, “respondent” means a juvenile in a secure facility operated and maintained by the office of children and family services who is place with or committed to the office of children and family services. For purposes of this section, “facility” means a correctional facility or local correctional facility, hospital, as such term is defined in subdivision two of section four hundred of the correction law, or a secure facility operated and maintained by the office of children and family services. > > Aggravated harassment of an employee by an inmate is a class E felony. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765/8 "2008-05-19T01:21:53Z")
All of the above are incorrect, The typical charge is running an illegal lemonade stand. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765/9 "2008-05-19T01:39:52Z")
[QUOTE=Loach] I can say without fear of being wrong that if you piss on me during the course of my duties you will be charged with aggrevated assault. Assault because you’re fucking peeing on me and aggrevated assault because it is always upgraded when the assault is against a police officer. Not because I am aggrevated. Even though I would be quite aggrevated. [/QUOTE] A pissed on cop is a pissed off cop. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765/10 "2008-05-19T03:14:20Z")
I’ve pissed on police cars before, but never on a police officer. There are limits, even to insanity. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765/11 "2008-05-19T03:21:01Z")
I doubt you’d get very far with that activity. If I were a cop and I saw what you were trying to do to me, I would pepper spray your wang, hoping against all hope that a bunch of the spray found it’s way into your pee-hole. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765/12 "2008-05-19T03:34:45Z")
Criminal record, poor job prospects… It’d be the urination of you. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765/13 "2008-05-19T03:47:00Z")
Public urination, indecent exposure, and assault on a police officer. That’s what an inebriated guy got charged with for peeing on a Cleveland cop from a second-floor balcony a few years ago, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![IAmNotSpartacus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IAmNotSpartacus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IAmNotSpartacus)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765/14 "2008-05-19T04:07:14Z")
How is it an assault and not a battery? Once the pee hits you it would be battery, no? ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765/15 "2008-05-19T04:53:51Z")
In some jurisdictions, upon conviction, you may be labeled a sex offender. If you want to share company with rapists and child molesters, go for it. ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765/16 "2008-05-19T10:30:31Z")
\*\*Gozu \*\*- Are you planning to do this? If so, please let us know if penis ensues. ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765/17 "2008-05-19T10:32:48Z")
Will a jolt from a Taser travel back up the stream? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765/18 "2008-05-19T12:34:34Z")
If you were HIV, it could also be considered assault with a deadly weapon. If your HIV-infected pee found it’s way into the cop’s body through an open sore, that would be attempted murder. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765/19 "2008-05-19T12:40:57Z")
I knew a woman who made good money working in a prison. When I heard she quit, I asked her why. She told me she couldn’t handle it when people threw shit at you. It took me a while to realize that she meant “threw **shit** at you” and not “threw shit at **you** ”. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765/20 "2008-05-19T13:18:14Z")
[QUOTE=IAmNotSpartacus] How is it an assault and not a battery? Once the pee hits you it would be battery, no? [/QUOTE] It’s both under the common law definition (assault=basically menacing, battery=unwelcome touching). But some states by statute have used “assault” to refer to what might have been called at common law a battery, i.e., something involving touching. The penalty is still not a small one so it’s really just nomenclature. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-peeing-on-a-police-officer/449765.md?page=2)