If fines leave you with a bad taste in your mouth, you’re not alone. Roy Marsh had stopped to rest for a while after walking through a parking lot in the tourist town of Skegness on England’s east coast. All of a sudden, the wind blew a big leaf into his mouth. Doing instinctively what most people would do, Marsh spit the leaf out. As he got up to resume his walk, he was accosted by two police officers, who accused him of littering. The bewildered 86-year-old responded by calling one of them a “silly boy” and that set things in motion. He wound up being fined $335 for littering. City Council member Adrian Findley described the case as one of many examples of officers being heavy-handed with enforcement. He said the officers should be able to determine whether an incident is a genuine violation before issuing steep fines.
