A Misdemeanor??? This doesn't sound right - from the local paper. ...was arrested by state police at Wawarsing at 1:02 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 14, and charged with criminal obstruction of...

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

This doesn't sound right - from the local paper.

[i]...was arrested by state police at Wawarsing at 1:02 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 14, and charged with criminal obstruction of breathing, a misdemeanor."[/] Preventing someone from breathing is a misdemeanor - like littering?

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

More newspaper people can no longer write well....

Maybe "choking", "suffocating" are no longer PC.......

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Longshadow wrote:

More newspaper people can no longer write well....

Maybe "choking", "suffocating" are no longer PC.......

They get their info from the police. That's a legal term.

dustie Loc: Nose to the grindstone

Longshadow wrote:

More newspaper people can no longer write well....

Maybe "choking", "suffocating" are no longer PC.......

.....and maybe citing the lawyerese wording and terms from the official documents of legislative volumes gives an air of sophistication more extraordinaire. (?) 😄

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

dustie wrote:

.....and maybe citing the lawyerese wording and terms from the official documents of legislative volumes gives an air of sophistication more extraordinaire. (?) 😄

I'm sure there's a reason for that wording. It's like calling a cow a "female bovine" instead of a "cow." "Cow" applies to many female mammals.

Strangling is different from covering the mouth and nose or putting a plastic bag over someone's head. They all have the same effect, though - obstructing breathing.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

jerryc41 wrote:

I'm sure there's a reason for that wording. It's like calling a cow a "female bovine" instead of a "cow." "Cow" applies to many female mammals.

Strangling is different from covering the mouth and nose or putting a plastic bag over someone's head. They all have the same effect, though - obstructing breathing.

Overall, all-inclusive, top level description.
Then there are explicit types/methods (details) under the top level category.

dustie Loc: Nose to the grindstone

jerryc41 wrote:

I'm sure there's a reason for that wording. It's like calling a cow a "female bovine" instead of a "cow." "Cow" applies to many female mammals.

Strangling is different from covering the mouth and nose or putting a plastic bag over someone's head. They all have the same effect, though - obstructing breathing.

Yes, and lawyerly folks in their official roles do not ordinarily produce documents that are worded in common talk which can be readily comprehended by common folk.
Why, even amongst the lawyerly types, cases can be drawn out for hours upon hours, and months upon months of dragging a case through courts, all twined up in arguments over the meaning and/or application of a statute because of conflicting opinions of the microscopically precise interpretation of the wording.

"...that depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is."

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

In Ct a misdemeanor is a crime punishable with up to a year in jail, vs a felony which carries a sentence of over one year.

dustie Loc: Nose to the grindstone

[quote=jerryc41]This doesn't sound right - from the local paper.

[i]...was arrested by state police at Wawarsing at 1:02 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 14, and charged with criminal obstruction of breathing, a misdemeanor."[/] Preventing someone from breathing is a misdemeanor - like littering?

[/quote]

_______________________

It does make you wonder what level of activity was involved in that "obstruction of breathing", that it is only placed in a misdemeanor classification.

badapple Loc: Twin Lake, Michigan

He gave her (or him) a kiss that lasted too long.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Farting in public.😁

Bmarsh Loc: Bellaire, MI

Wonder if it has something to do with "sniffing". As in sniffing glue to get a high. Is that illegal?

fantom Loc: Colorado

dustie wrote:

Yes, and lawyerly folks in their official roles do... (show quote)

Good post.
I was going to reply to you and comment on Clinton's statement about what the meaning of is is--but you beat me to it.

nimbushopper Loc: Tampa, FL

I don't believe the NYS penal law has any such crime listed, unless it's new in the past 22years since I retired!

Toby

jerryc41 wrote:

I'm sure there's a reason for that wording. It's like calling a cow a "female bovine" instead of a "cow." "Cow" applies to many female mammals.

Strangling is different from covering the mouth and nose or putting a plastic bag over someone's head. They all have the same effect, though - obstructing breathing.

Maybe it was "breeding"