Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 8, 1995 TAG: 9502080079
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDY BANISKY THE BALTIMORE SUN
DATELINE: RARITAN, N.J. LENGTH: Medium
It's been only four months since this town decided to light a small candle against the dark cloud of incivility that it saw settling over the land. Though radio talk-show hosts laughed and the local police chief objected, some people say Raritan already seems a little nicer since the town banned cursing.
``It's in your subconscious,'' says Mike Fenneman, proprietor of II Brothers Italian Delicatessen on the town's main thoroughfare. ``Even if I'm out on the sidewalk and I'm talking, getting a little carried away, people say, `Hey, watch your language.' It's nice.''
No longer are vulgarity, indecent language or even insulting remarks to be tolerated in this blue-collar town of 5,800. Yell ``Hey, Fatso,'' and you could face a $500 fine and up to three months in jail.
Anthony DeCicco, Raritan's earnest, affable mayor, says he doesn't understand why anyone would consider the ordinance controversial. ``We're just asking you to be polite,'' he says. ``That's all we're doing.''
Cursing has been illegal in Raritan since October, when the borough council took a stand against the daily assault of insults, offensive language and just plain bad manners that Americans seem to confront everywhere.
Then the town found it was the butt of national jokes. Ha, ha, ha. Raritan: the town with the Cursing Cops; the city you can't even call a hell of a city; the borough where you have to remember to say nothing stronger than, ``Oh, fudge.''
There were serious objections as well: The American Civil Liberties Union said the ordinance tramples First Amendment rights. Raritan's police chief said he wouldn't enforce it.
But DeCicco - four years in the Marine Corps, 40 years running a tavern - is not swayed. ``They say maybe there's too much government intrusion. But there are times when you have to take stands.''
Despite the jokes, many people around the country applauded. DeCicco pulls folders filled with letters from his desk.
From Murfreesboro, Tenn.: ``We need more good people like you.'' From Arvada, Colo.: ``I think it's great that you are standing against the filth of language that we hear every day.'' From Pepin, Wis.: ``If I could move, I would, to Raritan.''
Police Chief Joseph Sferra, however, will have no part of it. ``If someone comes into the Borough of Raritan cursing and using foul language,'' he says, ``we will deal with it like we've been dealing with it in my 30 years here: We'll use constitutionally sound statutes.''
Bruce Marvin, an ACLU staff attorney in Newark, said, ``The law is overbroad and vague and clearly invites law enforcement officers to enforce it according to their own set of moral standards. What's offensive to one person might not be offensive to another.'' Because it applies to public and private places, Marvin says, citizens could be charged for using bad language in their homes, violating the right to privacy as well as free speech.
But DeCicco doesn't see where he's violated any precious freedoms. ``In the Constitution nowhere does it say that you can swear and be vulgar.''
Common sense, he believes, should guide enforcement. ``If you drop your purse and say, `--,' we're not coming after you.'' The object is to stop people from shouting expletives on the street or yelling insults at their neighbors.
``What we've done is sensitize people about their language.''
by CNB