Wisconsin city considers tossing its decades-old snowball ban
In 1962, Wausau, Wisconsin included snowballs in its ban on throwing dangerous projectiles.
Decades after implementing a ban on throwing snowballs, a Wisconsin town might soon change an antiquated law that has left residents scratching their heads.
The town of Wausau, located roughly 100 miles northwest of Green Bay, banned throwing certain objects — like rocks or items that could cause harm — on public property in 1962. Snowballs were lumped into the category.
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While the ordinance is rarely used, it's made headlines over the years, spurring Lisa Rasmussen, the city council president, to speak about changing the rule.
“Maybe it's worth giving a look to see if that list could be amended, to mitigate that odd news story that keeps coming up like a bad penny,” Rasmussen told The Associated Press.
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Earlier this month, the Wausau Police Department posted a video of Deputy Chief Matt Barnes explaining the ordinance was "put in place for a good reason... it's for the safety of our community" — as police officers throw snowballs behind him.
The town of Wausau, Wis., bans throwing snowballs as part of a 1962 ordinance that banned throwing objects that could harm others. (iStock)
Barnes says that the police department has issued citations in accordance with the law about 10 times over the last 15 years, and only two of those have been for throwing snowballs at moving cars. He said others were given tickets for shooting crossbows into a neighbor's yard and dropping sandbags off the roof of a parking garage.
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"There's ordinances like this throughout the United States. To individuals in our community: a fun snowball fight is a fun snowball fight, and that's not something we enforce this ordinance with," the deputy police chief says before throwing a snowball at Mayor Robert Mielke.
The Wausau City Council will consider decriminalizing snowball fights at a meeting next month.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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