QLD Police - Crime to Spit on a Motor Vehicle?

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6 May 2017
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Hi, new to the law forum.

Is it a crime to spit on a motor vehicle? Had an incident where someone parked me in, in the driveway of my home residence and I spat on there windscreen. In turn, they filed a police complaint and the police have contacted via a phone call and have requested me to come in for a interview.

I was secretly recorded admitting that I spat on there windscreen.

Cheers
 

Gorodetsky

Well-Known Member
21 February 2016
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Hi Clint,

I'm not a solicitor.

I'm not sure what state you're in.

But yeah, there probably is some criminal offence, if the cop wants to read thru the code they can probably find something.

Maybe damage to property,...in QLD it might be public nuisance...

Police read these forums, I hope you haven't used your real name.

The cop had you on speaker phone and recorded you admitting?

I can't agree with your actions, but who parks across someone's driveway...

Regards
 
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Rod

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Next time someone parks across your driveway call the police and ask to have the car towed.

Ask to have them charged this time for illegal parking.

And yes, spitting on someone's property is actionable and can be both a criminal offense and a civil tort.

I agree parking across someone's driveway is a very selfish act and the remedy for it should be to allow the affected person to have the car towed away at car owner's expense.
 
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Rob Legat - SBPL

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I'm not a criminal lawyer, and I'm stepping outside the lawyer role with this comment for some educational purposes. I do have some (non-formal) training and understanding in blood-borne pathogen transmission.

Saliva is made from blood, and a range of factors in your mouth (such as ulcers, tiny cuts and gingivitis) can cause blood to mix with your saliva. This saliva can then carry some infectious material.

While many diseases are unable to survive in either saliva or outside the body, there are some that can. Many are generally of a slight (colds, flus) to moderate (strep, Epstein-Barr, Type 1 Herpes) nuisance factor, and may depend on almost immediate infection, such as being spat at in the face or on an open wound.

Some are nasty and life threatening. For example Viral Meningitis and Hepatitis C. Hep C can live on surfaces for up to three weeks apparently.

The chances of having any of these present in someone's saliva is unknown, and there's no reliable way for that to be discovered outside a lab environment. That's why spitting is liable to be treated as a serious matter.
 
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Jermy

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30 March 2015
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I'm not a criminal lawyer, and I'm stepping outside the lawyer role with this comment for some educational purposes. I do have some (non-formal) training and understanding in blood-borne pathogen transmission.

Saliva is made from blood, and a range of factors in your mouth (such as ulcers, tiny cuts and gingivitis) can cause blood to mix with your saliva. This saliva can then carry some infectious material.

While many diseases are unable to survive in either saliva or outside the body, there are some that can. Many are generally of a slight (colds, flus) to moderate (strep, Epstein-Barr, Type 1 Herpes) nuisance factor, and may depend on almost immediate infection, such as being spat at in the face or on an open wound.

Some are nasty and life threatening. For example Viral Meningitis and Hepatitis C. Hep C can live on surfaces for up to three weeks apparently.

The chances of having any of these present in someone's saliva is unknown, and there's no reliable way for that to be discovered outside a lab environment. That's why spitting is liable to be treated as a serious matter.

Wow, a small act which has great consequence (not referring to this case but in general). In this case, it may be hard for someone to get infected by any of those diseases as the location of the saliva, but I'm sure that will not be considered in the complaint. But thanks for writing this, good knowledge, and it can be used if someone actually spat on oneself.