I’ve seen a good bumper sticker or two in my time, but this English woman has taken the prize for the most offensive, almost getting sent to prison as a result.
The bumper sticker I hate the most is probably those white family outline ones. It’s the unoriginality of it for me. Just so boring.
I also don’t like a ‘Baby on Board’ sign. Like, what is that supposed to mean? Oh, I was about to aggressively rear-end you. I’ll think twice about it now. I’m usually so drunk behind the wheel that I have to pull really close to read it anyway, further endangering you and your on board baby.
But one particular bumper sticker has caused such offense that the woman sporting it almost faced jail time. The sticker in question reads “Don’t Be A C**t,” and it upset one sensitive police man so much, he pulled her over. He claimed that it could offend, and ordered her to appear in front of a court.
Georgia Venables is a fan of her bumper stickers. The back of her hatchback is plastered with them, turning it into a veritable, if not slightly offensive, art piece. “I put them on as I liked how they looked – I never put them on to offend anyone. It gave my car a bit of personality and humour,” she told The Daily Star.
Being Offensive Isn’t An Offense
When told to appear in front of a court for her offensive bumper sticker, she was being charged with displaying threatening/abusive writing/sign/visible representation likely to cause harassment/alarm/distress. Georgia was released on unconditional bail. It’s a vague and rather obscene charge that can be used to make people’s lives difficult.
But the court threw it out quickly enough. “I was told by her solicitor that the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case as they didn’t think there was a realistic prospect of conviction,” Venables said in triumph.
“I am so relieved. I’ve been stopped over a previous sticker in the past, and the officer asked me to remove it, which I did. But this time, I was stopped for no reason and told that I was going to be summoned to court.”
Keep it up, Georgia. Your little motorized collage is a beauty.