Ban on Window Peeping Is Sought

Gotta love the New York City Council:

At one time or another, many New Yorkers unwittingly find themselves staring into the window of an adjacent building and spotting a neighbor in a state of undress. It's almost unavoidable among the city's close quarters and some might go so far as to call it a beloved pastime. But it may become illegal under new legislation before the City Council.

Council Member Peter Vallone Jr. of Queens is proposing to outlaw voyeurism by extending a state law that forbids non-consensual peeping with cameras to peeping with the naked eye.

In addition to targeting repeat offenders who crane their necks to peer under the dresses of women scampering up and down subway stairs, the legislation would also crack down on anyone caught staring into the window of a private bedroom or bathroom.

"If you have an expectation of privacy and someone is looking at you, you would be violating this law," Mr. Vallone said. It would not, for example, protect someone who stands naked beside her living room window, he said.

The New York Civil Liberties Union said the legislation was too broad and could lead to abuse.

The bill's "lack of clarity confers a license for abuse on those empowered to enforce the law by leaving it up to the individual police officer to decide which kinds of viewing are lawful and which kinds are degrading and hence unlawful," the group's executive director, Donna Lieberman, said in a statement.

Okay let's break this down. The people looking up dresses at the subway is one thing, but if peeping into apartments is to be a crime, couldn't the so-called "victim" of peeping be charged with indecent exposure?

If you have an expectation of privacy, wouldn't it be symbolized by, I don't know, closing the blinds on your exterior windows? If you are a nudist or like to walk around your apartment naked, that is your right, but if you have an expectation of privacy, buy curtains. Haven't we all, at one time or another walked through our home sans clothing for some reason or another?

Ah, nanny statism, thy name is New York City.