Corpun file 2765 at www.corpun.com

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Missouri, 6 June 1998

Alderman Bosley is trying again to legalize paddling as punishment for vandals in city

Alderman Freeman Bosley Sr. revived his plan Friday to seek a public vote on legalizing caning and paddling to punish vandals.

Bosley, D-3rd Ward, introduced a bill calling for a citywide election next April on allowing municipal judges to impose "corporal punishment" for violations of city ordinances.

If aldermen put the charter amendment on the ballot, it would require the approval of three-fifths of the voters to win passage.

Bosley first pushed his effort in 1994, amid a controversy over the caning sentence given by Singapore to an American youth convicted there of vandalism.

An aldermanic committee that year rejected Bosley's resolution seeking a city legal opinion on whether caning could be used to punish graffiti writers.

Bosley later tried unsuccessfully to get such an issue on the ballot through an initiative petition drive.

Copyright © 1998, St. Louis Post-Dispatch