City commissioners are set to discuss repealing a decades-old ban on spitting in Lakeland.
For the past 70 years, it has technically been illegal to spit on the streets and grass in town. Now city leaders want to change that.
"This ordinance is archaic and outdated," City Commissioner Don Selvage said. "Spitting on the sidewalk is bad manners and even disgusting behavior, but it doesn't rise to the level of illegality in my opinion."
The fight to change the ordinance started last year, when Joseph Stoiber, 29, was arrested for spitting on the ground. Those charges were later dropped.
Our partner paper, the Ledger, reports that police have filed charges for spitting in 17 cases since 2000.