another great criminal charge

Along with Missouri’s “knowingly causing a catastrophe” and Mexico’s “inexplicable enrichment” (not to mention Egypt’s “wasting public funds”) I’ve just noticed another classic criminal charge.

That jerk Alabama football fan who poisoned the beautiful oak trees at archrival Auburn University has been charged not only with criminal mischief, but also with “desecration of a venerated object.” My guess is that this is a very old Alabama law with a perhaps unsavory history, but I love its use in 2011.