Litter In La Marque? You're Going To Jail

"Even I think this is harsh."

​La Marque is fed up with litter. The Galveston County suburb sees only one way to address it -- send people to jail.

Starting August 1, city officials told the Galveston County Daily News, "anyone caught littering will go to jail and will have to pay a hefty fine."

Well, that seems a little harsh.
Not to officials:

"We've tried being nice," Michael Duhon, the chairman of the Clean City Commission, said. "It's looking better, but there are people who dump all sorts of stuff. Someone dumped a used diaper on the road in front of my house.

"Two things motivate people. Pain and money."

Dump a used diaper -- and, we guess, a cigarette butt or a McDonald's wrapper -- and you won't just get a ticket, as in the past.

Now city policy calls for you to be booked into jail before getting that ticket, and the fine can go as high as $297.

Officials plan to "beef up" patrols, and police officers will be told to be on the lookout for the dreaded litterbugs.

And as they're arresting them, taking them downtown, doing all the paperwork involved, we're sure the streets -- the very clean streets -- of La Marque will be perfectly safe.