2015.77: Texas’s Hoax-Bomb Law

Free your mind from the false notion that the Texas Legislature knows what it is doing.

(13) “Hoax bomb” means a device that: … (B) by its design causes … reaction of any type by an official of a public safety agency ….

Yes, reaction of any type. So this device, which might by its design causes a reaction by a police officer (it’s intended to do so, in fact), could be a hoax bomb. (Image from goodmenproject.com.)

A Hoax Bomb

As could this:

Another Hoax Bomb

And this:

Yet Another Hoax Bomb

And even this:

Still Another Hoax Bomb

Whether something is a hoax bomb depends on whether it “by design causes … reaction of any type by an official of a public safety agency.” So you don’t know what a hoax bomb is until a cop or firefighter sees it. If the wrong cop sees it, anything could be a hoax bomb. There might be a cop who loves cars; to that cop, a car is a hoax bomb because it causes a reaction.

A telephone is not a hoax bomb until it is used to call a cop.

Just possessing a hoax bomb is not a crime, though. It is only a crime to possess a hoax bomb with the intent to use it to “cause … reaction of any type by an official of a public safety agency ….”

Yes, reaction of any type.

So if a person uses any of those hoax bombs pictured above with the intent to get a reaction from some cop, and succeeds, he has committed a Class A Misdemeanor.

I sometimes think about writing dystopian legal fiction, but we all might confuse it with the news.