US city considers reversing ban on snowball fights

City council in state of Wisconsin will contemplate making snowball fights legal

The ban, which has been in place since 1962, in the city of Wausau prohibits throwing projectiles and puts snowballs in the same class as rocks and other objects which can severely injure people (Getty Images)

A city in the US state of Wisconsin is considering ending a ban on snowball fights after it was criticised for the rules.

The ban in the city of Wausau, which has been in place since 1962, prohibits throwing projectiles and puts snowballs in the same class as rocks and other objects which can severely injure people.

Wausau Police Patrol Captain Todd Baeten told Today that individuals have been affected by the laws as recently as 2017 but he did not know whether they went to court or were hit with a fine as a consequence.

Tara Alfonso, who has been the assistant city attorney since 2012, said she has “never prosecuted anyone on the ‘throwing a snowball’ part of the ordinance.”

The City Council will contemplate making snowball fights legal at a meeting next month.

The Wausau Police Department and Wausau Mayor tried to clarify their position in a clip from earlier this month where people took part in a snowball fight.

Matt Barnes, Deputy Chief of Police, says the ordinance was imposed 10 times in the last 15 years in the video – spanning from someone firing crossbows into a neighbour’s yard to two occasions when snowballs were hurled at cars.

Mr Barnes says in the clip: “A fun snowball fight is a fun snowball fight and that’s not something (for which) we enforce this ordinance.”

He hits the mayor Robert Mielke in the head with a snowball just before the video comes to an end.

Additional reporting by wires