Police Hate Guy Having Fun In Utah Town

Steve Unger, the dancing man of Utah, isn't going to
face criminal charges after all for having the audacity
to dance on public streets. 

There's a 68-year-old guy in Utah who likes to dance in the streets of the communities of Cottonwood Heights and Holladay, Utah.

It was fun for him, and fun for passersby who saw the man having his own little bit of fun. Smiles and fun can be contagious, after all.

But police put a stop to that, says television station KUTV.

Dancing man Steve Unger faced charges of disorderly conduct, failure to identify himself and interference with an arresting officer.  Being in a good mood, and eccentric and fun is bad, bad, BAD!!!

It started like this, says KUTV: 

"Nearly every day, the 68-year-old retiree dons selections from his brightly colored wardrobe, ties a bandana around his clean-shaven head, throws on the ear buds, plugs into his smart phone packed with tunes and heads outdoors.

He walks and dances up to 10 miles, a can't-miss figure, sometimes bouncing a rubber ball as he 'glides' along streets, avenues and lanes."

Most people seem to like Unger, smiling and waving as he does his thing. But one person apparently didn't, and called the cops.  The person who called said Unger was blocking traffic.

Cottonwood Heights' finest showed up and watched him for awhile, then went in for the arrest. The cops questioned Unger, who admits he initially declined to hand over his ID, since he thought he wasn't doing anything wrong.

But then then arrested him. Maybe the poor cops felt disrespected because Unger didn't ask how high when the cops said jump or something. After all, he didn't immediately hand over his ID and grovel and beg for forgiveness.

KUTV says Cottonwoood Height Police Chief Robbie Russon said his officers acted appropriately dealing with Unger and said there are two sides to the story of his charges.

But Russo for some reason didn't provide the cops' side of the story. Not sure why.

Unger had faced a November 18 jury trial after a judge last week declined to dismiss the charges.

However, in a recent update from FOX 13 in Salt Lake City, we learn the local prosecutor said he was dropping the charges.

After the charges were dropped, Russo backpedaled, saying that his cops never intended to harass Unger, but only wanted to assure his safety and that of passing motorists.

Yeah, sure. Like dancing is dangerous and passing motorists couldn't seem him. "In this case, both Mr. Unger and the CHPD could have done a better job of communicating at the time of the incident," Russo said.

Yeah, nothing like bad publicity to prompt the police chief to issue a lame PR type statement that really says nothing. But oh well, let's not dwell. Unger is free to keep dancing.

Maybe the the fine members of the Cottonwood Heights, Utah police department should take dance lessons, too. Couldn't hurt!