SCP-1434, in foreground.

Item #: SCP-1434

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-1434 is held in a standard containment cell, empty save for a blank book labeled “Charter of Etna" and a copy of "The Federal Criminal Code & Rules." Records of the State of Nevada have been altered to register the twenty-five square meters of the cell as the unincorporated township of Etna, now abandoned.

Current containment procedures were devised to forestall the transfer of SCP-1434's effect to larger cities or counties. A fresh copy of “The FCC & R” should be placed next to the SCP monthly, while the previous month's copy should be incinerated unread.

All security personnel assigned to Site-47 are subject to annual participation in Foundation Standard Seminar “The Application of Force in Arrests and You!” This is in addition to all other regulation orientation and training sessions.

Description: SCP-1434 is a large fragment of extruded clay brick, dull red in color, which while totally inert somehow effects the insertion of increasingly bizarre and impractical laws into the legal code of the nearest sufficiently small municipality. Where borders overlap, SCP-1434 has always shown preference for the smaller body. Affected legislatures show no memory of instituting any such laws, but will enforce them without protest.

During the early phase of the brick's influence, governments have been observed to pass laws of extremely limited applicability, such as a ban on smoking on Tuesdays. However, as the infection progresses, the activities proscribed in this manner become increasingly innocuous while the penalties grow increasingly severe to the point of life threatening.

SCP-1434 further affects local law enforcement, who develop progressively violent mentalities over time. These mental alterations do not linger after SCP-1434's relocation. Officers with more than six months of exposure compulsively apply excessive, often lethal force to any and all they suspect of “transgressions.”

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Incident Log: Since recovery, investigations into several public disturbances have recovered other SCP-1434 fragments of varying size. Unrest is believed to have subsided when a party or parties unknown removed the object from the municipality. The object's whereabouts between incidents is as yet unknown, though research is continuing. Any outbreaks of police violence linked to recently introduced legislation should be studied for signs of object influence by the appropriate Mobile Task Force.

Case 001—12/18/1987: Montgomery County in Maryland outlaws the use of shrimp in clearing snow from highways. Six injured in collisions with state-operated snowplows.

Case 004—01/24/1992: City of [REDACTED] makes the wearing of contact lenses compulsory for all residents who died between 1947 and 1962. City police officers conduct spontaneous mass disinterment which results in the exhumation of over three thousand sets of human remains.

Case 021—08/02/2007: ███████, a small town in France, limits consumption of all beverages containing less than 3% gasoline by volume. Sixty-two killed by ingestion of toxic substances or in beverage-compliance raids.