Be wary of just standing around - Anti-Loitering Ordinance, Tues, Oak. City Hall Meeting!

Be wary of just standing around

FOUR YEARS ago was the last time the Oakland City Council considered an anti-loitering ordinance to target street drug dealing. The ordinance passed 6-1 on the first reading but was defeated 4-3 on the second.

On Tuesday, the idea comes before the council again. The new ordinance makes loitering with the intent to engage in drug-related activities an infraction, with fines ranging from $100 for the first offense to $500 for a third offense in a year. A fourth citation within a year can be charged as a misdemeanor carrying a $1,000 fine or six months in jail.
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1726~1164525,00.html


The Low Down on Oakland’s Proposed Anti-Loitering Ordinance

MYTH: The proposed ordinance will be a new tool for police officers to deal with open-air drug dealing.

FACT: Open-air drug dealing is already illegal in Oakland and all other municipalities in California. We have existing laws in the books that give officers the authority to detain and arrest anyone in possession of, attempting to sell or selling, and/or trafficking illicit drugs. The CA Health and Safety Code already spells out in detail all the possible offenses and the penalties, both in fines and jail time involving drug dealing. This ordinance will not add to the ability of police officers to deal with drugs.

MYTH: The proposed ordinance will not be used to target innocent people.

FACT: This ordinance is too broad and casts the net too wide. The ordinance will give police officers the powers to loosely interpret and would encourage arbitrary enforcement of the law. The proposed ordinance will give police officers too much discretionary power to decide whether a person was loitering in the street or had an actual purpose for being there.

MYTH: The proposed ordinance will improve community/ police relations and will make the streets safer in East and West Oakland.

FACT: It is bad public policy and police procedure to allow officers to profile, detain and cite people without evidence of criminal acts. Oakland’s proposed anti-loitering ordinance will set a priority for Oakland police officers to aggressively profile and target youth, people of color and poor people in the flatland communities of East and West Oakland, the same communities that already live in fear of police intimidation, harassment and brutality. This is not a proposal that will make the streets of Oakland safer for all its residents, it will do the opposite.

MYTH: The proposed ordinance is fair, legal and has been done in many other cities successfully.

FACT: Cities across the U.S. (including Chicago, Baltimore, Boulder, Duluth etc..) with similar anti-loitering laws have had them challenged and/ or ruled unconstitutional and in violation of the First Amendment (right of “freedom of assembly”).

MYTH: The proposed ordinance will not raise money off the backs of youth and poor people of color.

FACT: Every time a police officer thinks that an individual might be doing something wrong, they will be able to issue a ticket worth anywhere from $100 – 1,000. So regardless of whether a person is actually engaged in an illegal activity, the City will collect this money. This is especially true since there will be no appeal process associated with this ordinance. The Council is attempting to pass this ordinance at a time of great financial hardship for the City, making this one of the City’s most lucrative sources of revenue (after parking tickets). The burden of bailing the city out of its financial crisis will be bored on the backs of predominantly youth and poor people of color in the low-income flatland neighborhoods of East and West Oakland.