Police State: Cops Can Throw People in Jail for Sitting on a Sidewalk?

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Tana Ganeva

Police State: Cops Can Throw People in Jail for Sitting on a Sidewalk?
Propelled by wealthy donors and business interests, a new sit-lie ordinance in San Francisco gives police the power to fine and arrest people for resting on the sidewalk.

December 20, 2010 |


When Jon Paul, a 69-year-old who's been homeless for 39 years, pulls off his cowboy hat and bows his head, I think he's being chivalrous. Instead he knocks on his forehead to show me his steel plate. He got it in Vietnam about 39 years ago. He says that when he came back from that war he had to live on the street because he "couldn't stand to be inside anymore."

In addition to the metal in his forehead, Paul's stint in Vietnam earned him a whopping $400 a month, or just enough to pay for about two weeks in a SRO (single residence occupancy). So partly through choice ("I like being out here because I can help people") and partly through necessity, he sleeps on the street in San Francisco's Mission District.

Starting last Friday, Paul and the rest of the city's homeless (numbering between 7,000 and 10,000) won't legally be allowed to do that anymore, a development that leaves him shaking his head in bewilderment, saying “fuck that.” On November 2, as the GOP swept into a majority in the House on Tea Party juice, voters in freewheeling San Francisco -- one of the liberal utopias bookending dreaded “flyover country” -- passed Proposition L, a sit-lie ordinance that outlaws sleeping (or resting or sitting) on a public sidewalk between 7am and 11pm.

Police are supposed to give a warning, but after that they can issue a citation that carries a $50-$100 dollar fine. A repeat offense within 24 hours earns the unrepentant sitter a $300-$500 ticket, and/or up to 10 days in jail. If caught sitting or reclining again within 120 days of the original conviction, the individual can be fined $400-$500 dollars and end up in jail for 30 days. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/economy/149266/police_state%3A_cops_can_throw_people_in_jail_for_sitting_on_a_sidewalk/

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[DrDan]

2. why aren't these deadbeats working?

oh. yeah . . . .

[cate94]

3. really?

wtf is wrong with people? this is an absolute disgrace.

[newfie11]

4. Amerika, Land of the free (unless your poor) nt

[Demeter]

5. I weep for the loss of all the good in this nation

we are no longer that city on the hill...thanks to Reagan, who defined it and then started tearing it down, and his successors, who continued the foul task of destroying something so treasured and necessary to the world: the hope of the ordinary person.

[bemildred]

6. Cops have always been able to throw you in jail for sitting on the sidewalk.

They can throw you in jail for nothing, for looking funny, for mouthing off, because their wife pissed them off.

[right2bfree]

7. Yuppers! Quite true and its been that way for far too long. nt.

[WingDinger]

8. This is what led to the Ocean Pacific riots.

It is not just aimed at the homeless/pathetic. It is a tool for many purposes. And people will react. Then, they can refer to the dissaffected youth, or violent homeless. All to achieve their goals of capricious authority.

[WingDinger]

9. Oh, and read the adventures of Ivan Illich.

[rbixby]

10. I don't get how fining the homeless and destitute does any good

And filling up jails with people who committed no other crime than being poor and homeless doesn't really seem to be a productive use of taxpayer money. I would say the best protest for this would be for everyone to insist on jail time for being caught sleeping while homeless.

[ladjf]

11. The "Black Hole of San Francisco" brings back memories

of the "Black Hole of Calcutta". nt