22,000 Were Arrested for It, And It Was Perfectly Legal
Last edited Wed May 2, 2012, 03:44 PM - Edit history (1)
Why did it take almost 30 years to stop the NYPD from arresting thousands of poor people under three void laws?
In January 2004, Eddie Wise was sitting in the holding pen of Bronx Civil Court, waiting to be arraigned after an arrest, when he spotted Lisa C. Cartier Giroux, a lawyer he knew from Bronx Defenders, a non-profit organization that represents the indigent. Wise got Girouxs attention and, from his holding pen, began proclaiming his innocence. His arrest report accused him of engaging numerous pedestrians in conversation with his hand out requesting money. The exact charge facing Wise was a violation of New Yorks law against loitering.
Giroux listened to Wise and agreed to look into it. When she went back to Bronx Defenders, she ran a quick computer search and learned something surprising. Wises hunch that he had been illegally arrested was right, albeit for a different reason than he suspected. The loitering law Wise had been arrested under some twenty times in two years had been ruled unconstitutional nearly 15 years earlier. Back in 1990, a group of fed-up panhandlers from Tompkins Square Park in Manhattans East Village had convinced a court that if the Salvation Army could loiter while soliciting funds, on the street or door-to-door, so could they. The court struck the law down.
Attorneys at Bronx Defenders had heard of arrests like Wises and seen a few other clients complaining about them. The attorneys didnt know how many had been wrongly arrested under the void loitering law or whether race had anything to do with it. But the lawyers suspected that the problem was far bigger than Wise and the handful of other people they had met. Together, they started working on a scheme to stop the city from enforcing the void law.
http://www.dominionofnewyork.com/2012/04/30/22000-were-arrested-for-it-and-it-was-perfectly-legal-2/#.T6F-Qug7Xko
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)Because they were poor and mostly Black. That's why!
jade3000
(238 posts)Good point for sure -- being poor in America, or anywhere, is difficult. Same applies to being black. But there is of course more to the story. The 3 void laws included an anti-cruising law aimed at the gay community and one other law. The primary arrest targets were African Americans and Latinos but others were wrapped up in this despicable episode as well.
Almost 30 years! They KNEW it was unconstitutional, and the police defied multiple (I think it said 4 or 5) court orders!
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)Hemp paper, I heard. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.
The Salvation is an army so they're protected. All these individuals could not afford an attorney who was worth a damn so they got free time in the pokey. 3 meals and a cot... what are they complaining about? Pure welfare!!
Here's the facts: They were holding out their hands just asking to get cuffed and our boys in blue had nothing else to do so they cuffed 'em.
What's the big deal?
Uncle Joe
(58,524 posts)Thanks for the thread, jade.
dmr
(28,364 posts)Those 'upholding' the law, are the lawbreakers. Dirty.
jade3000
(238 posts)I think more accountability up & down the police chain of command is the only way to this problem, as well as the related stop & frisk program. That and complete elimination of arrest quotas, formal and informal.