Yes, but the question remains: can the police legally order someone to move along if they’re loitering in front of a private business? If they can’t, then this guy can sue the bejeesus out of the St. Paul police dept.
The article is less than helpful in determining where this took place relative to the child’s preschool.
This was not “in front of” a private business on a public street, this was inside a private property building.
He was supposedly sitting in a lounge area for building employees and was asked to leave. If I go into a private business, perhaps a Bank of America branch, and sit there long enough, they’re likely to ask me if I have business with them and if not to please leave. Their waiting area is not a public facility. Even though it probably doesn’t have a sign up that it’s a private area.
It is highly likely this could have been handled better by security and the cops, but then it’s also highly likely the guy has a chip on his shoulder about being black, when I would probably also have been asked to move along in a similar situation. But if an identical situation had arisen when I refused to leave, nobody would care. I’m not black.
In order to do that they would have to define loitering and have a law against that. According to the St. Paul municiple code loitering is not illegal unless done after midnight and on the streets. This man did absolutely nothing wrong or illegal, other than apparently be the wrong race in the wrong area.