Posted on 07/28/2008 4:33:56 PM PDT by John Semmens
Distressed at criminals’ preferences for committing their offenses in the downtown sector of the city, Eugene, Oregon city officials are poised to enact an ordinance aimed at excluding these felons from of the downtown area for up to one year.
Under the proposed law, persons charged with a crime such as robbery or assault would be barred from entering downtown Eugene for 90 days. Convicted criminals will not be allowed downtown for one year.
The proposal is the brainchild of city council members Andrea Ortiz and Mike Clark. “The outer fringes of the community are not bearing their fair share of the burdens of crime,” Ortiz complained. “By this ordinance we’re sending a message to the criminals that they should take their business elsewhere.”
The idea has drawn mixed reactions. Eugene’s Chief of Police Robert Lehner supports the measure. “Our force is stretched pretty thin,” Lehner explained. “If this ordinance can shift some of the crime outside the city limits it will take off some of the pressure.”
Eugene resident, Lucius Sage, labeled the plan “idiotic.” “If a man is willing to risk prison to commit a robbery, I don’t think a rinky-dink ordinance is likely to persuade him to pass up the opportunity,” Sage said. “As an alternative, how about putting the bad guys in jail?”
The American Civil Liberties Union has come out against the ordinance. “It’s discriminatory and limits the career choices of the underprivileged members of society,” said ACLU spokesman, Bertram Petty.
(Excerpt) Read more at azconservative.org ...
Satire — right?
Some years ago, it is believed that Chicago, East St. Louis and Gary, In. passed similar ordinances.
Or, so it would seem, here in Minneapolis....
;-)
Sounds amazingly unconstitutional.
Convicted, you might have a leg to stand on, but, you better be willing to provide city/county/state services out of the forbidden area, too.
DAD GUM IT!!!
I swore to myself I’d never let you fish me in again, and here I went and did it anyway.
:-)
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