Diana-
Do you live in Madison?
Is that skanky-looking McDonald's still in downtown - right across from the Capitol. I was afraid to go in there and eat - not because of possible bodily harm - but due to health reasons.
I saw some shady-looking people hanging around there - but that was a few years back. I was on my way to the Wisconsin Veterans Museum and I thought "I could see how this might scare some people away".
'course, stating the obvious would get one branded as a racist. "The obvious" being: are the people violating this ordinance disproportionately African-American?
The city council has dreams of making Madison into another Washington DC... Including the crime rate.
If they want to enforce drug laws, they should enforce drug laws. Not make it illegal for people to stand around in a public area. I'm surprised more people here aren't opposed to these types of laws. It's illegal for me to see a friend on a street corner and catch up with him? Oh, but I don't have to worry about being arrested because the cops will be targeting those people that they apparently suspect of dealing drugs. Well, if those people are selling drugs, arrest them for selling drugs, not for doing the same thing on a street corner that I am a block away. Or do people here feel that I should be arrested for talking to a friend out in public?
Just another reason to keep the rats out.
Madison, Wisconsin, the Berkley of the Midwest.
The Dems are just playing to their large African American voting bloc in the inner city.