Posted on 09/19/2002 6:14:46 PM PDT by southcarolina
TROY, N.Y. -- Spit happens. But here, it can get you arrested.
Since the City Council quietly passed a law in July that makes it illegal to spit on the sidewalk, five people have been cited for violating the ordinance.
Council members said they wanted the law as a tool to break up groups of young people who loiter, use abusive language and spit.
But a community civil rights leader said the violation, which carries a $50 fine, is being used by police to target minorities. Four of the people cited so far are African-Americans.
"You have officers looking for any excuse to arrest these young men and to put them in custody," said Jessica Ashley, a past president of the Troy NAACP. "It's ridiculous. What are you going to come up with next, an ordinance allowing police to arrest people who look at them the wrong way?"
She said the fact that the majority of people cited so far are black bolsters her claim.
"I believe there are racial overtones involved there, whether they want to own up to it or not," she said. "Blacks are a minority in the city; whites are a majority. How do you arrest more black people than white people for spitting?"
Troy officials defended the law, saying it is aimed at improving neighborhoods.
"With all our neighborhood meetings, they were talking about gangs of kids loitering, urinating, spitting, drinking and using foul and abusive language," Police Commissioner Mark Whitman said. "We took a look at what our existing laws were. It is just another tool."
The law is similar to an earlier effort by police to stop bike riders for not having a bell or light on their bicycles. While the stated aim was to target drug couriers, African-Americans were disproportionately stopped. Blacks make up 11.4 percent of the city's population of 49,170.
Whitman denied that the anti-spitting law is used to stop minorities. Of the five people cited, four were young black men between the ages of 16 and 21.
"It's targeting groups. It's targeting problem areas. It has nothing to do with race," he said. "It has nothing to do with age. It has to do with quality of life and addresses the concerns neighborhoods have raised. The same people Jessica Ashley represents are the same people making the complaints."
Council President Harry Tutunjian agreed.
Like Whitman, he noted the ordinance, modeled after one in New York City, was drafted after a meeting between Whitman, council member and former state trooper Robert Armet and representatives of District Attorney Kenneth R. Bruno.
"It's a public health issue. The three groups came together to try to improve the quality of life in our city," Tutunjian said. "The law is meant to help police officers clean the street of unruly gangs of people who block storefronts and sidewalks. This council has worked to improve the quality of life in our city, and police officers needed to be able to have the law on their side to clear the streets and sidewalks of those people who are detrimental to the image of Troy."
Tutunjian said he is aware of the NAACP's concerns, and he has a meeting scheduled with its leaders Wednesday.
Mayor Mark Pattison said he already has met with the NAACP, and he too believes the ordinance is not racially discriminatory.
"The goal of it and other quality-of-life ordinances is to raise the bar of the level of acceptable behavior in our community," the mayor said. "It has no racial intent or overtones to it."
The mayor said he was open to other suggestions for how to handle these problems.
Ashley said the law causes her to worry about her teenage son.
"It scares me he could get arrested for spitting on the sidewalk."
Great. Post your address, we'll forward it to DU, and one of the kind citizens there will deposit a big ol' heapin' steamer on your doorstep before you can say "hock-a-loogie". ;-)
I haven't read about an arrest for loitering forever. I seem to recall that the supremes declared them unconstitutional on the grounds of vagueness or some such. Someone, I'm sure will correct me if I'm wrong.
But seems to me this spitting law, which certainly is specifistic, simply takes the place of the old laws, and these young men are, for all intents and purposes, being arrested for loitering.
I don't understand the correlation between bells and lights on bicycles and drug couriers. And blacks may make up a small percentage of the population, but how many of them ride bikes?
If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)
Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.
"It scares me he could get arrested for spitting on the sidewalk."
Try telling him not to spit on the sidewalk.
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