Troy's spitting ban called racially biased

Albany Times Union ^ | Sept. 17, 2002 | Tim O'Brien

[boris]

hock-a-lugie bump.

[Denver Ditdat]

Wouldn't bother me any.

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". ;-)

[iconoclast]

In days gone by there were laws against loitering.

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.

[Contra]

New York City has reduced crime with a philosophy known as "zero tolerance." Part of zero tolerance is arresting people for seemingly minor infractions like spitting, throwing trash, etc. There are a couple of reasons this is done - first, the thinking goes that even minor infractions lead to the overall deterioration of a city, so all laws should be enforced, no matter how minor. Second, it was found that a lot of these people commiting minor offenses were also wanted for the big things, like murder, rape, robbery, etc. and once in custody could be held over on the more serious charge. So this perceived "harrassment" by the police has a wider purpose, an ulterior motive, if you will. And this is perhaps the NAACP's real concern, that maybe some real criminals might actually be caught in the process.

[Irene Adler]

Spitting in the street used to be prohibited to try to curb the spread of tuberculosis. Now TB is coming back, big time in resistant forms. Maybe a law against public spitting is not so stupid, after all.

[NYCVirago]

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.

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?

[SouthernFreebird]

Makes sence.

[mhking]

Black conservative ping

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.

[Gumlegs]

Ashley said the law causes her to worry about her teenage son.

"It scares me he could get arrested for spitting on the sidewalk."

Try telling him not to spit on the sidewalk.

[TopQuark]

Well, if you don't want police to take care of civility, then listen to you mother and father and be nice.

[Michael2001]

"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?"

Well either the cops are racist, or blacks spit more often than whites. Why does the NAACP automatically assume the former?