What do you all think of anti-loitering laws?

26 comments

1. I think they’re fine. It helps keep people away from crowded areas that have no intention of patronizing them. It’s usually on private property anyways so it’s just a less harsh way of trespassing someone.

2. I think that they have a time and place, but can go overboard.

3. I don’t see how kicking people out of a public space is ok. There’s a zillion laws to lean on if said person is trespassing, harassing, begging, etc.

   The laws are too vague and I would think anyone who talks about the importance of freedom in the US would be against them.

   Typical language “For the purposes of this section, the word “loiter” is defined to mean to idle, linger, wander, stroll, play, or to walk, drive or ride aimlessly.”

4. I think that laws penalize everyday activities tend to have biased or arbitrary enforcement.

5. I’m against them unless it’s near schools, hospitals, houses, or other sensitive areas.

6. It’s nuanced. Easy for official abuse, but without them it is also easy for people to abuse other people’s businesses and homes.

7. Perfectly fine on private/company property

8. Private property is fine. Public property unconstitutional imo

9. Existing in a public space should not be illegal and you should not have to justify existing there.

10. It depends on the situation. We can’t cast a net over the entire idea. People don’t have an inherent right to occupy private or even public spaces.

11. Nah, this is a poor definition of a third place.

12. They are used to go after poor people and minorities.

13. Some places go overboard. In my experience, though, if you aren’t bothering anyone, most places don’t care and will leave you be.

14. I’m not a big fan of them myself, but I also understand why they are a thing. Essentially a handful of people ruin something for the many.

15. Pretty in favor depending on where they are. If you are bothering someone for takeing a nap in a park in the shade on the grass, not really.

    As a means of stopping someone from setting up a small settlement at a bus shelter, then yeah.

    I’ve known people that finished college by going to Panara and sponging off the free WiFi and free refills. And I know families that save electricity by spending a lot of time in parks doing homework with their kids and then letting them play afterwards.

16. generally i would say no. there might be specific applications that warrant narrow anti loitering laws, but theyre usually used as a way to keep black and brown people away or to criminalize homelessness.

17. Based on the comments here, most of these people have never actually read the loitering laws of their state or municipality.

    The laws are more specific than just hanging out somewhere. LE also doesn’t drive around looking for loitering. Most of the times loitering is enforced due to a person calling the police.

18. The only “No Loitering” sign I know of in town is also the only place where I consistently see people loitering all day long.

19. I think most of them emerge from a racist, classist impulse — but then I also get annoyed by the teenagers lounging menacingly down the street.

20. I think they’re useful in areas where people tend to hang out and cause trouble or harass people who are also trying to use the space. Like any law it can be abused though and occasionally people innocently loitering will be unconvinced by having to move somewhere else.

21. Someone in my hometown sey up a complex of stolen shopping carts and boxes which covered more than half of an incredibly wide sidewalk in front of businesses. No one person has a right to that much public space, sidewalk or not

22. Just a way to persecute poor and homeless people. People are too worried about property values.

23. Anti-loitering laws can go too far, but they exist because all too often the people doing the loitering are up to no good. The laws discourage illegal activity.

    I get that these laws reduce the availability of “third spaces,” but it’s hard to have those spaces when too many people vandalize those spaces or use them as a venue to steal, harass, and otherwise victimize others.

    This is why we can’t have nice things.

24. The flagrant abuse of these laws is a huge reason I’m struggling to escape homelessness. They’ve made my existence illegal. I live in my van, and because people despise the homeless, when they see me chillin in the back they call the police and I get cited for loitering and am forced to go elsewhere. If I sit in a parking lot of a business for too long and the manager notices, they come out and tell me to leave and cite their anti-loitering laws. I regularly get *woken up from a dead sleep* and told I’m committing this crime. The problem is most people don’t know what “loitering” means, they just think it means being somewhere for the very vague “long period of time.”

25. I know a lot of cops, both in my family and that I work with daily. I don’t know a single one that enforces loitering laws unless a business calls on the person loitering. But they don’t see people standing outside of stores and decide to give them a hard time for loitering.

26. They are good.

    They give police a legal basis for dealing with people that are causing trouble for businesses or the public in general before it gets to a level that is harsher and more dangerous. Trespassing works about the same within a business, but does not always apply to the sidewalks or parking lots of said businesses. Loitering laws cover that gap.