Saturday, January 30, 2016

New York Public Urination Laws And Racism

New York Public Urination Laws And Racism | The Daily Caller
New York City’s city council is set to dilute a host of criminal laws including laws against public urination and excessive noise because council members believe too many members of minorities are getting arrested.
The New York Police Department already relaxed its enforcement of many quality-of-life laws after years of enforcing exactly such laws led to record lows of crime in the once-much-grittier city, reports The New York Times,
This relaxation strategy wasn’t enough for city lawmakers.
“We know that the system has been really rigged against communities of color in particular,” council member Melissa Mark-Viverito, a Democrat, told the Times.
“So the question has always been, what can we do in this job to minimize unnecessary interaction with the criminal justice system, so that these young people can really fulfill their potential?”
On Monday, Mark-Viverito and other council members will introduce a set of bills called the Criminal Justice Reform Act.
The laws are designed to make several quality-of-life laws much more toothless.
Misdemeanor crimes to be nearly-but-not-quite decriminalized include public urination, excessive noise, drinking in public, marijuana possession and miscellaneous public park-related infractions..."

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