L.A. Vows To Void 2 Million Court Citations And Warrants. Homeless People Will Benefit Most
LAPPL News Watch
October 3, 2019
In a dramatic move designed to ease the challenges facing the region’s poor and homeless people, Los Angeles officials said Wednesday that they were voiding nearly 2 million minor citations and warrants that had kept people trapped in the court system.
The announcement is designed to fix a system that has led to many people being repeatedly ticketed and arrested for minor infractions, leading to growing fines and warrants. For homeless people, that has created roadblocks to accessing housing and services.
Nationally, big cities have been trying to move away from citations and infractions that according to critics “nickel and dime” those living on the streets into jail cells.
Until now in Los Angeles, eliminating citations had been done on a limited basis. A Los Angeles Times data analysis in 2018 found a vicious cycle of homeless arrests.
Los Angeles has more than a dozen “quality-of-life” laws — restricting sleeping on the sidewalk, living in a car or low-level drug possession, for example — that police usually enforce with a citation.
2 comments:
So now being homeless and impoverished makes you immune from prosecution for non-felony law violations. No wonder CA is turning into a crime-ridden shithole. We work as hard as we can to attract criminals.
Texas just did the same thing with the never ending cycle of suspending drivers licenses for unpaid minor infractions. Poor people lost their jobs without transportation and continually went to jail because mounting court costs, failure to appears and a point system that was almost impossible to avoid thus making car insurance unaffordable. People were being over prosecuted. Set a fine. Pay the fine and move on with life.
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