© AFP Photo / Frederic J. Brown
A federal appeals court ruled that a Los Angeles ordinance preventing homeless people from living in cars is unconstitutionally vague and struck down the ban.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said the law that banned people living in their cars or recreational vehicles on a public street or in a public parking lot (even overnight) is unconstitutionally vague and encourages arbitrary or discriminatory enforcement. The decision overturned the District Court of Appeals ruling in favor of the city.
The ban was enacted in 1983, but faced renewed enforcement in 2010, after Los Angeles officials held a September town hall to address complaints of homeless people living in vehicles on streets in the Venice area of the city. City officials repeatedly said at the meeting that the "concern was not homelessness generally, but the illegal dumping of trash and human waste on city streets that was endangering public health," the
ruling said in the factual background.
The Los Angeles Police Department then created the Venice Homelessness Task Force, made of 21 officers to cite and arrest people living in cars, as well as distribute information about local shelters and social services. During their training, task force members were told that "an individual need not be sleeping or have slept in the vehicle to violate" the city ban, and that the LAPD officers should look for"possessions normally found in a home, such as food, bedding, clothing, medicine, and basic necessities." They were to offer a warning for the first violation, a citation for the second and make an arrest on the third.
Comment: No matter how many seemingly moral statements the Pope makes, it will be hard to take him seriously until he seriously addresses the elephant in the Vatican: the rampant pedophilia and cover-up of offending priests the world over. And he's got a long way to go before clearing out Catholicism of its rampant corruption. See also: