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LAPD Arrests People for Sleeping On Streets During Daytime
The Los Angeles Police Department's Central Division began last week to arrest individuals for sleeping on Downtown streets during the day. So far 12 people have been arrested for violating the city's tentative street-sleeping policy, which allows individuals to set up tents between Main, Alameda, Third and Seventh streets from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., but not at other times. The temporary arrangement, made after the City Council rejected a similarly worded settlement that was the outcome of an ACLU lawsuit over the city's previous street-sleeping policy, will have a 90-day trial period. Of the arrested, seven were charged with parole violation or narcotics offenses and five were handed over to supportive services. "The only people we are arresting are people who we have already warned that they need to move and who are openly disobeying the law," said Central Division Capt. Andy Smith. Mark Rosenbaum, the Los Angeles ACLU legal director, said that while his organization opposes the arrests as criminalization of the homeless, there has never been a ban against arresting people for daytime violations. Last week, the District Attorney's office said that police have also arrested people for sleeping on the streets in areas beyond the sanctioned Skid Row boundaries. On Oct. 6, Central Division released updated statistics: From Sept. 24 to Oct. 4, 50 new officers assigned to Skid Row and a new narcotics unit made 830 arrests (in addition to those made by the division's regular patrol), said Smith. Of those arrests, 692 were felonies, 546 of which were for narcotic sales or possession. The arrests included people who came to Skid Row from outside the area, among them members of 11 Los Angeles gangs, Smith said.
page 2, 10/9/2006
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to redistribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
page 2, 10/9/2006
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to redistribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
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