Pubdate: Tue, 22 Feb 2000
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2000 The New York Times Company
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Author: Dirk Johnson

CHICAGO COUNCIL TRIES ANEW WITH ANTI-GANG ORDINANCE 

CHICAGO, Feb. 21 - Trying to thwart gangs without running afoul of
constitutional rights, the Chicago City Council has passed an
anti-loitering ordinance that allows the police to order suspicious crowds
to scatter.

The measure, which limits enforcement to high-crime areas, drew criticism
from some council members, who said it singled out racial minorities. But a
majority of black members of the Council approved the bill as a tool to
fight crime.

A similar measure passed in 1992 was struck down last June in a 6-to-3 vote
of the United States Supreme Court, which said it was too vague. But
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, in a concurring opinion, wrote that the
Chicago measure could be rewritten in ways to make it acceptable.

The new measure, backed by Mayor Richard M. Daley and passed by the Council
in a 44-to-5 vote last Wednesday, addressed the concerns about the earlier
measure's vagueness by specifically citing "gang and narcotics loitering."
It allows the police to order loiterers to disband within five minutes, and
to "remove themselves from within sight and hearing" of a designated spot
for at least three hours.

Under the measure, the city would limit enforcement to designated "hot
spots" in neighborhoods with high rates of crime. Under the earlier
anti-loitering ordinance, which was lifted in 1995 after lower court
rulings against it, the police made more than 40,000 arrests. The Chicago
ordinance is one of dozens of anti-loitering measures passed around the
nation in recent years by cities trying to deal with crime and, in some
cases, homeless people.

The City Council in Annapolis, Md., approved a measure last week that bars
convicted drug dealers from loitering in designated areas and allows the
police to scatter crowds suspected of dealing drugs.

The City Council in Grand Prairie, Tex., passed an ordinance last November
that allows the police to scatter loiterers if officers suspect drug
dealing. Officials in Cleveland are considering rewriting an anti-loitering
measure intended for prostitution after a federal court struck down an
earlier version. And many cities, including San Francisco and New York,
have conducted sweeps designed to remove homeless people from the streets.

The action in Chicago drew criticism from the American Civil Liberties
Union here, which released a statement saying it was "disheartened" by the
measure.

"This ensures that thousands of innocent persons of color will be arrested
for no good reason," the A.C.L.U. statement said.

The measure won approval from 15 blacks on the Council, including Michael
Chandler, who said the issue was not civil liberties, but rather "people
selling heroin to our kids."

Several council members said people were being made prisoners in their
homes because they feared gang members on street corners.

But Councilwoman Leslie Hairston, who is black, said the ordinance
"legalizes racial profiling." And another black councilwoman, Dorothy
Tillman, called the measure "anti-black" and "inhumane."

Ms. Hairston also said neighborhoods designated as high-crime areas would
see property values fall.

Moves intended to make poor neighborhoods safer have been central to Mayor
Daley's popularity. He has steadily built support among blacks since first
winning office in 1989 with only about 10 percent of the black vote.

In her opinion last year, Justice O'Connor said the ordinance would be
permissible if its language would take aim at loiterers "with no apparent
purpose other than to establish control over identifiable areas, to
intimidate others from those areas or to conceal illegal activities."

Mayor Daley said the new measure was written to follow Justice O'Connor's
suggestion.

City officials say they will begin enforcement of the measure in a month,
after working with community leaders to select areas that qualify under the
ordinance.

The police superintendent, Terry Hillard, who is black and supports the
measure, said his officers would be trained to enforce the measure without
overstepping its scope. Critics of the earlier version say the police made
indiscriminate sweeps in some neighborhoods.

"What we're hoping to do is give them a warning: 'You don't need to be on
this corner,' " Mr. Hillard said.
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