| Following hours of
impassioned testimony, the Oakland City Council late Tuesday
night narrowly approved a new law targeting street-level
drug dealing that critics fear police could use to unjustly
harass minorities and youth.
The ordinance will allow police to
ticket people for loitering with the intent to deal drugs.
Actions from beckoning passers-by to using hand signals to
passing small objects would be suspect. The law will be
re-evaluated after one year.
Proponents and critics of the proposal
packed the council chambers, with some 100 speakers making
passionate arguments.
Residents of crime-plagued areas of
the city told the council that the law was needed to free
their neighborhoods from blatant drug peddling and the
violence it oftens sparks.
"You have to put bars on your
windows," said East Oakland resident Julia Hardy.
"You have to put double locks on your doors. You're
just afraid to go outside."
Police Chief Richard Word said it was
often too difficult to catch dealers with drugs, with
lookouts warning them of approaching police.
"It's terribly frustrating for
residents to watch such activity, to finally have officers
respond and then to leave without taking any apparent
action," Word said.
But opponents, including the American
Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, called the
ordinance too broad and ripe for abuse.
"It's going to lead to biased
enforcement and infringe on constitutionally protected
activities," said Mark Schlosberg, the ACLU's police
practices policy director, adding that loitering itself had
been found constitutional.
Many of the critics were youth and
minority residents and their advocates. But the majority of
supporters also were African American and Latino, many of
them senior citizens.
"Even though I'm not a drug
dealer, I do stand on corners, I do yell to people in cars
that I know, and I do socialize with my friends in
public," said Samantha Hynes, 16.
Oakland Unified School Board President
Greg Hodge mentioned "the Riders," three Oakland
police officers on trial for allegedly beating and planting
drugs on suspects and filing false police reports.
"Confidence in the Police
Department to be fair and impartial in the black community
is at an all-time low," Hodge said.
Mayor Jerry Brown made a rare
appearance at a council meeting, urging the council to pass
the measure, proposed by Councilman Larry Reid.
"This is a garden-variety tool to
make some dent in an epidemic in Oakland, " said Brown,
who added that he was "saddened by the obvious gulf
between the old and the young."
Reid pleaded with his colleagues to
pass the measure to improve the "killing fields"
of his East Oakland district so children can play outside
and senior citizens can sit on their porches. Last year, 113
people were slain in Oakland, the highest number in seven
years.
The
council voted 5-3 with Reid, Jean Quan, Danny Wan, Henry
Chang and Ignacio De La Fuente supporting the law and Nancy
Nadel, Desley Brooks and Jane Brunner opposing it. The
majority approved amendments by Wan including a sunset after
one year unless the ordinance is re-adopted, and training
for police before it is implemented.
Opposition killed a similar proposal
four years ago.
"This law will do nothing to fix
(drug dealing)," said Councilwoman Nadel. "It will
only erode your civil rights."
The local ordinance is based on a
state law that already makes it illegal to loiter to deal
drugs, punishable as a misdemeanor. But police say it is too
difficult to get prosecutors to pursue misdemeanor cases.
The Oakland law would change the crime
to an infraction, similar to a traffic ticket heard before a
court commissioner. Suspects would not be arrested but would
face fines from $100 for a first offense to $500 for a third
offense in one year.
A fourth offense could be charged as a
misdemeanor, carrying a fine of $1, 000 and up to six months
in jail.
E-mail Janine DeFao at jdefao@sfchronicle.com.
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