Peeing in the street, loitering, littering, noise and drinking alcohol out of a paper bagged bottle will be classified as civil matters rather than criminal offenses
BarkGrowlBite | May 27, 2016
With 39 out of the 51 members voting in favor, the New York City Council sent Mayor Bill de Blasio a series of measures decriminalizing peeing in the streets, loitering, littering, noise, drinking alcohol out of a paper bagged bottle and other quality of life offenses.
The decriminalized offenses are quite common in inner city minority neighborhoods.
De Blasio said he will sign the measures into law. Police Commissioner Bill Bratton supports the changes because cops will retain the authority to choose between issuing criminal and civil summonses.
Instead of being jailed and burdened with a criminal record, the civil offenders will be given the choice of paying fines or doing community service work.
Councilman Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx) said that “Criminalizing minor offenses leads to minorities getting criminal records that restrict their 'access to financial aid and higher education. These essential elements of a decent life... can be easily blighted by the lingering stigma of a criminal record.”
A New York Daily News editorial summed it up this way: Offenders get breaks. The NYPD gets new hassles and city government gets hefty new quasi-judicial bureaucratic duties. Progressive New York at its finest.
And The Wall Street Journal says: There you have the perfect progressive definition of personal responsibility: I had no choice but to relieve myself on the sidewalk. As we learned in the 1960s and 1970s, making the city safer for small offenders will eventually make it less safe for everyone else.
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