Street roots., July 10, 2009, Page 3, Image 3

l i n street
|r< roots
■
Educah
Education * Dialogue * Independence
Police pursue
disorderly
conduct
violations
JOANNE ZUHL
S T A F F W R IT E R
TT| was only a matter of days after
I
A
Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge '
Stephen K. Bushong ruled that the city
of Portland’s sit-lie ordinance was
unconstitutional, that the police had
engaged another tool for the job: disorderly
co n d u ct/’ | 1
On June 25, Portland Police Chief Rosie
Sizer issued à memo toofficers to cease
enforcing the sit-lie law, which prohibits
people from sitting or lying on downtown
sidewalks, and instead_apply the state’s ■
disorderly conduct law. In Bushong’s
ruling, released June 22, th e judge says the
city’s ordinance oversteps its authority
because the state’s disorderly conduct law
addresses the issue of sidewalk problems.
Reports from Street Roots vendors have
already come in that police officers are
informing them that police will be using
the disorderly conduct law to arrest people
on the streets if they get complaints. 3
Unlike the sit-lie ordinance, which was a
violation offense, disorderly conduct is a
criminal misdemeanor.
"Now instead being of charged with what
was merely a violation or an offense of
what was a city ordinahce, a person can be
charged with a misdemeanor crime,
punishablebyiail time,” says Chris
O’Connor with the Metropolitan Public
Defendws^ffieei«*
“It leaves a lot to interpretation by the
officer/’ O’Connor says. “The real question
will be whether or not they choose to
charge disorderly conduct in every
situation they would have charged a sit-lie
, or will they use more discretion. I think
they’ll use more discretion, because the
disorderly conduct statute requires that it’s
with intent or is reckless. Reckless means
aware of, or consciously disregarding the
risk. The sit-lie was more of a status crime.
Tt didn’t require the specific intent of
annoyance or alarm. It was a strict liability
offense. Just blocking the sidewalk was
enough/’
The sit-lie. ordinance has been the bane
of advocates for people experiencing
homelessness who say it was just a tool for
police to move homeless people from the
downtown area. The vast majority of
people cited under the ordinance were
homeless at the time, according to the
.citation records.
Brendan Phillips, community organizer
with Sisters Of The Road, which has
battled the sit-liè ordinance for years, says
he can’t understand how the City
Commissioners have failed to question the
ramifications of Sizer’s directive.
“All indications on the street are that *
Portland Police are going to aggressively
pursue disorderly conduct in lieu of a sit-lie
charge,” Phillips says. “That flies in the
face of the legislative intent of the
disorderly conduct statute and creates the
potential for more city resources to be
wasted trying to prosecute people for
behaviors that are not classified as,
disorderly conduct under the statute.”
Phillips says the shift is counter
productive to the dialogue around the
issues of the streets and “is no way to
honor the work that social services
advocates, businesses and community
members have put into looking at this
issue.”
You can read the police chief’s memo on
disorderly conduct enforcement, the
disorderly conduct law, and more
information on the judge’s rilling on sit-lie
at www.streetroots.wordpress.com.
This is a bigger issue'
Commissioner Amanda Fritz talks sit-lie, and the need to talk
BY ISRAEL BAYER
S T A F F W R IT E R
ommissioners Amanda Fritz and
Nick Fish will be leading two
community discussions this month
on the controversial Safe Access For
Evefyone (SAFE) program that supports a
range of different homeless services and
oversees the obstruction as nuisance law,
otherwise known as sit-lie for its ban on y
people sitting or lying on sidewalks in
downtown Portland.
In May, after much fanfare, City Hall
extended the sit-lie ordinance until
October pending more community '
discussions on what to do with the law in
the long term.
In June, a Multnomah County Circuit
Court Judge Stephen K. Bushong ruled the
ordinance unconstitutional. Days later the 1
police stopped enforcing the law until
further notice,
*
throwing the
In my six months at City
ordinance and the
larger issue of
H a ll I've come to realize
sidewalk access ;
that we a ll care about the
into even more <
homeless and having a
disarray.
Community meetings
place to go, and that the
/ -Street Roots
Saturday, July 18
recently talked
sidewalk obstruction
with Fritz to get
10 a.m. ■ noon
ordinance was truly a tool
her perspective on
Kaiser
Town'Hall
meant to get people
the ordinance and
3704 N Interstate Ave.
thé community ,
services.
discussions later
this month.
throwing people in jail for being homeless.
Isra e l Bayer: What are you, hoping to
accomplish with the community forums
I.B.: So the police bureau and the business
B
a ro u n d the S A F E com m ittee?
Amanda Fritz: What they’refor is a
conversation, a dialogue, a listening tool. It.
has always been about the process, ahd
coming together so that the streets can be
used by everyone. It was never only about
the ordinance. It is about the big picture.
What services have been created because
of this process? In many ways, since the
ordinance has been declared
unconstitutional, the conversation is even
more important
I.B.: Does the ruling striking, down the sit-
lie ordinance affect the process and/or the
outcomes?
A.F.: It changes the dynamics and in
many ways I hope it is positive. I hope the .
conversation doesn’t become “sit-lie or no
sit-lie.” I think the conversation has to be
bigger than that.
It also highlights a concernthat
Commissioner Fish raised in terms of ‘
criminalizing homelessness. What the court
ruling said was, you can’t do (sit-lie) this
because state law says we have a disorderly
conduct law that comes with a maximum of
one year in prison.
We have concerns about the charge from
advocates that sit-lie criminalizes homeless
people, when it fact, it made it a citation
rather than a misdemeanor.
LB.: But isn’t forfeiting your right to
counsel through a citation process a violation
of a person’s civil rights?
A1F.: You’re right, there are a lot of
different twists and turns with this issue.
But in my six months at City Hall I’ve come
to realize that we all care about the
homeless and having a place to go, and that
the sidewalk obstruction ordinance was
truly a tool meant to get people services!
LB.: Have the city attorney or others at
City Hall inquired into why the sit-tie law was
needed then, if something else was in place?
A.F.: Obviously, we wanted something
that wasn’t criminalizing people and
co m m u n ity have been advocating all this tim e
to d ecrjyn ij^lfzeh o m elessrig S S ? ? ,
on the city’s SAFE programs
Tuesday, July 21
7 -9 p.m.
First Unitarian Church
1011 SW 12th Ave.
the same page with helping broaden the
scope of services and helping people on
the streets.
I.B.: Why sp en d so m uch tim e on process?
Shouldn’t the city bring i n a third party to
A.F.: I don’t know what the motivation
was because I wasn’t involved at that time.
What we need to look at now is what
options do we have and move forward. ?
-LB.: 2s anyone outside of downtown
engaged in this issue?
A.F.: I have heard a fot about the
constitutional concerns about the law and
very little about what was being done to
address the needs of people. That was one
of my motivations in helping set up this
process. It’s a lot more complicated than it
appears. It was impressive to me that a lot
of people from different spectrums had
stepped up to the table over the last two
years ahd worked together for a solution.
I.B.: I f the sit-lie lives on in one form or
another, is there a chance that the ordinance
will be piloted in other neighborhoods outside
of downtown?
determine the effectiveness and cost analysis
of laws that criminalize people experiencing,
homelessness?
A.F.: That’s an interesting question. My.
counter to that is that we often spend
thousands of dollars on a study and it sits ?
on a shelf. I also know it’s about what
practical common sense things we can do.
L ets start with those.
Some members of the SAFE oversight
committee have felt that the city has not given
the group the proper staffing and resources to
be effective. Some members felt they were
volunteering theirtime only to be beat up in
the press and by the community for trying to
do a good thing. A t what point do volunteers
continue to put themselves in that position?
A.F.: That recognition was a huge part of
my motivation for this process to raise
awareness about what good and courageous
things th at group has done.
A.F.: That is a question I’m wondering.
With the ordinance being found
unconstitutional, it’s an opportunity to find
about Really, what we are talking about is
the use of the sidewalk. I know from
out what we are trying to accomplish. It’s
an opportunity for opponents of the law to
campaigning last year and seeing a lot of
declare victory, but that doesn’t change the
really crowded sidewalks where merchants,
need or the reality that people downtown
pedestrians and others use the sidewalks,
need to have access to sidewalks. Again,
they might have some interest.
this is a bigger issue than one ordinance.
What’s the next step? We have to work
LB.: Will the city work to fund the services
/together and respect one another and find
being offered for people experiencing
homelessness i f the law doesn’t stand up to a ~ a way to move forward.
City Council vote or in the courts? ,
I.B.: Is there anything you would like to
A.F.: That’s the question. It seems to me add?
for multiple reasons everyone should
A.F.: It’s important for me for people to
recognize that the services are needed.
show up to these community meetings. Not
Regardless of sit-lie/ people are going to
because we’re going to be making
need a place to go during the day and at
night I specifically didn’t ask the funders if decisions, but because we’re not going, to
be making decisions. We’re going to have a
they are willing to continue funding if we
conversation. It’s important to have a placé
extend the ordinance or not. It’s about
doing the right thing for everyone involved. where people feel comfortable to talk ahd
listen. It will be helpful for me and
We need to have more discussion and
hopefully for everyone that participates.
information ahd listen to people.
Please come out ahd let your voice be
This council’s record on funding
homeless services is amazing. We are all on heard..