These are important excerpts from the NCH report in 2009 that are still just as relevant today. Remember that FEDERAL COURTS HAVE DEEMED THESE THINGS UNCONSTITUTIONAL and that a Police Officer is bound, under oath, to protect and defend The Constitution AGAINST ALL ENEMIES...both foreign AND DOMESTIC! Hold them accountable as they would, AND DO, us! • When a city passes a law that places too many restrictions on begging, such restrictions may raise free speech concerns as courts have found begging to be protected speech under the First Amendment. • When a city destroys homeless persons’ belongings, such actions may violate the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. • When a city enforces a law that imposes criminal penalties on a homeless person for engaging in necessary life activities such as sleeping in public, such a law could violate that person’s Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment if the person has nowhere else to perform the activity. • When a city passes a law that does not give people sufficient notice of what types of conduct it prohibits, or allows for arbitrary enforcement by law enforcement officials, such a law can be determined to be overly vague in violation of the Constitution. Courts have found certain loitering and vagrancy laws to be unconstitutionally vague.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 20:30:34 +0000