Gay BDSM NYC: New York Times: City Is Held in Contempt on Loitering

[Peter Boots]

By JOHN ELIGON
NY Times, April 26, 2010

In a blunt, 44-page critique, a federal judge in Manhattan held New
York City in contempt of court on Monday for failing to comply with
orders to stop enforcing loitering laws that were ruled
unconstitutional about two decades ago.

Although the judge, Shira A. Scheindlin of United States District
Court, found that the city had finally taken appropriate steps to halt
the unlawful issuing of summonses for loitering, she wrote that the
city’s actions were “too little, too late.”

“Year after year, the court and plaintiffs pushed and prodded the city
into meaningful action,” Judge Scheindlin wrote. “The city’s
obstinance and uncooperativeness throughout the present actions is
offensive to the rule of law. The human toll, of course, has been
borne by the tens of thousands of individuals who have, at once, had
their constitutional rights violated and been swept into the penal
system.

“More disturbing still, it appears the laws — which target
panhandling, remaining in a bus or train station, and ‘cruising’ for
sex — have been enforced against the poor and gay men.”

Judge Scheindlin’s ruling stemmed from a class-action civil suit that
names as plaintiffs three men who were issued loitering summonses, and
Raymond W. Kelly, the police commissioner, as the defendant.

At issue was the Police Department’s practice of issuing loitering
summonses under state laws that had been ruled unconstitutional three
times. In separate cases in 1983 and 1988, the New York Court of
Appeals, the state’s highest court, struck down provisions in the law,
and in 1992, a federal judge in Manhattan also ruled against a
provision.

Despite those court rulings, Judge Scheindlin wrote, “the city,
operating through the N.Y.P.D., has unlawfully enforced the statutes
tens of thousands of times.”

In finding the city in contempt, the judge ruled that it would be
fined $500 for every illegal summons it issues under the antiquated
loitering law. Every three months after that, she wrote, the fine will
increase by $500, with a maximum fine of $5,000 per summons. The judge
also took a swipe at the State Legislature for not repealing the
statutes.

“One cannot help but wonder whether the Legislature’s decades-long
failure to rescind these unconstitutional laws is but another example
of that body’s notorious dysfunction,” she wrote.

Katherine Rosenfeld, a lawyer who represented the plaintiffs, said
Judge Scheindlin made the correct decision considering that the city
had had many chances to correct the problem.

“Our reaction is relief and hope that this is going to finally stop
the city from enforcing void laws against vulnerable people who should
not have been issued tickets,” Ms. Rosenfeld said.

In a written statement, a lawyer for the city disagreed with the
judge’s ruling, saying that the Police Department had indeed made
strides in reducing the unlawful practice.

“No system in a city as large as New York — where hundreds of
thousands of summonses are issued each year by tens of thousands of
officers — is going to function flawlessly, but the department will
continue to make every effort to ensure that these statutes are not
enforced,” said Celeste Koeleveld, executive assistant corporation
counsel for public safety, wrote. “Additionally, the city is
continuing to seek repeal of these statutes.”

Judge Scheindlin acknowledged the city’s efforts to resolve the
problem through steps like increasing communication and training,
disciplining officers who issue summonses and conducting an
investigation through the Internal Affairs Bureau.

But she criticized “the city’s generally lethargic approach to
compliance with the orders.”

“Nearly every measure that the city has undertaken,” she wrote, “has
been at the direction of the court, the prodding of plaintiffs, and/or
under threat of sanctions.”

Ms. Rosenfeld said that because the people affected tended to be low
on the social ladder, the city had not taken the illegal practice
seriously.

“If 450 investment bankers had received tickets for unconstitutional
laws in the last three years,” she said, “I think the reaction to stop
the problem would have been much swifter.”

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