Police Continue Homeless Sweeps on Skid Row Despite ACLU Suit

A day after the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit in a bid to stop police from ticketing and arresting people who spend the night on public sidewalks, officers rousted another group of homeless people on skid row early Thursday.

“We do it every day, Monday through Friday,” said Officer Jason Lee, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Shortly after dawn Thursday, officers descended on Towne Avenue between 4th and 5th streets, rousing about half a dozen people sleeping on the sidewalk and advising them to move on.

There were no arrests or citations, but the departing homeless, and those who had moved on earlier, left a mound of makeshift bedding that a city public works crew swept into a pile with a skip loader and carted off to a dump.

“These people were blocking a sidewalk,” Lee said. “The officers advise them to move on. If anyone refuses, they are cited or arrested. They’re advised to take their belongings with them. If they don’t, the stuff goes in the trash.”

Carol Sobel, a private attorney working with the American Civil Liberties Union, agreed that the sweeps occur almost every day, but she said they appear to have intensified lately.

“The police moved those people off the other streets and created that situation on Towne,” she said “What you have to do is find people different kinds of shelter, recognizing that everyone isn’t going to meet every rule you have out there. I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I know we have to keep trying.”

Sobel said she is seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the sweeps.

Skid row is one of three areas in the city that Police Chief William J. Bratton has targeted to test his “broken windows” theory, which holds that cracking down on minor offenses prevents more serious crimes.

His officers have been conducting the sweeps under municipal ordinance 41.18(d), which prohibits sitting, lying or sleeping on any public sidewalk, street, alley or other public way at any time, anywhere in the city.

Several public figures, including Councilwoman Jan Perry, whose district includes skid row, and Tracey Lovejoy, executive director of the Central City East Assn., have said the enforcement efforts are necessary.