Loitering Law

* This is in response to the “debate” over AB 1035, which makes it a crime to loiter with the intent of engaging in prostitution or drug dealing. I live just south of Sunset Boulevard near Fairfax Avenue. For 15 years, I and other residents have spent a great deal of time, money and emotional energy dealing with prostitution.

Many of us have built fences to keep them from using our lawns and driveways for sex. And yet, used condoms continue to litter our sidewalks and gutters. Johns’ cars continue to circle our blocks in the wee small hours. Pimps blatantly parade around. The problem remains because the police can only arrest the ladies and the johns who are caught in the act. That is an almost impossible task. This new law may make the cost of doing business on our streets prohibitively expensive for the pimps and the prostitutes.

My sons, who are 13 and 10, have been observing hookers all of their lives. They have no doubts about what the ladies on the corner are doing there. The police are not about to arrest innocent women who are waiting for buses or are engaged in other mundane activities.

The civil liberties of people who choose not to flee to suburbia are in need of some protection and implementing this law is the best possibility of that happening.

JIM TARTAN

Los Angeles