Judge to Bar Police Harassment of Skid Row’s Homeless

A federal judge said Friday that she plans to issue a temporary restraining order barring police from harassing the homeless on Los Angeles’ skid row.

Officers would be prohibited from stopping homeless people at random, demanding their identification and threatening them with arrest, according to a draft of U.S. District Judge Lourdes G. Baird’s pending order.

Police would also be prevented from seizing homeless people’s belongings, which are sometimes left unattended on sidewalks, and discarding their possessions.

Baird circulated a copy of her proposed order during a court hearing Friday attended by lawyers from the city attorney’s office and the American Civil Liberties Union.

In remarks from the bench, the judge also indicated that she would bar the police from forcing the homeless to keep moving from place to place.

After soliciting comments from both sides, Baird said would consider their arguments and issue a final ruling on Monday.

The ACLU filed a civil rights suit last month on behalf of 26 homeless residents and social service workers who complained that a recently launched crime-fighting drive in the 50-block skid row area had turned into a campaign of harassment against the homeless.

Police officials deny those allegations.

“I don’t think the homeless won today,” said Lt. Paul Geggie of the LAPD Central Division, which patrols skid row. “What’s going to happen is, it’s going to be more dangerous and dirtier.”

Joann Barnes, 46, who has lived on the streets of skid row for two years, said Friday night that she didn’t believe police were harassing the homeless in the first place. “I think they are concerned about the welfare of the people,” said Barnes.

But Dominique Cholon, 41, said he was glad police would be prevented from giving him and other homeless people tickets for blocking the sidewalks, or from confiscating their possessions.

“They’ve been . . . harassing folks for little things. They might be doing their job but they overdo it,” said Cholon, who has been homeless for four years.

In her 23-page draft, Baird wrote that she was obliged to weigh the city’s needs against the rights of the homeless.

The injunction, she said, may slow down the Police Department’s initiative to reduce crime and clean up the streets and sidewalks in skid row. But she added that the homeless face a greater harm: loss of their constitutional rights.

She said the police actions, unless checked, “are likely to displace homeless individuals and threaten their ability to access charities for food, shelter and assistance in skid row.”

Douglas E. Mirell, a plaintiffs’ attorney, said he was gratified by Baird’s tentative ruling. “The decision to grant a [temporary restraining order] is particularly important at this time of the year because the weather is getting colder and the conditions that the homeless have to live will become much more extreme.” Deputy City Atty. Deborah L. Sanchez, who represented the police at Friday’s hearing, said afterward that Baird’s tentative order would cause no substantial changes in official department policies.

“Stopping people without reasonable suspicion or searching their possessions without probable cause are things they’re not supposed to be doing in the first place,” Sanchez said. “The only issue I would have with the court is that the [restraining order] is unnecessary.”

At the hearing, however, attorney Carol A. Sobel, representing the ACLU, told Baird that police have been seizing homeless people’s belongings, which they must leave on the street before entering feeding halls.

She said the items are thrown into city trucks and discarded in violation of a state law requiring authorities to hold on to abandoned property for at least 90 days.

The ACLU has also asked Baird to certify the suit as a class action on behalf of Los Angeles’ entire homeless population, a move the city attorney opposed.

Although the judge did not rule on that issue in her tentative order, she indicated that class certification was likely.

Officials estimate about 11,000 people are living in transient hotels and on the streets along skid row.

So far this year, at least four homeless people have been killed in the Central Division area and 32 others were victims of rape or sex crimes, said Geggie. About 40 homeless people are robbed, assaulted or victimized each month, he added.

Since September, Capt. Stuart Maislin of the Central Division has ordered his officers to cite the homeless for occupying sidewalks and other public nuisances. Arrests, citations and drug arrests have gone up while crime has decreased, police said.

As of 5 p.m. Friday, however, Central Division officers said they would temporarily stop citing or warning people for blocking the sidewalks; they also suspended the confiscation of abandoned personal property.

“So a community that is 50% mentally ill, a community that can only marginally care for itself is going to be forced into the traffic because we can no longer issue tickets for blocking sidewalks,” said Geggie.