Citations Issued on Skid Row

* Alice Callaghan laments the issuing of jaywalking citations to the homeless on skid row (“ ‘The Night Lit Up as Day’ on Skid Row,” Commentary, Dec. 25). Clearly this is an unfair practice, she and others tell us, because the homeless can’t afford to pay the ticket and thus wind up being arrested and jailed.

I drive through skid row on my way to work each morning. I am convinced that, one of these days, I’ll run over someone who decides to take a leisurely stroll across the middle of 6th Street. One recent morning a man took it upon himself to sweep the center lane of 6th Street with a dust broom, his back to the traffic, completely oblivious to buses, trucks and other vehicles bearing down on him, horns blasting.

I feel sorry for the homeless and don’t particularly want them to have to pay $77 tickets they can’t afford. But the purpose of the ticket is to serve as a deterrent--to see that these people stay out of the middle of the street. To be more effective, the officer issuing the citation should take the time to explain why jaywalking is dangerous and potentially fatal.

I don’t know what happened to that man with the broom after I drove by him. If he was lucky, he was arrested and put in jail overnight and enjoyed a roof over his head, a hot meal or two and a reasonably sanitary place to relieve himself. If he was unlucky, he died that morning, in the middle of 6th Street, with the dust broom in his hands.

Which outcome would you prefer, Ms. Callaghan?

WILLIE HUGHES

Los Angeles

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* So the LAPD is going to crack down on public urination by issuing citations to those who have nowhere else to perform this basic bodily function. Cmdr. Sharon Papa says that she wants people urinating on the sidewalks to be arrested and issued citations (Dec. 25). My question for her is whether the city is going to offer public restroom facilities for those folks who want to abide by the law but have no place to go when nature calls.

This attempt by the police to crack down on crimes is simply another thinly disguised attempt to harass homeless people and to get around recent court decisions that protect their right to avoid harassment.

MARY SHELTON

Riverside