Court overturns Los Angeles ban on living in cars
Posted on Thursday, 06.19.14
This June 4, 2008 photo shows Darlene Knoll, 53, resting in the sleeping area of the battered 1978 motor home where she lives in Los Angeles. ... Damian Dovarganes, file / AP Photo
By LISA LEFF Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court on Thursday struck down a 31-year-old Los Angeles law that bars people from living in parked vehicles, saying the vaguely written statute discriminates against the homeless and poor.
The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals involved a 1983 law that prohibits the use of a vehicle "as living quarters either overnight, day-by-day, or otherwise."
The court said the law was unconstitutional because its ambiguous wording does not make clear what conduct would constitute a violation and "criminalizes innocent behavior."
The decision came in a case brought on behalf of four people who were cited and arrested in the Venice area by Los Angeles police officers who concluded the numerous belongings in their RVs and cars meant they were violating the law.
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http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/06/19/4188671/court-overturns-city-law-that.html#storylink=cpy
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In the richest country in the world (is that stlll true?), there should be no need for anyone, especially children, to live in cars. Or under train tracks, or anything of the kind.
And, as long as we do force people to live in cars, why do we not at least provide clean rest rooms and places where they can shower?
Meanwhile, to listen to politicians, you'd think the poor had disappeared from America. It's all about the "middle class" because most Americans (read, "most voters"
think that they are "middle class," even though no one seems able to define that term.
Los Angeles--supposedly one of the most liberal cities in the US, enacted this law 31 years ago? Without providing housing alternatives to the car?
What a species we are.
