SENATE BILL: The Public means Public Act (Redraft Law'd)

[DemPGH]

Okay, I support striking the sections of Part I that have been struck, but I would like to restore 2.1 and 2.2. This needs to be retitled "Public Housing Act" as well.

If changing anything at this point would constitute another redraft, I'll probably sign it and we'll deal with the privacy stuff in a separate statute. I have no problem with loitering laws, but we need to allow for sleeping in cars and we need to ensure that people aren't pulled out of their cars by police for shoddy reasons. I know there has to be probably cause, but there are complaints and cases all the time about police pulling people out of cars for terrible reasons.

Is it all or nothing at this point? If so, I'll likely sign, because we need to help the homeless. LMK.

[DemPGH]

Thanks, guys! I see that now.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

X DemPGH, President

[DemPGH]

My reasoning was that we had to help the homeless, and the bonus was legalizing sleeping in cars. That was the most important part of this (homeless).

This was one of those bills that actually sought to do a number of different things under a title that's vague at best. I actually supported striking Part I. I would have preferred to restore most of Part II, but I really didn't think it worth a redraft and a re-vote. I think we can handle those sorts of privacy concerns and added protections from police in a separate statute or if we draft an omnibus civil rights bill at some point over the summer. That would probably be the ideal place to address when and how police can drag people out of cars, because currently it's kind of sketchy. Police have broad, vague authority in this regard.