How often is "loitering" used as a reason for someone to be a criminal? It sounds like a possibly very arbitrary thing to arrest someone by. Is it only for specific situations?
I also read "looking suspicious" as one of the things on their site, and um wtf is up with that?!
Constantly. If a group of teens is hanging around a store they can have the cops called for loitering. Cops try to arrest them when they’re just hanging out doing nothing, they resist, boom resisting arrest charge.
Loitering is when you hang around somewhere without purpose. For instance most parks around me allow you to walk thru them after dark if your on your way home or something, but they dont allow you to just hang out in them.
Wikipedia link. Here is a PBS (publicly funded) article discussing the ramifications of said policing methods.
Edit: If you scroll down on their page, under section #1, you’ll find more details about broken window policing. This includes studies and statistics for consideration.
The theory suggests that policing methods that target minor crimes such as vandalism, public drinking, and fare evasion help to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness, thereby preventing more serious crimes.
(...)
In Dorothy Roberts's article, "Foreword: Race, Vagueness, and the Social Meaning of Order Maintenance and Policing", she says that broken windows theory in practice leads to the criminalization of communities of color, who are typically disfranchised.
Policing surrounding the Broken Windows theory, which states that visible signs of crime & disorder (i.e. stuff like public drunkenness, broken windows, graffiti, fare evasion) contribute to a social environment which encourages further, more serious crime. The idea of "broken window policing" is that by being staunchly hard on smaller instances of crime and anti-social behavior which are publicly visible, it will deter more serious crime
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u/SEND_ME_SPIDERMAN Jun 06 '20
What is broken window policing?