City of Somerville header
File #: 210437    Version: 1
Type: Order Status: Approved
File created: 8/3/2020 In control: City Council
On agenda: 8/5/2020 Final action: 9/10/2020
Enactment date: 8/5/2020 Enactment #: 210437
Title: That the City Solicitor appear before this Council’s Committee on Legislative Matters with draft language to repeal Ordinance 9-120, the so-called Anti-Gang Loitering Ordinance.
Sponsors: Matthew McLaughlin, Jesse Clingan, Lance L. Davis, Ben Ewen-Campen, Mark Niedergang, Jefferson Thomas ("J.T.") Scott, William A. White Jr., Mary Jo Rossetti, Katjana Ballantyne, Kristen Strezo, Wilfred N. Mbah
Attachments: 1. Ord 2002-13

  Agenda Text

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That the City Solicitor appear before this Councils Committee on Legislative Matters with draft language to repeal Ordinance 9-120, the so-called Anti-Gang Loitering Ordinance.

 

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Official Text

WHEREAS:                     The Mayor and Board of Aldermen of Somerville voted in 2004 to approve a Home Rule petition and city ordinance for an Anti-Gang Loitering Ordinance; and

WHEREAS:                     The murder of George Floyd galvanized the nation to re-examine the laws police are expected to enforce and their impact on communities, particularly communities of color; and

WHEREAS:                     The Somerville News on May 22, 2007 questioned the legitimacy of the Anti-Gang Loitering Ordinance, calling it a “political hoax” meant to appease concerns of gang activity without actually addressing the problem or enhancing the police’s ability to address gang activity; and

WHEREAS:                     A research paper titled “A History of Human and Civil Rights in the Somerville Latino Community” states that many residents felt the Anti-Gang Loitering Ordinance was “a direct attack on the Latino community, a method of racial profiling, and a tool for discriminating against Latinos;” and

WHEREAS:                     The United States Supreme Court, in City of Chicago v. Morales in 1999, ruled Chicago’s Anti-Gang Ordinance unconstitutional; and

WHEREAS:                     The lead sponsor of the Anti-Gang Loitering Ordinance cited Chicago’s ordinance as inspiration for Somerville’s ordinance and even acknowledged the unconstitutional nature of such ordinances but advanced the legislation regardless; and

WHEREAS:                     The Anti-Gang ordinance establishes a Gang Advisory Board that has been inactive since the establishment of said ordinance; and

WHEREAS:                     Then-Alderman Denise Provost, the only dissenting vote against the Anti-Gang Loitering Ordinance, challenged the legality of the ordinance, stating that said ordinance is “riddled with Constitutional flaws, and so complex as to be practically unenforceable” and “I don’t think the Somerville ordinance was ever intended to be used for law enforcement. It was meant to quell public fear and create the impression that something was being done;” and

WHEREAS:                     Both critics and supporters of the Anti-Gang Loitering Ordinance repeatedly acknowledge that said ordinance was never utilized even during the height of gang activity in Somerville; NOW, THEREFORE BE IT

ORDERED:                     That the Somerville City Council repeal the Anti-Gang Loitering Ordinance; AND BE IT FURTHER

ORDERED:                     That the City Solicitor appear before this Council’s Committee on Legislative Matters with draft language to repeal any and all language related to the Anti-Gang Loitering Ordinance.