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.