one of the first laws that needs to go when we abolish the police nationwide is loitering laws. there’s absolutely no reason the state should be able to arrest and fine me for like. existing in public.
and it goes without saying that these laws are used to target black people as well as the homeless
And laws against sleeping in cars. Not only is it used to target homeless people who may have no choice but to sleep in a car, it is also very dangerous and promotes driving while tired.
loitering and vagrancy laws are rooted in the black codes that were enacted mainly in 1865-6 following the civil war explicitly as a means of arresting free black people and incarcerating them as a source of involuntary unpaid labor to replace the institution of slavery that had just been abolished
