Stop the Sweeps Seattle has casually putting together these news briefs for folks at our community hours (food distro) downtown. i made a special one for this new law but have also included a couple other examples
“The city council adopted legislation on Tuesday reinstating a repealed law against“ prostitution loitering” and creating new banishment zones for people accused of engaging in sex work or breaking local drug laws, including a recently passed law against public drug use and possession. The prostitution loitering law was repealed unanimously in 2020; that legislation was sponsored by Alex Pedersen, at the time one of the council’s two most conservative members. Although prostitution loitering and public drug use or possession are misdemeanors, violating the new Stay Out of Drug Area (SODA) and Stay Out of Areas of Prostitution (SOAP) orders will be a gross misdemeanor, a far more serious offense. Because judges can issue the new orders as soon as someone has been charged with a crime—including as a condition of release from jail—people will soon be faced with the Sophie’s choice of staying out of areas where they spend most of their time or facing up to 364 days of jail time even if they’re never convicted of the underlying crime.”
With Police On Hand, Council Adopts Drug, Sex Work Banishment Zones – PubliCola
Seattle Nice: Will All the New Drug Laws Help Drug Users? – PubliCola
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.