The Antelope Valley Times

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ACLU alleges Lancaster citation system unconstitutionally targets poor

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The city of Lancaster

LANCASTER – The ACLU of Southern California and the UC Irvine Consumer Law Clinic Monday filed a legal action against the city of Lancaster and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, alleging an administrative citation system exists that is unconstitutionally designed to punish the poor.

“In the city of Lancaster, people who are homeless are treated as criminals and subjected to citations that carry fines far beyond their means to pay,” according to the Los Angeles Superior Court petition. “They can appeal, but in a Kafka-like situation, the city demands that a fine be fully paid before an appeal can be heard.”

The lawsuit asks the court to order Lancaster and the LASD to stop issuing citations under the city’s administrative citation program. A representative for the city of Lancaster did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Under Lancaster’s administrative citation system, justice is only for those who can afford it, according to the petition.

Homeless people have been fined $500 for the first citation and $1,000 for the second, the petition states. If a citation penalty is not paid within 30 days, the city refers it to a private collections agency that imposes an additional $150, according to the petition.

“It’s a system that criminalizes poverty in violation of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the California Constitution,” ACLU attorney Tiffany Bailey said. “It makes no sense to punish poverty with exorbitant, unpayable fines and fees. If the city really cared about public safety solutions, it would put the resources wasted on tickets and collections toward helping people meet their needs.”

The plaintiff is Leroy Butts, a 68-year-old Black man who was passing out pamphlets at a park in 2019 when two LASD deputies approached a group of people who were homeless, the petition states. Butts told the group they had a right to be in the park, but the deputies issued him a $500 citation, the petition states.

“As Mr. Butts experienced, the city’s administrative citation scheme violates the due process and equal protection guarantees of the California Constitution and exposes Lancaster residents like him to unchecked abuse, harassment and retaliation by the city’s police force, the LASD,” the petition states.

Because Butts could not afford to pay the $500, he had no possibility of appeal, the petition states.

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47 comments for "ACLU alleges Lancaster citation system unconstitutionally targets poor"

  1. Where exactly do people expect t
    Homeless to go. Everywhere they go, people go and try and habitate the area building their houses and condos and complaining about the homeless who technically were there first. Well give it up to the wonderfully entitled men and women who only complain about shit but wont try and help the situations bcuz they think they are better than … Shame on all of u with ur holier than thou attitudes.. Oh what it must be like to walk on water..

    • If you got a real 8 to 5 job or ANYTHING remotely close to A job, perhaps you can buy floaties for your feet and find out what its like. Or maybe sit on the curb in front of their house and wait for a luxury handout. Would you like some caviar to go with the wine?

  3. This is our town being trashed to kingdom come. They dont have the right to trash this place. Everywhere I go around here is trashed and its not getting any cleaner. They can pay their backed up fines in jail or community service. But jeez, then that would kill their buzz and ruin their bender as they venture on in giving up in life and try to drag us all with them. Double the fines. Double the accountability. Double the cleanliness level in this town. Zero sypmathy.

  4. There is nothing equitable in Lancaster or Palmdale. While most people are blaming the poor and homeless, glad that they’re getting cited, the men in thousand dollar suits are ripping everyone off. They look better doing their dirty greedy deeds, never getting cited.

    • How does issuing a citation prevent the behavior they seek to eliminate?

      The solution is to rid yourselves of Rex. Does Villanueva know his deputies are participating in these blatantly illegal actions? If so, get rid of him too.

      But by all means recall Newsome first.

      Prediction: ACLU wins in court and a permanet injunction and cease and desist order stopping the homeless shakedown.

      Lol at rex.

    • How come they aren’t suing Palmdale? Oh yeah. It was Rex who declared war on Section 8 and started the whole mess with the DOJ way back. Now, it is Rex’s heavy handedness that is taking Lancaster down. His false bravado when he suggest shooting the homeless if they rob you is finally catching up with him. I have never heard any talk like this coming from any Palmdale Officials or any County Officials. One man is to blame and that is Mayor R. Rex Parris.

      • If you’re not homeless and never try to rob a person then you’ll never have to worry about “false bavado” having to shoot you. The only ones to blame are the ones that crap on this town and its all gonna catch up with them just like it is now with the heavy fines.

        • If your answer to a homeless person trying to rob you is to shoot them, maybe you might want to consider mace or self defense first? I know Rex likes to yuk it up with his ‘it’s better to be tried by 12 than be carried by 6’ nonsense. A homeless person hitting you up for money could be construed as a robbery. In Rex World it’s shoot first, ask questions later. Of course, Rex also thinks people who go out in public with Covid should be shot. I’ve never seen a public official so quick to resolve issues by shooting.

          • I doubt he’s ever had to shoot someone. Or who knows. Mace and self defense? Not a bad idea. It definately works if you dont have achey joints but its a terible idea if you’re confronted by more than 1 person trying to rob or hurt you. In which case they need be stopped by getting properly ventilated and readjusted… Or buy a few canisters of bear mace and wear it like a necklace. Bad people will purposely misconstrue a social distant person respectably asking for change. That becomes evident in court and karma comes back to bite em.

          • Rex likes to talk like he’s a tough guy. Homeless people aren’t robbing people in Lancaster. They are often the victims of robbery or worse. Rex just needs a scapegoat to blame all his failures on and the homeless are an easy target for him. He continually makes false, irresponsible and dangerous statements that someday he will be held accountable for. Maybe this lawsuit is the beginning of the end of his reign of corruption and craziness.

          • Or the begining of his reign and a clean town finaly. Bums, squatters, illegal immigrants and freeloaders treat this place like a dump sight and they try to sneak into empty houses to find anything usefull. And it dont help having poverty pimps around to have bums make other peoples lives miserable either. You can call it the tough guy talk all you want and as long as you dont tread on his turf unwelcomed and try to rob him, then you never have to find out if he and others that stand behind him will back up their words. Please dont be like an ignorant immigrant trying to test the waters. We already have enough of those kinds of people that we’re trying to do away with. The real failures are the ones that feed off the government and others while not doing a single darn thing to better themselves when they are obviously capable of so.

  5. So let me see if I have this straight… You conservative ‘Constitutionalists’ say that it is okay to charge a fine against someone before they have completed their rights to appeal a decision that may have been unfairly applied?

    You ‘freedom’ people seem to be okay with guilty until proven innocent AND with letting the city run over you with fines and regulations that put you in the negative before you can even fight back.

    • Never think that because rex is republican that he speaks for all conservatives. Real conservatives follow the Constitution.

      Rex by allowing this is exposing himself.

    • Lancaster is run by Republicans, with Rex being he head honcho. Rex had his nose stuff up the hind end of Trump and he is equally as much of a meglomaniac. Democrats have their share of poorly run cities, but Lancaster isn’t one of them. The mess we have in Lancaster falls on the shoulders of one man and his band of puppets, Mayor R. Rex Parris.

  7. UC Irvine, huh? You mean that pristine and conservative city in the OC?
    How about we send all our homeless to the City of Irvine, sponsored by no other than the UC Irvine Consumer Law Clinic. You think those prissy, conservative residents of Irvine would stand for that?
    UC Irvine Consumer Law Clinic, either put up or shut up.

  8. I wish our community could find a different approach. Please have empathy for people. Life is not as easy as it was not so long ago. Let’s not congratulate ourselves too much, or berate others. Our choices are half chance and so are everyone else’s.

  9. Great. Another lawsuit against Lancaster that the taxpayers will have to pay for thanks to Rex. Remember when he declared war on Section 8? It cost us millions. It seems every council meeting has a list of people suing Lancaster. Maybe when he finally retires to his beach mansion we will be free from these lawsuits and maybe we will finally become a city with true Christian values in deeds rather than empty words.

  10. Yes,I agree this is not right if the homeless had money to pay the City of Lancaster ,then they wouldn”t be homeless this was not approved by the Mayor of Palmdale he spoke about this two years ago that it was inhumane to charge or even citate a homeless person because they are already done on their luck and they are poor he went toe to toe on this matter with the Mayor or Lancaster which is a Attorney At Law who approved the citations it was in the Lancaster,Newspaper as well.

  11. UC Irvine is a publicly funded school. That means that the taxpayers of California pay for it to exist. As a publicly funded school, UC Irvine should recuse itself from getting involved in matters that effect the quality of life for taxpaying citizens. If the ACLU wants to sue the city of Lancaster and the sheriffs department, then so be it. Great! Let a judge decide the matter. However, a taxpayer funded institution that extracts money from the taxpayers of California should have NO business, whatsoever, being involved.

  12. I say to all you supporters of this “illegal cruel punishment”…..you better just sit in your recliner and never get up. Why, you ask ?? Because YOU may find yourself homeless…..when you get some disease, or have an accident that causes you to not be able to work.
    It happened to me, and it can happen to you.

  13. I’d love to find a way to take all of the AV’s homeless population and drop them off on the leafy manicured grounds of the UC Irvine campus.

    • Yeah right? I wonder how long UC Irvine would put up with encampments and tents all over their campus grounds? You know, since UC Irvine is a state school, it is technically public property and the homeless are part of the public. Let’s see how the liberal professors and students there tolerate trash blowing around, used condoms and needles, cardboard boxes, food wrappers, dirty soiled underwear and tampons, cussing and screaming psychotic people disrupting their lives, urinating on their cars and walls and leaving shopping carts all over the campus. How long do you think that would go on for before they called the CHP and state police?

  14. The ACLU should be putting their efforts in teaching accountability for ones actions. If anyone (not just poor) does something worthy of a citation, they win, they get one. LASD has my full support and many others that have been paying our taxes for the last 50 years. The homeless can either comply with the rules and laws like everyone else or leave. Maybe the ACLU can financially support these people and house them at their office.

    • How do you fine somebody without income? And how is the ACLU funded enough to house all of LA county homeless? Or even just one city? Anyway let’s all go back to our capitalist slavery …

      • It’s easy….you write them the cite. The fine will be paid eventually, either by them or their estate. Oh yeah, what estate? Never mind. I wonder though……if your logic plays out…..does that mean someone without an income commits a crime, where a fine is involved, they should be exempt from any enforcement?

        Do some homework on the ACLU. In 2019 they brought in $309 million. They have $512 million in assets. They try to fight laws that their “victims” violate by spending millions every year on lawsuits, many of which go nowhere. They do not however donate or fund raise for the homeless.

      • Don’t they get free housing? There just lazy to get support here. We actually got funding for homeless housing already. The aclu is just as cruel digging in to funds they can access to use against people that are trying to help. The aclu is just as guilty as the ones helping. If anything, take the money from the funding account. The one we passed to house them.

    • @Dan: The problem here is that they are being targeted. There are many people that should be cited but aren’t for many reasons, usually because they are not poor. There are also many reasons people become broken due to tragedies in life and fining them knowing they can’t pay only adds to the problem. There are veterans, families, that have fallen into hopelessness and issuing citations to these people is cruel. BTW it’s amazing to me that LASD can find something worthy to cite someone. I’m thankful not everyone is willing to treat the poor or homeless like they’re less than human. God tells us to be charitable to the poor and treat them with kindness.

    • You can pay your fines because you have a job..most homeless people cant follow all rules because they dont have the resources like you to do so. The people in the av treat homeless like they are from another evil dirty planet. Being homeless isnt not easy to deal with and getting out of homelessness is even harder. When people with judge and assume instead of empathize and understand. Not every homeless person is bad or on drugs. Anyone can become homeless any day..we are suposed to helo and love one another..shouldnt a thought of paying taxes come before helping and understanding another human….all them taxes your paying will mean nothing when your dead..everyone needs to do their work that god needs them to do which is love and help one another. Do whats right for humans not pockets treat how you want to be treated respect and protect one another…if you do what god needs you to do he will take care of you in return.you cant take paid taxes to heaven….but you can take it to hell…you dont put humans over material things. I swear there are so many soul less humans on earth right now it heartbreaking

    • You miss the point. Lancaster by its action is criminalizing poverty. The irony is that Leroy was passing out “Know Your Rights” pamphlets to the men being harassed by the sheriffs. Didn’t Rex once declare that Lancaster is a Christian city. I doubt that Jesus would fine someone who is sitting on a bench or sleeping outside due to lack of funds. Shameful.

    • Yes sounds good but what about someone like myself who went from managing a motel to being homeless and unemployed unexpectedly and suddenly when some crack head burned half the motel making it so the owners couldn’t afford to pay us. When you are suddenly forced to move twelve miles out of town with no vehicle and no buses and unable to take showers easily and by the time you do it it’s too late in the day to go look for employment. Especially when you have to spend other half if the day trying to find somewhere to charge your phone. And it’s amazing ask the friends that would often invite you to stay the night or offer you rides even when you had a car suddenly about you like you’re the plague and they are gonna catch it or something. So keep talking because one little unforeseen incident and it can set off a chain reaction and you can lose everything fast.

      And while Mental Health America placed the crackhead in the motel and paid her rent so accepted responsibility as far as being at the office before the fire trucks had even left offering to pay for damages to the owners they didn’t offer us a damned thing. Wonder if they placed her somewhere else and continued paying her rent

    • Apparently you have never been laid off from a job. Good for you. I have been laid off from several jobs over my long lifetime, and have been homeless more than once. But I persevered, and got some good jobs, and became more than self sufficient. Retired in comfort.
      Some people did not make it. Do you think the homeless people CHOSE that life ??? I challenge you to go hang around with some of them. You will find that they are the same “minded” people as regular working people.

    • ” Dan says

      February 9, 2021 at 9:18 am”

      Dan, you sound SO……self righteous. Apparently you have “enough”.

      Homeless people have paid taxes too….when they worked…..and lived in apts and houses. Then a tragedy hit them. And then they didn’t have enough.

      You better hope you never have a financial tragedy that puts you out there on the street. I don’t think you’d be resourceful enough to survive. And certainly you’d crumble in crying emotion when YOU get that citation for sitting in a public park.

    • Not really. Speak for yourself!

      I’m not a millionaire by any means, but I make a decent living and I live in the AV because it’s affordable and allows me to save for retirement, as well as have more expendable income. I could live in Santa Clarita if I wanted to, but I would be living paycheck-to-paycheck and that’s not something I’m interested in. The majority of people in the AV are the same as me, whether on the west side of the freeway or the farther out east side neighborhoods. Most of us care about our community and are tired of seeing it trashed by vagrants.

      There’s nothing wrong with homelessness. There is something VERY WRONG when homeless people are allowed to trash public spaces and create mayhem for everyone else.

      This is what a lot of people are tired of dealing with!

    • Tiffany Bailey doesn’t have to live anywhere near the people she defends. I’m glad this is being addressed.

    • …Tiffany Bailey, another left-wing hypocrite. I’m sure she lives in a gated community manned by guards. She doesn’t have to look at the homeless camping and obstructing her multi-million dollar hillside view. If she did, she’d be the first to call the cops or code enforcement to have them removed.