Every so often, cities take time to weed out old ordinances regulating horse droppings, dwarf tossing, flashing disco lights or non-rewound VHS cassettes. OK, we made the last two up.
For Lansing City Councilman Brian Jackson, the proposed repeal of eight city ordinances, set for a public hearing Monday, is a bit more serious than a routine house cleaning of old city laws.
The ordinances touch on a wide range of conduct, from playing in streets and bringing dogs to parks, to using profane language in schools and loitering where drug use or prostitution occur.
All of them are misdemeanors punishable by up to 90 days in jail, a $500 fine and two years of probation. And each of them helps to cast a wide net over lawful behavior, giving police officers far too much discretion in Lansing to arrest, handcuff and book people into jail, Jackson said.
One of the ordinances under consideration for repeal prohibits “annoying persons.”
“This might be our most infamous one,” Jackson said at a March 22 Council meeting. “Everybody has a joke about it — and everybody could be guilty, and thrown in jail.”
Eight of 15 ordinances Jackson brought to Council in February for possible repeal are set for a public hearing via Zoom at 7 p.m. Monday (April 12). The other seven will likely be heard on April 26.
Before the Council set Monday’s hearing, the Committee for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, chaired by Councilwoman Patricia Spitzley, vetted them one by one, along with City Attorney James Smiertka and Police Chief Daryl Green. Smiertka said most have been around for ages.
“Some have not been used,” he said. “Some are covered by other ordinances or state laws.”
Added Spitzley: “Either there are other ordinances on the books to enforce something like that, or they’re unconstitutional, or they’re just obsolete.” Jackson also said that undesired conduct barred by the dated city ordinances would still be illegal under a different ordinance or state law.
“Even with playing in the streets — you still can’t obstruct a public right of way, you still can’t make a disturbance, you still can’t cuss up the schools, so don’t worry,” Jackson explained.
In 2014, Grand Rapids repealed an ordinance similar to the locally “willfully annoying persons” ordinance in Lansing. In an NPR interview, former Grand Rapids City Attorney Catherine Mish speculated that the ordinance sprang from a concern about behavior that would now be legally described as “stalking.”
“They were trying to describe stalking before we had that word,” Mish said.
Smiertka speculated that some of the old ordinances, including one that prohibits “climbing or defacing trees” and another that prohibits bringing “animals, vehicles or bicycles onto any park or onto any grassplot in any street,” sprang from complaints from local residents over the years.
“You get one or two Council people who get lobbied by neighborhood groups,” he said. “They introduce an ordinance, fellow councilmembers go along with it and you get it on the books.”
Smiertka said his office joined the Police Department and officials in the courts system in recommending that the ordinance barring playing in the streets be repealed.
“There’s another ordinance that says you can’t obstruct traffic,” Smiertka explained. “No one in our office has seen anyone charged with playing in the streets.”
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