Crossing from the meal program to the library outside the white lines painted at mid-block gets his attention from his hideaway inside the library's doors. So does carrying a bottle into the library lobby, or stopping inside to warm up. Jaywalking gives officers a perfectly legal reason to stop people and run their record. Many in that minority of homeless are wanted on arrest warrants, some for violent felonies. Some are found with knives or other weapons.
Some stops can get messy.
In the dead of winter 1999, O'Grosky saw Danny Ray Brown cut across the street in front of the library as the St. James meal program was breaking up. He stopped him in the lobby. O'Grosky cited Brown for jaywalking and arrested him when Brown lost his cool. O'Grosky declined a request for an interview. Businesses along Wisconsin Ave.