Court Opinion

ID: 9689967
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:50:29.700267+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:52.931617
License: Public Domain

DAY, J.
(concurring).
Government furnishes us with very little police “protection.” What we have mainly is police “reporting” of crime and investigation after the crime is committed and then hopefully apprehension of the criminal.
*464I write this concurrence to respond to what I believe to be the unwarranted concerns expressed in the dissent.
Our rising crime rates and fear in which our citizens live is testimony to the fact that we desperately need police protection from those bent on causing us harm. The United States Department of Justice, in its survey of public opinion about crime in Milwaukee, concluded, “a majority [81%] of Milwaukee residents were of the opinion that crime in the United States was on the increase, that the problem of crime was as serious as portrayed by the news media, if not more so, and that their own chances of being criminally victimized had risen. Most also believed that people in general had curtailed their activities because of fear of crime.” United States National Criminal Justice Information and Statistics Service, Pub. No. 50-NCS-C 25, Milwaukee: Public Attitudes about Crime, 3 (Dec. 1978).
One of the few tools that government has tried to furnish to the police for protection of the public is this very type of law, the loitering and prowling ordinance enacted by the City of Milwaukee.
The dissent’s opening sentence says, “[Prevention of crime is obviously preferable to apprehension and punishment of criminals after the commission of an offense.”
The dissent then takes a position, however, that would thwart such a goal by arguing that the Milwaukee Loitering Ordinance is unconstitutional.
While the majority opinion cites those court decisions that have upheld the anti-loitering provisions of the Model Penal Code the dissent relies on the rationale of those courts that would strike down such an ordinance.
*465The dissent relies on Kolender v. Lawson, 461 U.S. 352 (1983), a case where the law being challenged is unlike the Milwaukee ordinance. Kolender involved a California criminal statute which “requires persons who loiter or wander on the streets to provide a ‘credible and reliable’ identification and to account for their presence when requested by a peace officer. ...” Id. 461 U.S. at 353. A failure to provide such “credible and reliable” information constituted grounds for arrest. Id. 461 U.S. at 357. The Court in Kolender held that there was “no standard for determining what a suspect has to do in order to satisfy the requirement to provide a ‘credible and reliable’ identification.” Id. 461 U.S. at 358. Thus, this “identification” requirement was found to be completely within the peace officers’ discretion and the statute was held unconstitutional. Id. 461 U.S. at 361.
In the Milwaukee Loitering Ordinance, however, it is conduct, not a failure to answer a peace officer’s inquiry that raises the possibility of arrest. The suspect is merely provided an opportunity to explain his behavior and the alarm warranted by it before an arrest may be made. The Court in Kolender only addressed the vagueness of the identification portion of the California statute. The Milwaukee Ordinance has no such identification requirement.
The dissent in such reliance quotes from Kolender the words, “harsh and discriminatory enforcement by local prosecuting officials, against particular groups deemed to merit their displeasure." (Dissent, page 472.) The inference is that unscrupulous police might harass persons for reasons other than the legitimate concerns embodied in this ordinance. Any law or ordinance may be subject to abuse. But we have other laws designed to curb and punish such abuses as the many civil rights *466suits amply demonstrate. What is closer to reality than the possibility of police harassment is the number of victims that could result because the police would not be allowed to intervene and thwart the loiterer and prowler lying in wait looking for his next victim if the dissent’s position were to prevail. Whose “rights” would be protected under the dissent’s rationale? Certainly not the average law abiding citizen’s right to be secure in their person and property.
There is a growing and laudable concern for “victims rights.” But the greatest right is the right not to be a victim in the first place. This ordinance is properly designed to thwart those who intend to victimize.
The Washington Supreme Court has stated, “[t]he importance of loitering ordinances cannot be minimized. They are necessary for the protection of society and for the preservation of the public peace.” Seattle v. Drew, 70 Wash. 2d 405, 412, 423 P.2d 522, 526 (1967). See also State v. Ecker, 311 So. 2d 104 (Fla. 1975); Sherry, Vagrants, Rogues and Vagabonds — Old Concepts in Need of Revision, 48 Cal. L. Rev. 557, 566 (1960). I agree. The Seattle court held the particular ordinance before it unconstitutional but then gave its approval to the language in Model Penal Code sec. 250.6. Id.
The drafters were keenly aware of the problems presented by the old loitering statutes. They stated, “the offense is not made out simply by the fact of loitering but requires circumstances such that the actor’s behavior justifies alarm for the safety of persons or property.” A.L.I. Model Penal Code sec. 250.6, Commentary at 391 (hereinafter MPCc). The drafters went further, “this formulation limits the offense to its essential law enforcement rationale of justifying inter*467vention to prevent incipient crime and avoids the extension of liability to persons who are simply socially undesirable.” Id. This ordinance meets the Milwaukee v. Wilson, 96 Wis. 2d 11, 291 N.W.2d 452 (1980) requirements of being specific as to the scope, place or purpose. Wilson states, “we indicated quite clearly in Starks that it was the failure of the statute there at issue ‘to meet the specificity requirements as to scope, place or purpose’ which rendered it unconstitutionally vague.” Wilson, 96 Wis. 2d at 18-19 (emphasis in original). In the face of arguments that the ordinance at issue in Wilson did not merit the “place” requirements, this court concluded that it did not have to meet all three, stating, “[hjaving limited its prohibition to loitering for a specific unlawful purpose, the city is not required to further limit its prohibition of that specific kind of loitering to only certain areas.” Id. 96 Wis. 2d at 19. As the comments to sec. 250.6 point out, 250.6 is aimed at prohibiting loitering for a “specific unlawful purpose.” The comments state:
As a threshold matter, the section requires at least some manifestation of aberrant behavior. Specifically, the actor must loiter or prowl ‘in a place, at a time, or in a manner not usual for law-abiding individuals.’ The circumstances must be such that this behavior warrants ‘alarm for the safety of persons or property in the vicinity.’
MPCc, at 390.
We suffer from an ever increasing amount of violent crime. Much is written about the societal need to prevent the commission of criminal acts. This ordinance is a step in the right direction.
I concur.