Is New York City Council considering making public urination legal?

Question

According to the article:

The left-wingers who run New York City are about to make it 100% legal to urinate in public.

Why? Because many blacks and minorities have been fined or arrested for it. They would rather legalize this disgusting behavior than enforce basic rules of public sanitation.

Urinating and drinking in public would no longer be treated as crimes under a package of bills New York’s City Council will consider to ease enforcement of quality-of-life offenses that lawmakers say clog the courts and have been disproportionately enforced against minorities.

The council scheduled a Jan. 25 hearing on the proposed laws, which are supported by Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, a majority of her 50 colleagues and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. The proposal would remove the possibility of permanent criminal records for public urination and violating park rules, mostly treating them as civil offenses, along with public drinking, littering and excessive noise.

Such low-level offenses have left the city with more than 1.2 million active warrants, according to a fact sheet distributed by the council Wednesday.

Any truth in this?

I don't think an answer should attempt to determine the political likelihood of it proceeding; that it is being proposed (if true) should be a sufficient answer. — Oddthinking, Feb 13 '16 at 23:54
Does this question fall foul of any rules about motivations? — Andrew Grimm, Feb 14 '16 at 00:07
"disproportionately enforced" against a group doesn't mean the group does it more. (Re the original title) — Martin Smith, Feb 21 '16 at 10:31

score 14 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:41

This is an opinion piece that oversteps what its sources say.

The article references Crain's as a source.

The source article makes it clear that the proposal will NOT make public urination "100% legal", but will treat them as civil, rather than criminal, offences.

(Emphasis mine.)

Urinating and drinking in public would no longer be treated as crimes under a package of bills New York’s City Council will consider to ease enforcement of quality-of-life offenses that lawmakers say clog the courts and have been disproportionately enforced against minorities.

The council scheduled a Jan. 25 hearing on the proposed laws, which are supported by Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, a majority of her 50 colleagues and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. The proposal would remove the possibility of permanent criminal records for public urination and violating park rules, mostly treating them as civil offenses, along with public drinking, littering and excessive noise.

Is New York City Council considering making public urination legal?

1 Answers1