It has given police officers a tool to harass, to arrest, to extort sex from, to engage in the use of force against Black women, Latina women, Asian women, women of color, immigrant women, trans women and queer women in Chicago. Each person's life can be dramatically changed by a police encounter facilitated by this ordinance. They can lose shelter, they can lose their children, they can lose their job, they can lose public assistance, they can be deported - the course of their entire life changed by an arrest under this ordinance.
Attorney Andrea Ritchie explains how a new "prostitution-related" anti-loitering law in Chicago expands policing of Black and Brown neighborhoods - giving the CPD another tool to target and abuse women, and control public spaces with the threat of criminalizing people already living precarious lives.
Andrea wrote the Truthout article "Prostitution-Related" Loitering Ordinance Promotes Racial Profiling in Chicago with Brit Schulte.