Sit/Lie: Moving People Around
![[cop with broom]](http://www.portlandcopwatch.org/PPR11/SWEEPYGUY.GIF)
As we suspected, Portland's new Sit/Lie law has mostly been used to move people around, but rarely used for actual enforcement. Members of the Mayor's Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE) committee tell Portland Copwatch that in the first two months of the ordinance:
12 warnings were issued (written)
1 citation was issued
2-3 other citations were issued for other "crimes"
(so, we wonder, is sit/lie being used as a "pretext" tool to harass people for other reasons?)
All 13 people warned and cited for "sidewalk obstruction" were listed as "transients" (street roots blog, December 11). Obviously more than 16 people were sitting or lying on the sidewalk downtown in September and October. The questions are, how many of them were given verbal warnings by "rent-a-cops", or by Portland Police, and of those, how many were directed to needed services (as required) and how many were just made to feel unwelcome?