As Twitchy reported in November, voters turned out in force to crush HERO, or the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance. Better known locally as the “bathroom ordinance,” the legislation would have allowed transgender people to use public restrooms “consistent with their gender identity.”
Believe it or not, the right to urinate where one chooses is back in the news in 2016, as Mayor Bill de Blasio’s New York City adopts a set of bills that “would reduce the impact of the style of policing known as broken windows that has for two decades guided the Police Department to see minor disorder as a precursor to major crime.”
In other words, minor offenses could be steered toward civil rather than criminal courts. Such minor crimes include marijuana possession, littering, public consumption of alcohol, excessive noise, and yes, public urination.
https://twitter.com/GGrasmoen/status/692433110210842624
The New York Times reported that the bills were a cooperative effort among Mayor de Blasio, the police, and parks and health departments: “Health officials, for example, agreed to repeal a section of the department’s rules that forbids public urination and defines it as a misdemeanor.” Freedom!
And now you can urinate in public in NYC. Thanks #DeBlasio for trying to take us back to the 70s. https://t.co/WUWsFpnWnQ
— Kid in the Hall™️ (@Eradicator_NYC) January 26, 2016
De Blasio is undoing all the quality of life gains of the last 25 years https://t.co/WAEU3c93ll via @nypost
— TaylorinNY ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ?? (@NYPolJunkie) January 24, 2016
@NYPolJunkie Giulani had performed such an astounding turn-around; OK now to urinate publicly, classy DeBlasio, very classy #DemsRuinCities
— Deplorable Citizen (@CamillaBrieste) January 26, 2016
@JonahNRO Would love to see de Blasio explain to Iowans how the need to urinate publicly is #newyorkvalues
— Dave Fobare (@davefobare) January 27, 2016
https://twitter.com/Hardline_Stance/status/692078184783843329
Little pungent golden pools of cultural diversity. NYC will smell lively in the summer. Will women will be allowed this outdoor luxury, too?
— Vic Torrie (@torrie_vic) January 26, 2016
So letting people pee on the street in New York is to help minorities reach their full potential…??? #NewYorkTimes @rushlimbaugh
— Cora van Zyl (@coravanzyl) January 27, 2016
It's a pee for all in New York. Forget racism, I discriminate against all street tinklers. https://t.co/WIKVfMXCfj
— Jennifer Horn (@JenniferHorn) January 26, 2016
Racism? Well, many who were previously arrested for these minor offenses were black. These minor offenses will no longer serve as a pipeline for racist police to send young black men into the criminal justice system.
Twitchy has been reporting quite a bit on Campaign Zero, which #BlackLivesMatter leader DeRay Mckesson has been working on during visits with Valerie Jarrett at the White House. The first of Campaign Zero’s federal solutions is to end broken windows policing and decriminalize activities such as marijuana possession, disorderly conduct, trespassing, loitering, and spitting. However, there’s no mention of public urination — whether to include it in President Obama’s executive actions on criminal justice reform must be under heavy discussion at the White House, where we assume they have and use gender-specific restrooms.
What is going on in NYC? Is this what the residents who live in NYC want?https://t.co/Rde17nmyhy
— William Gouldman (@WGouldman) January 27, 2016
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