ELEA gives cops the ‘ammunition’ to criminalize the unhoused and ‘move them along’ rather than ‘alleviate’ the conditions being policed

By Skeye Hridayam

The Ashland police chief and City Council insist that the Enhanced Law Enforcement Area, currently being revised and expanded, is not a classist ordinance, or about targeting or criminalizing the unhoused community.

Yet, the continual growth of the exclusion zones shows that the ordinance is not successfully stopping particular crimes, but merely moving them around town with the movements of the unhoused community.

As long as the insistence of this not being a classist ordinance continues, then the issues it is supposedly attempting to address will persist, and the measures for policing will most likely be increased and intensified, until perhaps the whole town itself becomes an exclusion zone.

Which is essentially what the true intention and efforts behind this ordinance appear to be.

I would think that the conditions on a national level of the legal changes involved with dealing with immigration and the supposed attempts to exclude illegal “criminal” immigrants from this nation’s population (while at the same time actual legal immigrants and residents are getting taken) would be strong enough to example the hazards of ever growing police powers, and the psychology behind “othering” particular portions of the populace and what that results in. As if the horrendous conditions in Gaza aren’t enough.

Unfortunately, Ashland governance has been aligned with this kind of psychology for many years now, no matter how much it insists on being a “City of peace, compassion, and inclusion.”

With President Donald Trump’s Executive Order, “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets,” this grants law enforcement the ability to have unhoused people involuntarily committed (where I am not sure, since funding for psychiatric facilities was defunded decades ago) based on very vague language and incorrect statements within the document. Please read to see how this could easily be used and abused, and yes, even here in Ashland.

Regardless of whether the Ashland ordinance targets a particular demographic, increased policing does not solve the rudimentary problems causing the criminal actions.

I feel like there has been more than enough data collected, studies done, and reporting on the subject of policing over the last few decades at least to show that what better improves safety and the health of a community is not intensified policing that emphasizes stricter laws and punishments, but looking to mitigate the circumstances that create the conditions for crime in the first place.

But this presupposes that there is an interest in having a safe and healthy community for all who reside in the community, or that some are not inherently being excluded from consideration of being a part of the community, and are not merely seen as a threat to the safety of and/or stain on the image of the community.

In taking a look at the opening paragraphs of the ELEA ordinance and “persistent violation section,” it reads:  

“It is the intent of the City Council to protect discrete areas…from becoming an attraction for more [unlawful] activity… and to protect the public against health and welfare hazards posed by persons who are attracted to these areas.”

“The City Council finds that the following geographic areas within the City are particularly affected by unlawful behavior and/or are subject to a disproportionate number of incidents of the unlawful activities comprising persistent violation.”

I am uncertain how this passed initially, because asking a few simple questions exposes how this is aimed at a particular portion of the community.

First, what is the “increased unlawful activity?”

• Scattering rubbish
• Unnecessary noise
• Dogs, control required
• Consumption of alcohol in public
• Open containers of alcohol or marijuana use in public
• Criminal citations — not necessarily convictions — for misdemeanors or felonies.

Second, how are these not addressing predominant aspects of the conditions the homeless find themselves in or are committing?

I am not saying these things are not happening, what I am saying is that it appears these particular issues are being targeted to address because it is predominantly conditions of the unhoused and it gives the police ammunition to criminalize the unhoused and “move them along” rather than the community finding a way to offer spaces and true programs of support that can help alleviate the conditions that contribute to the behaviors being policed.

But to be able to get to the point where people see the need for this, there has to be the willingness to see how our societal system is and has been creating the conditions of homelessness to begin with, how the emphasis on and prioritizing of “economic growth” and a commercialized public image that inherently defaults to big business interests leads to exclusionary practices and the erosion of civil society, and it appears there is still a major unwillingness to examine this. At least locally, because I am seeing and hearing a louder voicing of the questioning of our societal system, perhaps Ashland can join in the discussion?

But regardless, NIMBYism (short for “Not in My Backyard,” vocal opposition in a community to projects such as affordable housing and shelter for the unhoused, among others, within its immediate vicinity) reeks, no matter what legal or public relations jargon it is dressed up in.

Skeye Hridayam is an Ashland resident.

Editor’s note: The city has had an ELEA in the downtown area for more than a decade and recently added a second ELEA along Ashland Street east to Exit 14. City officials are mulling whether and how to lower the threshold to expel people from enhanced areas.

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