Legal advocates have asked City Attorney Pete Holmes to take a look at the Seattle Police Department's practice of banning people from public premises, saying it may run afoul of the U.S. Constitution.
In a Feb. 13 letter to Holmes, five representatives of civil rights organizations, including the NAACP, the Defender Association and Real Change wrote that police and property owners apply the trespass admonishments, or banishment orders, without informing people how they run afoul of the law. They noted several instances of people banned from public premises for no stated reason -- which "upends the concept of liberty, in which individuals are free to come, go and stay where they are without having to account for their presence to law enforcement" and "subjects Seattle's residents and visitors to arbitrary police action."
A spokesperson for Holmes says the city attorney is preparing a response.