On De-Criminalizing Spitting
This morning Council Member Blong Yang and I gave formal notice of our intention to bring to the City Council a motion to repeal two of the city’s ordinances that criminalize some instances of spitting and lurking. I plan to write more about lurking later, and to address the city’s “spitting ordinance:” here. The basic ordinance we use today was passed in 1898. It was amended slightly in 1904 and perhaps later. It apparently was used around the turn of the century. According to records I found from the day, arrests went from about 200 arrests were made in 1904 to 21 in 1908 and back to 1 in 1909, although one source indicated there were as many as 400 arrests in 1909. It is clear from reading the news and the Council proceedings from the time period that the passage of this ordinance was intended to help prevent the spread of Tuberculosis (TB) in a time when the use of chewing/spitting tobacco was common in Minneapolis, much more commo...