"Stand-In" for Safety & Against the Arrests of Sex Workers & Sit/Lie

“Stand-In” for Safety and against Arrests of Sex Workers, Homeless, Youth, Immigrants and other low-income people in SF

“Stand-In” against ¨Sit/Lie”

Chief of Police Gascón and Mayor Newsom are proposing more laws to criminalize people forced to live and work on the street. “Sit/Lie” makes it illegal to sit and lie on the sidewalk between 7am and 11pm under threat of a fine and jail*. First to be targeted will be people of color and those who are young, homeless, immigrants, sex workers. Public Defender Jeff Adachi has spoken about how the law is so wide ranging it can be used against anybody.

Sit/lie is going before the Safety Committee of the Board of Supervisors on May 10 starting at 10am at City Hall. Come and speak out against it!

Sit/Lie is vigorously opposed by a wide coalition of people who have organized sit ins throughout the City. The SF Democratic Party voted overwhelmingly against the Bill.

Recent police crackdowns have also been widely opposed. They push sex workers more underground into isolated and dangerous areas, and make it harder to report violence for fear of arrest. And they disproportionately target people of color. Black women are seven times more likely to be arrested. With the pretext of saving victims of trafficking, immigrant women, are routinely rounded up and deported. 40% of men arrested are men of color.

Come hear what is being done to stop “Sit/Lie”. Come speak out with us for safety and protection, and against criminalization. Let’s send a message to Mayor Newsom and Chief Gascón that ‘Sit/Lie’ will not pass.

Co-sponsored by: US PROStitutes Collective and the SF Coalition on Homelessness.

Endorsed by Legal Action for Women; Women of Color/Global Women’s Strike; Poor Magazine/Poor News Network; Wages Due Lesbians.

For more info: uspros [at] allwomencount.net 415-626-4114

For more info on Sit/Lie: http://www.standagainstsitlie.org/ & http://www.facebook.com/pages/San-Francisco-Stands-Against-Sit-Lie/347474333669

*Sit/Lie law gives the police enormous discretion to arrest anyone on the sidewalk between 7am and 11pm. First-time violators get a warning then a citation with a $50 to $100 fine. Second violation results in 10 days in jail or a fine of $300 to $500, and each violation after that would be subject to a $500 fine and 30 days in jail.