Public urination, defecation, and masturbation re-criminalized by Charlotte City Council
The city has seen a host of related problems in the past three years
The Charlotte City Council recently voted to re-criminalize certain behaviors - namely public urination, defecation, and masturbation.
"While there is much work still to be done, we made an important first step putting ordinances back on the books tonight that address urination, defecation and masterbation [SIC] in public, among other things,” Charlotte City Council Member Tariq Bokari posted on X. “We will keep working to do more."
Bokari is also the member who, in the wake of the city’s deadly New Year’s Eve shootings, proposed creating a crime task force to combat rising crime rates.
The Council voted 7-3 on the matter. Voting against were Tiawana Brown, Renee Johnson, and Lawana Mayfield. Member Victoria Watlington was absent and therefore did not vote.
This is arguably putting a band-aid on a self-inflicted wound. While the General Assembly decriminalized the city ordinances in 2021, Charlotte took no action to protect the public from these offenses. The result was police only being able to hand out civil citations or a warning for such behavior and that became a real issue for residents of Charlotte’s Fourth Ward.
WFAE reported on the troubles just last year:
Residents of Fourth Ward in uptown have said their neighborhood has deteriorated significantly over the past 18 months, as people without homes have been emboldened to drink openly and defecate and urinate in parks and sidewalks.
The problem, they said, stems from the Charlotte City Council’s decision last year to make those offenses non-criminal. That means police can’t arrest people for those offenses and can only write citations.
Fourth Ward resident Lee Ann Roughton said the council’s decision has been a disaster.
“My granddaughter and I were going to the Discovery Center to spend a few hours there,” she said. “And there was a female that — right in front of the Discovery Center — to the right of the entry, she publicly defecated.
But these problems didn’t happen overnight.
More To The Story
Homelessness has been a major issue in the Queen City for some time, even before the pandemic and following COVID-19, homelessness grew.
An Oct. 2021 report published by Mecklenburg County and UNC Charlotte’s Urban Institute showed an increase in homelessness by 55% over the previous year. The report cited 2,025 homeless in June 2020 jumping to 3,137 in the same month in 2021.
In 2022, Charlotte had to deal with “tent cities” along major arteries running through the city as well as one massive tent city that quickly became a public health hazard and was dismantled a year earlier in 2021.
To underscore the magnitude of the large tent city that was dismantled, I recommend reading Axios’ “The last days of “Tent City,” which has some eye-popping images and details.