BOULDER, Colo. (AP) -- The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the city of Boulder to stop ticketing homeless people who sleep in public without a camping permit.
The group's Boulder County chapter said in a letter to the city Thursday that its law is "cruel and unusual punishment" to the homeless and that it criminalizes their status. The City Council has already asked the city manager to draft an emergency ordinance to put a moratorium on the law.
Last year, Boulder police issued 353 tickets for camping without a permit on public property. The tickets come with a $100 fine and homeless activists say that usually translates to jail time for homeless people because they can't afford to pay.
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