CHARLOTTE – A constitutionally suspect proposal that would create “exclusion zones” to ban people who have been arrested from entering certain Charlotte neighborhoods will be discussed by the city’s Community Safety Committee tomorrow, Wednesday, November 18.
“While we have not yet seen a written proposal, the details that have been put forward are extremely problematic and would almost certainly violate the constitutional rights of a huge number of Charlotteans,” said Susanna Birdsong, Policy Counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of North Carolina. “People should not have to obtain permission from the government to go to work or visit their relatives. We are watching this conversation very closely, and we urge Charlotte officials to abandon their pursuit of such a constitutionally suspect proposal.”
UPDATE: Following pressure from the ACLU-NC and others, the committee voted to table exclusion zones, effectively killing the proposal.