Loitering Laws: Jim Crow Lingers in Modern Times

Twenty-nine-year-old Salvadoran Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia is imprisoned in a notorious high-security prison in El Salvador. Although he has never been convicted of a crime, he was detained and questioned for loitering, a centuries-old law, ruled unconstitutional, and yet still haunting folks who linger in public.

Loitering.

Although the signs for Whites Only drinking fountains and restrooms are gone, loitering signs remain a reminder that United States citizens live in a society of classes. Folks in the lower classes who travel in public are at the mercy of law enforcement-just for standing out or, as one civil rights activist alleges, just for being.