ESCONDIDO: Day labor activity draws more police to intersection
Nuisance law enforcement increased
By COLLEEN MENSCHING - Staff Writer | Sunday, June 29, 2008 5:09 PM PDT ∞

5 comment(s) Increase Font Decrease Font email this story print this story Escondido police officers talk to a man spotted jaywalking on Quince Street near Mission Avenue last week. Merchants have filed an increasing number of complaints related to day laborers who frequent the area. (Photo by Waldo Nilo - Staff Photographer) Efrain Espinosa, 55, voices his concerns about a lack of work and increasing police presence on Mission Avenue near Quince Street. (Photo by Waldo Nilo - Staff Photographer) ESCONDIDO ---- On most mornings, day laborers hoping for work and commuters waiting for coffee cross paths at the corner of Mission Avenue and Quince Street.

It's not always a welcome encounter.

Police Chief Jim Maher said Wednesday that the department has increased patrols in the area because patrons and owners of businesses such as Carl's Jr. and Starbucks have complained about the mostly Latino day laborers littering, jaywalking, urinating in public and swarming trucks as they enter parking lots.

Increased enforcement of nuisance and traffic laws at Mission and Quince began about six weeks ago and has resulted in about a dozen citations and another dozen warnings, officials said.

The citations have been evenly distributed between day laborers and drivers who try to pick them up by stopping in no-parking zones, officials said.

There has been one arrest; a 19-year-old man who was stopped for jaywalking and later found to have a drug pipe, Maher said.

The enforcement effort, however, is being viewed with some concern by local Latino activists.

They say it is another example of how the city is targeting Latinos.

They also have complained about driver's license checkpoints, which they say are really intended to weed out illegal immigrants.

They also have condemned the city's efforts to enforce federal immigration laws, which they say is not the city's responsibility.

Consuelo Martinez of the Escondido Human Rights Committee, a civil rights group formed in 2004, said she drives by the intersection frequently and has never seen anything improper.

Besides, she said, "looking for work is not a crime."

Maher agreed that soliciting work on city sidewalks is not against the law ---- at least for now. The city is studying whether to ban such activities.

Maher said his officers are encouraging the day laborers to seek work at the Interfaith Community Services' "hiring hall" one block away.

But police can't and won't force anyone off the sidewalk who isn't breaking any laws, he said.

On Wednesday morning, officers issued a warning to a man caught jaywalking on Quince Street, Maher said.

The man was a day laborer, he said.

Escondido resident Bill Flores, spokesman for El Grupo, a coalition of local Latino and civil rights organizations, said police activity at Mission and Quince stands in contrast to the department's oft-stated goal of improving its relationship with Latino residents.

"Police, on the one hand, claim to be ... interested in building a better relationship with the Latino community," he said, "but on the other hand, are apparently dismissive of the requests made by members of the Latino community to stop driver's license checkpoints, to stop enforcing immigration law and to start with more meaningful steps in bettering the relationship with this large segment of the city's population."

Latinos make up 40 percent of the city's population, according to the San Diego Association of Governments, a regional planning agency.

Maher said his officers will encourage day laborers at Mission and Quince to move to the hiring hall ---- even day laborers who are on public property and not violating any laws.

Jose Gutierrez, 42, was one of several men who chose the intersection over the hiring hall Wednesday morning.

"I get better jobs on this corner," he said.

Gutierrez said the one or two days of work he finds on the corner each week is still more than he'd get at the hiring hall, which assigns jobs through a lottery and closes at 10 a.m.

"At least on the street I have a chance," he said.

Gutierrez said most of the men who wait for work at Mission and Quince are careful to stay on public sidewalks, don't litter and avoid jaywalking because they don't want to be ticketed.

He said he's noticed more police in the area in recent weeks, but hasn't had an encounter with them.

He also has noticed the security guard hired by Carl's Jr. a few months ago.

Lew Gilliam said he was hired to keep day laborers off the restaurant's property ---- or "off the grass," as he put it.

"The grass is Carl's," Gilliam said. "The sidewalk ---- I don't have any problem with that."

Gilliam said the day laborers get along well and don't fight amongst themselves.

He has picked up trash they've left behind in the area, he said.

About six months ago, after a request from Councilman Ed Gallo, city attorneys began researching possible ordinances that would prohibit day laborers from soliciting work on city sidewalks.

"We still have it under study," City Attorney Jeffrey Epp said Wednesday.

Epp said regulating day laborers is a lower priority than some other city projects, including a suggested parking ordinance that would limit the number of cars residents could park on city streets.

Some opponents of that proposal have said such an ordinance would target extended Latino families who live together and own multiple cars.

Epp said he is aware that police have increased enforcement at Mission and Quince, but hasn't received any complaints about the enforcement.

"A lot of times," he said, "you don't need a new law on the books. You just need better enforcement of the ones you have."

Contact staff writer Colleen Mensching at (760) 739-6675 or cmensching@nctimes.com.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/06 ... 601210.txt