Why oppose Loitering laws?
Some loitering ordinances prohibit people from hanging around or loafing in public places. Other ordinances prohibit hanging around of loafing in such a manner as to create or cause to be created a danger of a breach of the peace, or to create any disturbance or annoyance to the comfort and repose of any person. The Libertarian Party opposes loitering laws because they do not define a real crime (i.e. one where there is an identifiable victim) but rather provides police with a mechanism to arrest, harass or disperse persons whose presence they find objectionable. Why are loitering laws illegal in New Jersey? Fortunately, loitering ordinances are, except in a few narrow cases, invalid in New Jersey because the Legislature, when enacting the Criminal Code in 1979, specifically decided to not include those types of prohibitions within the Code out of concern that vagrancy and loitering statutes have long suffered from constitutional infirmity and have been criticized as inviting official
