What Is Loitering, Really?

Editor’s note: A series of racially charged incidents of “loitering” have triggered national outrage recently. This month, CityLab's visual storyteller Ariel Aberg-Riger dives into the long history of laws against being somewhere you’re not wanted.

Further Reading:

• “Vagrancy Laws and the 1960s,” C-SPAN
• “The Forgotten Law That Gave Police Nearly Unlimited Power,” Time
• “Racial Profiling via Nextdoor.com,” East Bay Express
• “The Yes Loitering Project Ask Kids of Color to Rethink Public Space,” Fast Company
• “#WhyLoiter Reclaims Public—and Inner—Space for Indian Women,” PRI
• “Black Women vs. White Men in Public Spaces: Crosswalk Experiment and Relevance,” Girl with Pen
• “How Punitive and Racist Policing Enforces Gentrification in San Francisco,” Truthout
• “The Criminalization of Gentrifying Neighborhoods,” The Atlantic