The Vagrancy Trap: A Precedent for Exclusion
A Marysville judge shuts down jury trials for those accused of vagrancy, empowering local police to forcibly remove 'bad characters' from the city.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Marysville, July 7.—In the Superior Court today, Judge Keyser affirmed the decision of the police judge in refusing William McCool, convicted of vagrancy, a jury trial. He cited many decisions justifying his judgment in sustaining the lower court and concluded by saying that the statutes relating to this would become a dead letter if left to juries. Marshal Miller says that under this ruling he will soon rid the city of bad characters.
“The statutes relating to this would become a dead letter if left to juries.”
This 1888 report captures an early moment in the legal erosion of due process for the unhoused and 'undesirable,' setting a precedent where municipal control over public space outweighs individual constitutional protections. It echoes contemporary debates in Seattle and across the U.S. regarding the criminalization of poverty and the usage of 'vagrancy' statutes to clear encampments and sweep public spaces without judicial oversight.
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