Chicago Council Tries Anew With
        Anti-Gang Ordinance

        By DIRK JOHNSON

            CHICAGO, Feb. 21 -- Trying to thwart gangs
            without running afoul of constitutional rights, the
        Chicago City Council has passed an anti-loitering
        ordinance that allows the police to order suspicious
        crowds to scatter.

        The measure, which limits enforcement to high-crime
        areas, drew criticism from some council members, who
        said it singled out racial minorities. But a majority of
        black members of the Council approved the bill as a
        tool to fight crime.

        A similar measure passed in 1992 was struck down last
        June in a 6-to-3 vote of the United States Supreme
        Court, which said it was too vague. But Justice Sandra
        Day O'Connor, in a concurring opinion, wrote that the
        Chicago measure could be rewritten in ways to make it
        acceptable.

        The new measure, backed by Mayor Richard M. Daley
        and passed by the Council in a 44-to-5 vote last
        Wednesday, addressed the concerns about the earlier
        measure's vagueness by specifically citing "gang and
        narcotics loitering." It allows the police to order
        loiterers to disband within five minutes, and to "remove
        themselves from within sight and hearing" of a
        designated spot for at least three hours.

        Under the measure, the city would limit enforcement to
        designated "hot spots" in neighborhoods with high rates
        of crime. Under the earlier anti-loitering ordinance,
        which was lifted in 1995 after lower court rulings
        against it, the police made more than 40,000 arrests.
        The Chicago ordinance is one of dozens of
        anti-loitering measures passed around the nation in
        recent years by cities trying to deal with crime and, in
        some cases, homeless people.

        The City Council in Annapolis, Md., approved a
        measure last week that bars convicted drug dealers
        from loitering in designated areas and allows the police
        to scatter crowds suspected of dealing drugs.

        The City Council in Grand Prairie, Tex., passed an
        ordinance last November that allows the police to
        scatter loiterers if officers suspect drug dealing.
        Officials in Cleveland are considering rewriting an
        anti-loitering measure intended for prostitution after a
        federal court struck down an earlier version. And many
        cities, including San Francisco and New York, have
        conducted sweeps designed to remove homeless people
        from the streets.

        The action in Chicago drew criticism from the
        American Civil Liberties Union here, which released a
        statement saying it was "disheartened" by the measure.

        "This ensures that thousands of innocent persons of
        color will be arrested for no good reason," the
        A.C.L.U. statement said.

        The measure won approval from 15 blacks on the
        Council, including Michael Chandler, who said the
        issue was not civil liberties, but rather "people selling
        heroin to our kids."

        Several council members said people were being made
        prisoners in their homes because they feared gang
        members on street corners.

        But Councilwoman Leslie Hairston, who is black, said
        the ordinance "legalizes racial profiling." And another
        black councilwoman, Dorothy Tillman, called the
        measure "anti-black" and "inhumane."

        Ms. Hairston also said neighborhoods designated as
        high-crime areas would see property values fall.

        Moves intended to make poor neighborhoods safer
        have been central to Mayor Daley's popularity. He has
        steadily built support among blacks since first winning
        office in 1989 with only about 10 percent of the black
        vote.

        In her opinion last year, Justice O'Connor said the
        ordinance would be permissible if its language would
        take aim at loiterers "with no apparent purpose other
        than to establish control over identifiable areas, to
        intimidate others from those areas or to conceal illegal
        activities."

        Mayor Daley said the new measure was written to
        follow Justice O'Connor's suggestion.

        City officials say they will begin enforcement of the
        measure in a month, after working with community
        leaders to select areas that qualify under the ordinance.

        The police superintendent, Terry Hillard, who is black
        and supports the measure, said his officers would be
        trained to enforce the measure without overstepping its
        scope. Critics of the earlier version say the police
        made indiscriminate sweeps in some neighborhoods.

        "What we're hoping to do is give them a warning: 'You
        don't need to be on this corner,' " Mr. Hillard said.