Dylan may not have been arrested for walking in a public housing community. Yet there are cases of people who have been arrested for walking in their communities.

The DC 6 LAW Walking While Black
Posted by: wordonthestreetsmag 5/27/2009

"As of right now if you live in what is classified as a drug zone you no longer have any rights and you are susceptible to police harassment which could possibly lead up to police brutality or worse. It is very imperative that African Americans in particular or people who live in neighborhoods that are classified as drug zones (DC 6) that you know the law and or ordinances...

There are many countless reports of citizens in the Atlanta area that are being harassed by police and residents want to know why their areas are classified as DC 6 zones. What is the DC 6 you ask? Here is an excerpt of an article that was written in creative loafing back in 2007 DC-6 is the most frequent non-traffic offense cited by Atlanta police. As of Dec. 18, 7,551 DC-6 arrests — about 22 a day — were made in 2006, outpacing criminal trespass at 5,407 and drinking in public at 4,621. It is 2009 and those numbers have tripled. Some City Council members and city officials weren't even familiar with the ordinance until it came to their attention at public meetings organized in the wake of the Nov. 21 home-invasion killing by police of an 88-year-old woman. At the most recent Jan. 6 public meeting organized by state Sen. Vincent Fort, residents from Vine City, the West End and other neighborhoods demanded to know why they and their neighbors have been "DC-6'ed" so often...


According to the DC-6 ordinance: "It shall be unlawful for any person [to] … be in or about any place where gaming or the illegal sale or possession of alcoholic beverages or narcotics or dangerous drugs is practiced, allowed or tolerated[.]" What that means, essentially, is that a person can be arrested simply for being in what police designate as a "known drug area" — even if he or she just walks down the street or chats with a neighbor. That's problematic, says American Civil Liberties Union Legal Director Gerry Weber, because the law is so ambiguous that it invites discriminatory enforcement and therefore may be unconstitutional. "It's one of those catch-all laws that police use when they can't think of any other charge," Weber says. "It's a street-clearing device." Weber says the ACLU is seeking the right case for a legal challenge. A police employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, says there's no official list within the city that would designate a location as a hot spot for illegal activity. Instead, the employee says, identifying known drug areas is "all up to the officer's discretion." There are signs that the topic has become a sensitive one for city officials. Atlanta Police refused to comment on DC-6. And another department employee, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, says police Chief Richard Pennington scolded zone majors at a recent staff meeting for citing DC-6 too often. The scolding came after one of the meetings in which residents complained, and the same day that CL requested DC-6 records. It seems that this law is starting to spread all across US cities as their are continued reports of unnecessary police harrasments, shootings, killings in what is classified as drug zones. What are African Americans going to do to protect themselves against the police?"

http://globalgrind.com/content/672910/The-DC-6-LAW-Walking-While-Black/