188 points

They had us in the first half, ngl.

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139 points

Is sleeping in your car being illegal some sort of FREEDOM©®™ thing that I’m way too European to understand?

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126 points
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Sleeping in a car isn’t illegal necessarily, but there are increasing popup communities that settle in empty/low traffic lots and live out of their vehicles. Like most of America’s problems, our politicans are sending police forces to “clean up” the effect, instead of trying to solve the cause.

Here’s an article on Vehicle Residency https://www.thenation.com/article/society/homelessness-vehicle-residency-housing/

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41 points

Sleeping in your car is actually illegal in a lot of places.

In Ohio I’d have to wake up every couple of hours to switch parking lots to avoid cops/loitering charges

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20 points

Not Ohio, but I did sleep on my car on the West Coast on and off for about a year and only got into trouble once. And I didn’t even get a citation, just an oral warning that this wasn’t permitted in that particular town despite there being no signs anywhere (it was written in the city code).

I will say, for all the shit that private property owners get on this site, Walmart is actually one of the places where this is the easiest and least problematic to do. I always tried to avoid private property in favor of more inconspicuous places but I frequently saw quite a few motorhomes parked on their lots after dark and they were still there in the morning, and I’ve heard from others that they’ll generally let you be unless you are causing some sort of ruckus there. Same goes for just sleeping in the car.

In general, if you’re not making a nuisance of yourself or parking right in front of a sign that prohibits overnight parking, you’ll most likely be okay.

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10 points
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NHLC found a 213 percent increase of laws restricting vehicle residency between 2006 and 2019

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5 points
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Yeah, check local ordinances this is not legal or universal advice lol

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29 points

Sleeping in your car in public is not allowed in Germany either

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23 points

Afaik it is allowed as long as its only to regain your driving capabilities and not for multiple nights I’m a row on the same place. The Straßenverkehrsordnung does not state otherwise.

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19 points

Interesting, I’ve been told that it’s illegal to sleep in your car in Canada when drunk because being in a car with possession of the keys is enough to show intent to DUI and get arrested.

I imagine it’s something you could fight in court and win with a good lawyer, but it always seemed counter intuitive to me.

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2 points

Yeah it’s that way everywhere

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1 point

It is absolutely allowed in Germany. Private parking lots can forbid it, but on public parking space it’s allowed

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16 points

In some places, parking lots are monitored by security and you’ll be kicked out if you’re sleeping in your car in the parking lot.

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1 point
Deleted by creator
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13 points

I see a lot of areas with “No Overnight Parking” signs or something similar, so they don’t make sleeping in your car illegal technically, but you can’t stay there over night.

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2 points

Sleep during day, party with neighbors at night

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12 points
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Often times it’s loitering charges, loitering being a fancy term for “being out in public whenever it displeases a person of authority”. Sitting on a public bench, having a picnic, walking on a sidewalk, sleeping in your car, whatever, all of those can and will get you loitering charges depending on your exact location in the United States.

Then you have public intoxication charges which on paper are only supposed to apply if you’re causing a public disturbance (despite disorderly conduct already being a charge for that, public intoxication just makes it more severe), but in reality it’s mostly used to harass drunk people who couldn’t get a ride home, or uber home, and decided not to drive while drunk. I wouldn’t be surprised if you had a higher likelihood of getting arrested for public intoxication while drunk walking/public transporting home than of getting arrested for DUI while drunk driving home. But public intoxication and even DUI can also be used if you’re sleeping off drunkenness in your car, while the car is turned off.

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3 points

Don’t forget local “no camping” laws meant to keep homeless people from sleeping in their cars on public property/public parking.

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5 points

Less actually illegal and more that the lots are privately owned and the owning companies can have you removed from the lots of they don’t like what you’re doing.

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1 point

It’s illegal in the netherlands too

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1 point

You have cars? I thought all cars are forcibly seized and replaced with bikes at the border.

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1 point

It’s because those things happen if you allow people from general Benelux to have a car.

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1 point

In australia, it can be illegal too. Only 1 state has actually made it 100% illegal, that state being Queensland (which is a rather big state too, stupidly enough). Where I’m from (Victoria), it’s not illegal at a state level, but some councils prohibit it in their local bylaws. In the rest of our states and territories the act of sleeping in your car isn’t illegal, but some of the more affluent and snobby areas try to get around that by not offering anywhere to park overnight without permits or living in the area

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105 points

There should be secret laws you have to unlock by doing unfathomably inhumane things.

“You chased a homeless person in their own car off your completely unutilized property for no reason other than malice. You’ve been sentenced to 12 hours of fighting a flock of geese naked while locked in a middle school gym.”

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32 points

First time I’m rooting for the geese, usually they’re the assholes.

There should also be some extra sauce on the sentencing for anyone who carries a badge or position of legal power and abuses that.

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3 points
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Twice as much geese which are thrice as pissed?

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12 points

Solo Leveling Penalty Game huh? Damnit, I’m in! What do I get for being someone in HR denying someone a job for reasons of “I just wasn’t feeling it.”?

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5 points

You? Nothing, you’re just being a good cog in a bad machine. Bossman? Rashes, but on the inside of their skin, but that’s likely compounded by numerous other crimes.

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5 points

The idea of secret laws seems incompatible with democracy

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2 points

Which is different from normal bullshit selective laws how?

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2 points

it’s ok, so are humans. Hopefully the geese win?

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1 point

Why the geese have to be named?🤪

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1 point

I prefer a cordial introduction to everyone’s favorite friend in red.

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92 points

It should be illegal to force people to sleep in their cars because a depraved system has deprived them of decent housing…

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40 points
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Yeah, in an article talking about how news stories about crime often show pictures of tents, they pointed out that the photo is of a crime scene, but the crime was not committed by those living in the tents.

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73 points

That got me. It really does sound like what a “lawyer” would write.

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2 points

Hod can we stop treating that like a special body of knowledge and start treating it like the target it is?

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