Keren G. Raz Columnist

Red and blue tags take all the fun out of house parties and hotel rooms

In a world far removed from Tucson, a strict Puritanical society branded a woman with a scarlet letter.

As a punishment for the moral transgression of sleeping with a man she was not married to, Hester Prynne, the heroine of a Nathaniel Hawthorne novel, had to wear the letter "A" prominently on her chest.

Flash forward to 2005, location: Tucson, the city where you can find modern-day scarlet letter branding houses around the university in the form of the infamous red tag.

Most people consider the red tag to be the sign of a good party, but give it a second thought, another glance, and you'll realize there's not much separating it from the scarlet letter. The red tag is the sign of something more than a good party; it is a public branding that is designed to single out and stigmatize a piece of property regardless of whether the property owner is responsible. Even worse, it is a public branding that does not even accord its victims their due process rights guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

One of the fundamental rights in our country is that someone is presumed innocent until proven guilty. But according to the red tag policy of Tucson, people are branded in front of the public as guilty unless proven innocent. The red tag stigmatizes property owners and tenants who have not even been found guilty in a court of law. No one even has a chance to contest the red tag before the police paste it to a front window.

Justice in this case isn't blind - it's twisted. And it targets you, the college student.

Moreover, landlords and those who own the property students rent can also face serious penalties. For, even if a property owner is innocent, even if he knew nothing about the party, he can be fined.

These are just two of the reasons the Arizona chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is challenging Tucson's red tag ordinance. One of the attorneys said that if people knew more about the ordinance, they would realize that it is plagued by a host of problems.

So maybe it's time for us to become more aware because if this enforcement-zealousness does not stop, it will only get worse.

In the past year, city officials have changed codes to control parking on certain private properties. They are also exploring regulations directed at student housing, including the ability to control how many unrelated people can rent a property.

Happy with the success of the red tags, Tucson officials are now considering a new "blue tag" policy. The blue tag, so as not to be confused with the red party tag, would go on businesses in which the police find prostitutes. Regardless of whether the property owner knew that the prostitutes were in a room, the hotel gets a tag.

If this ordinance passes, we will be only one step away from branding people with a scarlet letter.

If we're going to punish hotel owners for not knowing there are prostitutes on their property, if we're actually going to hand over enforcement of prostitutes to the hotels, we should at least help managers and owners identify the prostitutes.

Why don't we just stitch a scarlet letter onto the prostitutes? That way we can make life a little easier for the hotel owners.

When asked about the proposal to attach blue tags to hotels where police find prostitutes, City Councilwoman Kathleen Dunbar said, "I'll do anything to make the police's job easier."

Excuse me, Mrs. Dunbar, but if you're going to represent the city of Tucson, at least abide by the Constitution and recognize that it's wrong to punish hotel owners for prostitution they do not participate in. It's wrong to brand a piece of property with a red tag, potentially reducing the value of the property. It's wrong to stigmatize someone as guilty when they haven't even been given a fair hearing in a court of law.

A few months ago a judge in Las Cruces , N.M. struck down a loud and unruly gathering ordinance that had been based upon Tucson's red tag policy.

Let's hope judges here in Arizona do the same and stop the unconstitutional branding of people and of property.

Keren G. Raz is a senior majoring in English and political science. She can be reached at
letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.