Here’s the mugshot of Phyllis J. Stalnaker, a 19-year-old woman arrested in San Diego in 1944. The booking photo labels her as a “weedhead” and a “tramp,” terms that, at the time, were used to criminalize behaviors and lifestyles now viewed with more nuance.
At the time, the word “tramp” didn’t carry the connotation it does today. It referred to someone who was homeless, often wandering from place to place in search of work or survival. It was a term used broadly—and often unfairly—by law enforcement to target people they deemed undesirable.
By all accounts, Phyllis was likely arrested not because of any real crime, but because a police officer simply didn’t want her on that street corner, in that part of town. As one observer later noted, in 1940s San Diego, being called a “tramp” could mean nothing more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The law used to charge her—California Penal Code 647(e)—essentially criminalized homelessness and was not ruled unconstitutional until 1983. That means for decades, people like Phyllis were vulnerable to being punished simply for existing in public.
Sadly, Phyllis’s life ended young. She died in January 1961 at the age of just 35. She passed away in a hospital, but no cause of death was officially recorded.
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"Phyllis was likely arrested not because of any real crime" She was arrested in violation of the law at the time. You don't have to like it, but denying reality is the height of foolishness.
ReplyDeleteIf more people were held to account for behavior destructive to society in California, millions wouldn't be living in fear & squalor, even as so many more are fleeing the state for places where law & order do prevail.
California has lost millions of lawful citizens & it's population is decreasing for the first time ever. Turns out, hedonism is destructive. 🤯