Las Vegas city marshals jailed three homeless men last week for violating a non-existent ordinance, and advocates for the homeless contend it is the latest example of how the city is "waging a war against the homeless."

The section of a Las Vegas ordinance that made sleeping near a "deposit" of feces or urine illegal was passed unanimously in August by the City Council but was repealed in September. Still, city marshals arrested three men on the charge on Nov. 26. The men told several people they had spent the night in jail before a judge dismissed the charges against them.

The men had been sleeping in Frank Wright Park across from City Hall when the marshals rousted them. The men told activists that marshals said the "deposit" in question was a pile of feces on the front steps of the historic downtown post office that abuts the park.

The city issued a five-sentence statement Monday in response to questions about the arrests and said the trio had been charged mistakenly "under a city ordinance approved on August 16 that dealt with urinating and defecating in public."

"While this ordinance had made it illegal to sleep within 500 feet of human urine or feces, the ordinance was revised to remove that provision on September 20," the statement said. "Officers were advised following the passage of the ordinance in August that they should not enforce that provision."

The statement concluded: "The Department of Detention and Enforcement has launched an internal investigation into why these arrests occurred."

The three homeless men could not be reached for comment, and the city did not release their names Monday. The city refused to comment further on the incident.

Gail Sacco, an advocate for the homeless, had a copy of Detention and Enforcement's temporary custody record for one of the men. It identified him as 46-year-old Jerry Lee Halfpap Jr. and said he was charged with "sleeping 500 feet from feces." She could not identify the others.

City jail booking records for Nov. 26 said that Halfpap, 44-year-old David Arthur Hicks and 66-year-old Eastman N. Webber were all arrested at the same time by David Payne and jailed on a charge of "offensive things."

The Aug. 16 version of the city ordinance contained a provision that made it illegal to "knowingly establish" temporary, portable or open sleeping quarters within 500 feet of any deposit of urine or feces, unless that deposit is made in an appropriate sanitary facility -- presumably not the steps of the historic downtown post office.

Las Vegas City Attorney Brad Jerbic said in August that the sleeping-near-feces provision got into the ordinance by mistake and would not be enforced.

Advocates for the homeless and civil rights leaders said Monday that the arrests, with the recent closure of Huntridge Circle Park and the passage of another city ordinance that forbade the feeding of indigent people in public parks, prove that the city is targeting homeless people.

"I'm almost speechless by the continuous harassment of a group of people who, for the most part, are more harmful to themselves than to anyone else," Linda Lera-Randle El, director of Straight from the Streets, said. "The city should be embarrassed. I don't know why they they're not wearing paper bags over their heads. In the 20-plus years I have worked on this issue, I have never witnessed an administration that appears to be this gung-ho on targeting one population."

Gary Peck, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said the erroneous arrests were at best incompetent and, at worst, "they (city officials) are not altogether honest about what they're up to."

"You've got a law that the city attorney and the city council agreed was unconstitutional, and you had assurances made that it would not be enforced," Peck said. "The facts indicate that the city has been waging a war on the homeless."

Sacco, who often feeds homeless people in city parks, said it was "crazy" that the marshals did not know about the change in the ordinance.

"They are on the warpath" against the homeless, she said.

City Manager Doug Selby ordered Huntridge Circle Park, a daytime hangout for the homeless, closed Nov. 27, citing safety concerns and the fatal stabbing of a homeless man in the park.

Several protesters later were arrested for refusing to leave the park.

A city ordinance banning giving food to indigents was declared unconstitutional last month.