Do you like the city’s youth curfew? Is it being enforced? Does it threaten civil liberties? The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut wants to know.
The CT ACLU and EMPOWER (Enlightened Motivated People Organized With Equal Responsibility) will host a panel discussion and information session Wednesday (today) from 6 to 8 p.m. at the McGivney Community Center, 338 Stillman Street. The panelists will be ACLU attorney David McGuire, City Councilman Andre Baker who represents the East End and Mark Stevenson, member of EMPOWER.
The panel discussion and informational session will focus on the youth curfew and the city’s Safe Corridors Program. The ACLU asserts that the youth curfew policies threaten the civil liberties of the people of Bridgeport.
The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
In response to a spike in gun violence, the City Council in July passed an ordinance (with some exceptions) that allows city police to prohibit anyone under the age of 18 from being out in public without a parent or legal guardian between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., Sundays through Thursdays, and between midnight and 6 a.m., Fridays and Saturdays.
This is tricky stuff to enforce for city police and many cops maintain they’re law enforcement officers not baby sitters.
The law is a feel-good joke.
The curfew is nothing more than political pandering to a small percentage of the city’s population. It is masking a bigger problem and that is disenfranchised youths who feel they have no alternative but a life of crime.
The city police department is already overburdened with calls that most quality of life calls get no response other than a case number.
In my opinion the management of the police department is responsible for a lot of the trouble in the neighborhoods. Let’s face it, 21 cops patrolling a city of 140,000-plus is wrong. No one ever answers where the other 300-plus cops on the payroll are. Nobody in the police management team wants to solve this problem; most have been on too long and need to go.
*** Curfew is a good political attempt to get young teens off the streets at night but in a city like Bpt it will not be effective. Why, not enough interested babysitters to go around and lack of real support from parents in general. A decent-sized gang task force and court group is needed to ID, catch, prosecute and jail these criminals and send a message negative gang activity in Bpt will not be tolerated! ***
The only problem I see with the Bridgeport curfew is the likely lack of resources to enforce it. If anyone at either the ACLU or EMPOWER can come up with a good reason for a minor to be on the streets unattended after midnight I’m all ears.
*** If ACLU and EMPOWER have a better safer way for guarding teens rights and their personal welfare, then they should share it with the city of Bpt before condemning their curfew. *** REALITY ***
I attended the meeting Wednesday, November 15 sponsored by EMPOWER. I listened to what everyone had to say including the attorney from ACLU. The meeting was preaching to the choir, mostly members of EMPOWER. I was somewhat disappointed because I wanted to hear different points of view. There was only one person who was pro-curfew and pro-safe corridor (cameras positioned so security can see all sides of the school). My contribution to the discussion wa only one of the people there had ever attended a city Council meeting and most likely they aren’t going to attend a meeting. I’m looking forward to a meeting where there are more people in attendance who are willing to have an open discussion without the big-money outsiders in attendance.