• 'Dying in the streets': All kids under 17 get curfew in Miami

    Miami Police are enforcing a curfew for children under the age of 17, citing safety.

    Curfew hours are 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday to Thursday and midnight to 6 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.

    Children under 17 are not allowed to "linger, stay, congregate, move about, wander, or stroll in any public place in Miami-Dade County, either on foot or in a vehicle during curfew hours," according to police.

    NBC Miami

    "I don't really need a curfew, but I do feel that a curfew is important because young kids like my age are dying in the streets," Keith Stewart said.

    Players for Team Pete Basketball said they don't like the move.

    "I don't really need a curfew," Keith Stewart said, "but I do feel that a curfew is important because young kids like my age are dying in the streets." 

    Other Miami youths said they support the curfew.

    "Make them go home, do a little homework, get them home early," Robert Sanchez said.

    Said adult Cesar Barrero: "Kids at that age … there's nothing for kids to do from 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock in the morning."

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    Police say exemptions include if a child is with a parent or legal guardian or someone over 21 years old who has permission to be responsible for the child; and if the juvenile is working or traveling to or from work, traveling interstate, or has written permission to run an errand from a parent or guardian.

    Other exemptions are if a child is helping in an emergency, traveling to or from a school or a religious, civic or county-sponsored event, is emancipated by marriage or court order, is homeless, is exercising First Amendment rights, or is on the property of his residence or a neighbor's residence who does not object, if the child is attending or coming back from a public event that began before 10 p.m. and has written permission, and if the child's activity is authorized by the county commission.

    Police have not yet given reasons for the curfew, besides safety. But many people point to rashes of violent and sometimes deadly street crimes often involving young people.

    "You know what's going on," Pete Soriano of Team Pete Sports said. "You got drug dealing, you got shootouts, kids getting killed left and right."

    At Overtown's Gibson Park, manager Benjamin Hanks supports the curfew -- recalling all too well the night three people were shot at a youth football game last September. He believes a police presence, and the curfew, will help make the city's parks and streets safer.

    "I think it's overdue that we need cops' supervision, more for preventive measures for the safety of people," Hanks said.

    NBCMiami.com

  • Rights groups call time-out on New Orleans teen curfew

    Alex Brandon / AP

    Revelers party on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter during Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans in February 2006.

    By James Eng, NBC News

    Juveniles 16 and under would have to be off New Orleans' streets by 8 p.m. every night under legislation under consideration by the City Council.

    A vote on a proposal to extend a curfew for juveniles in the French Quarter across to the entire city, initially scheduled for Thursday, has been postponed until Feb. 2.

    The proposed ordinance has drawn vociferous opposition from community and black activists and civil rights groups. They contend it is discriminatory, could lead to more racial profiling of black youngsters by police and doesn’t address the root causes of youth violence.

    Tracie Washington, a lawyer with the Louisiana Justice Institute, a civil rights legal advocacy organization, said studies have shown that curfews don’t have  the desired effect of reducing teen crime.

    “This is stupid. You can pass this curfew, and we’re still going to have this problem,” she told msnbc.com.

    Expansion of existing curfew
    New Orleans has actually had a citywide curfew since 1994, when murders were happening at the rate of nearly one a day. The 1994 ordinance had set curfew times for those 16 and under to 8 p.m. on weeknights and 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

    On Jan. 5, the City Council voted 6-0 to amend the ordinance to make it 8 p.m. every night in the tourist-heavy French Quarter and the hip Faubourg Marigny neighborhood.

    Now, the council is weighing whether to extend the 8 p.m. curfew time citywide.

    “The existing citywide juvenile curfew law was passed in 1994 at the request of then-Mayor Marc Morial and Police Superintendent Richard Pennington. At that time, the curfew law was a component of a comprehensive strategy to reduce crime in neighborhoods and protect our city's young people,” City Council member Kristin Gisleson Palmer, who authored the amended French Quarter ordinance, wrote in an op-ed column Wednesday. “Today, at a similar time of escalating crime and neighborhood violence, it is our duty as elected leaders to stand up, be bold and consider any and all methods that will keep our families and our communities safe.”

    Flozell Daniels Jr., president and CEO of the Foundation for Louisiana, a grantmaking philanthropic organization, and Dana Kaplan, executive director for the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, an organization that seeks reforms in the justice system, argued against the proposal in a separate op-ed column.

    “We share the council's commitment to reducing the crime that is plaguing our city, and to protecting our youth. However, we must work for substantive solutions, based on what is demonstrated will work,” they wrote.

    One of the strictest
    An 8 p.m. curfew citywide would give New Orleans one of the strictest curfew laws in the nation. Violators would be taken to a holding center until they are picked up by a parent. The ordinance provides for several exceptions, such as for youths who are with a parent or guardian, going to or from work, or are involved in an emergency.

    The ACLU of Louisiana, in an open letter signed by other city civil right leaders and legal advocates, said such a proposal could hurt local businesses and “drastically reduce the amount of free time teenagers have outside of school, limiting their ability to date, go to the movies, or attend nighttime Mardi Gras parades,” wwltv.com reported.

    Black teens could also face unfair treatment, the ACLU said, according to wwltv.com.

    “In New Orleans, African Americans are arrested for curfew violations at a rate 19 times greater than are white youth. There is, then, a significant risk that some teens will be disproportionately and unfairly affected by this change in the law.”

    Washington, of the Louisiana Justice Institute, says the proposed citywide curfew does nothing to address the scarcity of teen resources and recreational outlets, such as movie theaters and bowling alleys.

    “Our children are dying. We had two murders last night. Twelve murders in first 12 days of the year.  Children are getting shot sitting inside their homes, sitting on their front porches. I live in a war zone,” she said.

    “If you are really concerned about health safety and welfare of juveniles, then do something. “

     

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