After about seven hours of debate, Chicago alders didn’t vote on a revised proposal that would give the police superintendent and city’s top community safety leader the power to declare a curfew in the event that a “teen trend,” or gathering of 20 or more, is taking place.
Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward) is the lead sponsor of the proposal and chairs the City Council’s public safety committee. He wanted to call for a vote today, but changed course after two of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s allies — Pat Dowell (3rd Ward) and Jason Ervin (28th Ward) — expressed wanting to allow more discussion from alders before the proposal is called for a final vote. Both Dowell and Ervin back the proposal. Here is the link to the most recent version of the ordinance.
“My anticipation right now is that there are enough votes to pass this meeting out of committee,” Hopkins told reporters following the meeting. He added that he doesn’t foresee any major tweaks to the revised ordinance.
After two separate shootings in March which occured in the midst of a teen trend (also referred to as “teen takeovers) in Streeterville, Hopkins initially called for moving up the city’s existing curfew from 10:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. for unaccompanied minors under 18 years old inside the Downtown’s Central Business District.
After calling off that vote at the April City Council meeting, Hopkins reached a compromise after discussions with Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Police Department. That led to today’s public safety committee meeting, which includes 18 alders. Mayor Johnson has expressed his opposition to curfews.
Since today’s vote stalled, the committee will meet again to vote on the proposed ordinance. A public safety committee meeting could be scheduled as soon as next week Hopkins said. Once it’s approved by the committee then it would be considered by the City Council, the ordinance will take effect within ten days after its passed.
A number of alders voiced concerns about pushing the proposed ordinance through because the language is too broad. Ald. Matt Martin (47th Ward) was one of many alders who called for slowing down the process and uplifting concerns from legal advocacy groups.
“They have consistently told us that the proposed policy despite being very well-written is legally flawed. I think we should stop and listen and work through that,” Martin said, referring to legal advocacy groups, like the ACLU, who’ve released statements opposing the proposal.
In an April 28 statement, The National Lawyers Guild said the proposal “has the serious potential to violate people’s due process rights to have notice of what conduct is prohibited or illegal.”
Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th Ward) said the core the issue is that young people lack resources and access to safe spaces to gather in their communities.
“I don’t have a Chuck E. Cheese, I don’t have a bowling alley or a movie theater in my community,” Taylor said.
She added that the programming that does exist at the Chicago Park Districts in her ward don’t support teens. “We’re not using all of our tools. We’re basically saying ‘let’s do more policing’ when we already spend 40% of our budget on policing,” she continued.
In the revised proposal, the Deputy Mayor for Community Safety, which is currently Garien Gatewood, would need to sign off on enacting a curfew alongside the Chicago Police Department (CPD) Superintendent, which is currently Larry Snelling.
Raymond Lopez (15th Ward), Silvana Tabares (23rd) and Bill Conway (34th Ward) expressed concern with a revision that includes the Deputy Mayor of Community Safety Garien Gatewood as part of that decisonmaking process. During today’s meeting, Tabares motioned to strike that part of the ordinance, but her proposal failed in a 7–10 vote.
Mass gatherings are defined as when 20 or more people are gathered in a public space in a manner that would result in “substantial harm to public health, safety or welfare.” Curfew would last for for three hours and could be extended if Snelling or Gatewood think it’s necessary.
“The spirit of this ordinance is to use it as a tool to break up some of these large group events, when they become chaotic, when they become violent, and when they are largely driven by unaccompanied minors,” Hopkins said following the committee meeting. “No, no one was saying we shouldn’t do that.”
Legal advocates, young people, and some alders have also raised concerns about the proposal and its potential harm to Black and brown teenagers. As written, they say, the proposal, could violate due process and First Amendment rights.
“Let’s not get caught up in these lies that the right wing and racist people will say about our children, bro. That don’t make any sense,” #StopShotSpotter campaign member Nat Palmer said during the meeting’s public comment section. Palmer, who uses they/them pronouns, added that these types of rules can make the city feel unwelcoming for Black and brown teens to gather.
Reece Johnson, a member of the youth-led GoodKids MadCity organizing group, also spoke during the public comment period. In addition to urging City Council members to enact the Peacebook Ordinance, Johnson asked that alders also consider developing a plan to address violence in majority Black and brown neighborhoods.
“What we don’t hear on the news is how you all in City Council are planning to keep the youth safe in our communities,” Johnson said, referencing a recent shooting in Chatham after midnight on Tuesday, where three teens were injured.
“We don’t hear plans for teens in Austin, Lawndale, Little Village, Back of the Yards, Englewood, Roseland, Bronzeville, South Shore, Chatham, Washington Park, or any other communities in Chicago where youth are victims and survivors of gun violence every day,” Johnson continued. “Yes, it’s a tragedy that two shootings happened downtown this year when the teen trends happened. But let’s not forget that shootings occur every day in the neighborhoods I just named.”
Those in favor of the revised curfew ordinance, such as alders, Hopkins, Dowell and Brendan Reilly (42nd Ward), say it provides checks and balances for CPD and that it will give police more tools to curb potential violence as summer approaches.
“The bottom line is our partners in public safety — the Chicago Police Department — has asked us for these tools. We want them to be effective in keeping our communities safe,” Reilly said.
“We don’t have the luxury and certainly not the taxpayer resources to deploy hundreds of cops in the evening to frankly babysit other people’s children. Where are the parents?”
A number of alders — such as Taylor and Jessie Fuentes (26th Ward) — also expressed concern that Hopkins was pushing the item for a vote without including input from other city agencies or legal advocacy groups or youth programming experts.
“We provided three subject matter experts that work with violence prevention organizations that have been studying curfews and the juvenile justice system for quite a bit, and an attorney in which all of them when we submitted it to the committee were rejected,” Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th) said following the meeting.
CPD’s chief of patrol Jon Hein and the department’s chief legal counsel Scott Spears were among the experts that joined Hopkins and fielded questions from alders.
Fuentes added that the length of today’s meeting shows that there were critical questions that needed to be addressed by Hopkins and other experts. When the next meeting is held, they hope that subject matter experts outside of the police department are available to speak outside of the public comment period.
The proposed ordinance states:
- Police must also give a verbal warning to minors at least 30 minutes before the curfew starts, telling minors to leave the area and letting them know the consequences for breaking the curfew. The fines for violating curfew were lowered to $250 and community service.
- Both versions of the ordinance include several exemptions, like minors running an errand for a parent or guardian, coming from work, or traveling to or from a ticketed or sponsored event. However, there must be a ticket, ticket stub, or wristband with the name of the event printed on it.
- Any police officer is allowed to take an unaccompanied minor into custody for breaking curfew until the minor’s parent, legal guardian or other adult having legal care is notified and picks them up. If a parent or guardian can’t be found within a reasonable amount of time, then the minor would be referred to “appropriate juvenile authorities.”
The post Youth curfew vote stalled in Chicago City Council’s public safety committee appeared first on The TRiiBE.
