During the Detroit City Council public hearing at 2 p.m. today, council members expressed deep-rooted concern regarding the proposed expansion of the City of Detroit curfew which would prohibit Detroit youth under the age of 18 from being out after 8 p.m. without an adult during a four day span from June 19 to June 22, when the Detroit Fireworks and Detroit River Days occur.
The audience composed of city activists, law officials, young people and concerned citizens listened to City of Detroit corporate counsel, Melvin “Butch” Hollowell presented Detroit police chief James Craig’s plan to expand on the current city wide curfew for minors, and impose more stringent restrictions to keep young people off the streets of downtown Detroit from 8 p.m. on Friday, June 19 to 6 a.m. on Monday, June 22.
Following Hollowell’s presentation City of Detroit council members unleashed a barrage of question regarding specifics of the proposed expanded curfew and requested for additional information regarding possible exceptions or exemptions for specific and extending circumstances.
“I don’t want to put any young person’s career put at risk if this was to pass. … What if you have a good kid, a Cass Tech student with a promising career who gets caught up and is found in violation?” asked city councilmember Gabe Leland, “Would a college be able to pull up a report on that child and find out that they had some involvement in this very egregious curfew?,” he continued.
Hollowell responded that citation would not be issued to the child, but to the parent of legal guardian citing them for failure to supervise the child. Offending parents would receive a misdemeanor citation for “failure to supervise,” which would be punishable by up to 90 days in jail and $500 fine.
Leland pressed Hollowell for assurances that curfew violations would not directly impact a young persons’ chances of college admissions or employment, but Hollowell admitted guarantees were not possible. “[City departments] get requests on police stops under the Freedom of Information act all the time. … But, I cannot guarantee that an employer would not be able to trace this to child.”
The city annually enforces a citywide curfew on minors from 6 p.m. on Sunday night to 6 a.m. Monday for the Detroit Fireworks. The curfew has been in place and renewed each year since 2012 when gang violence and shooting erupted during past fireworks shows causing severe injuries to
“We wouldn’t even be here having as much conversation about this [proposed curfew] if in fact we enforced what we have on the books now. We’ve had a curfew all of the time, so if we acted like we had a curfew we wouldn’t be here now,” commented city councilmember Janee’ Ayers.
Detroit has a year-round curfew that begins at for minors 17 nd under at 10 p.m. and lifts at 6 a.m. The city has also instituted a special curfew for the three-day Devil’s Night period leading up to and including Halloween. The curfew has been in effect for 19 years,
During the public comments section of the hearing, Detroit NAACP president, Rev. Wendell Anthony excited the crowd with an impassioned discourse which pointed out the racial overtones of the proposed legislation.
About Post Author
