The Charlotte City Council has a lot of important issues on its plate, and its members are elected to take care of them. Sometimes, though, like all legislative bodies, they waste their time on issues over which they have very little control, in order to give voters the impression that they’re doing something valuable.
Yesterday, council wasted time galore, as it finally took up Councilman Patrick Cannon’s illusory solution to uptown violence during big events: tightening the curfew on teenagers. Council voted 9-1 to approve the new curfew hours, which go into effect December 15. Kids 12 and under will now have a curfew of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., every day; kids 13 to 15 will have to be off the streets from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., every day.
Cannon, who is African American, came up with this latest brainstorm following a late-night uptown shooting in May during the Speed Street celebration, which was heavily attended by young African Americans. The problem here is that both the shooter and the victim were in their 20s, which makes the new curfew’s relevance to the May incident — on a scale of 1-10 — about, ohh, 1. In addition, Councilman Michael Barnes, who cast the lone vote against the new curfew, rightly pointed out that the current curfew is very rarely enforced anyhow, and the new curfew ordinance doesn’t require stricter enforcement. Barnes’ argument was confirmed by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s Vicki Foster who told the Charlotte Observer that police mostly use the curfew ordinance during “special events.” “We don’t do random enforcement,” said Foster. Mayor Foxx also expressed doubts about a tighter curfew, saying that it won’t fix what he described as “deeper issues” with the city’s youth.
As we’ve said before, the two most obvious factors in Charlotte’s occasional uptown melees are aggressive young black guys and aggressively ill-tempered cops. Both of those were factors in May — along with the city having let the Transit Center become a collection of problems waiting to happen. The powers that be, however, chose to place almost exclusive blame for everything on the parents of young kids that were out past curfew — those parents’ poverty and political powerlessness always make such easy targets, don’t you know, and it’s been some time (if ever) since Cannon has had to deal with those circumstances. Again, however, the curfew and its enforcement had ZERO to do with the shooting, as both men involved in it were well past curfew age.
The underlying reason for the “tough” new curfew, it seems to me, is that the white uptown business establishment completely freaks the hell out every time a large group of young African Americans comes uptown all at once — as if those kids have a right to congregate in public spaces like regular citizens and such. (Yes, that was sarcasm.)
I’ve often thought council meetings could use a good dose of truth serum. If the serum was working yesterday, you’d have heard a more honest appraisal of what the city’s leaders see as the real problem: “Who do these kids think they are, crashing our nice uptown? Heck, we’ve spent oodles of money trying to make the area attractive to wealthy tight-asses, and those damned black kids are ruining a perfectly good, neat-o fantasy of what a city’s core should be. This insult to our white bread world shall not stand!”
This article appears in Nov 29 – Dec 5, 2011.
I agree that the new curfew ordinance does not have any relevance on the May incident. No argument about it, it did not have anything to do with the May incident. Should not have even been brought up. HOWEVER…..I don’t like the idea of any young kids (16 and under), out without adult supervision after 9:30 or so. I mean, other than traveling home from a job, what good can come from so many un- supervised minors being out that late at night? Where are their parents? Why do they not have personal curfews within their own families? Uptown, SouthPark, Northlake, any side of town? It does not matter what color, or what side of town, it just does not make good sence. It is not safe for the minor, or our society to just let unsupervised minors roam the streets. Too many freaks out there today…..
It’s not about black kids. It’s about having to parent for those that don’t know how to parent. I’d ask why someone under the age of 12 should be out at 10 or 11:00 at night? Unless they are maybe attending a concert with a guardian, it should be no reason at all.
I’m sorry but 16 and under kids do not provide any economic benefit to the city, particularly after dark. Regardless of race. We have been talking about this for years, nobody wants oversized white t shirts running around downtown for the hell of it.
This is a serious situation that has been made more serious by parents that aren’t raising kids. I live in a neighborhood where they had to impose the prior curfew law because you have kids under 13 running the street after 10pm causing problems. I raised my own 2 children and many more. They had to let me know where they are at all times, be home or where they supposed to be after certain hours, or face my consequenses. As they say, parents raise them now or they will be in the custody of the state soon enough.
The real problem with this is that it has nothing to do with the problem of the shooting. I agree, kids should not be out at that time of night. If we are going to attack the kids with the oversized white t shirts (blacks), why not give the kids things to do earlier in the day. Let’s not make events for kids end so late in the day.
Did you want people to actually raise their own children? That is way too much like work.
These are probably the same parents who let their pet pit bull run loose in the neighborhood.