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 In a forum with residents, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said the
measure, set to take effect on Aug. 8, was aimed at getting children
off the streets before they were put in danger.
"This is not about criminalizing young black children but to reach
them before the only option for them is law enforcement," the mayor
told the crowd of about 100 people.
Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said he had sometimes come across
children riding bicycles across the city at 3 a.m. When the parents
were contacted, they had no idea where their children were, he said.
"They should not be out there, and you should be honest about that,"
Batts said.
The new curfew in Baltimore, the setting for such gritty television
police dramas as "The Wire", will make it a violation for a youth
under 14 to be outside their homes after 9 p.m. year-round. Those
aged 14 to 16 would be banned from being outside on school nights
after 10 p.m. and on other nights after 11 p.m.
Police could take violators to a curfew center, where they and the
parents will have access to social services. Parents would have to
take city-approved counseling classes and could face a $500 fine for
repeat violations, up from the previous $300.
Children younger than 17 can now stay out until 11 on weeknights and
until midnight on weekends.
CRITICISM
Many residents at the forum said they opposed the law because police
officers were often overly aggressive and failed to investigate
crimes.
One man told the mayor: "Youth are a ticking time bomb". He said
parents would put their low-wage jobs at risk if they had to leave
to pick up their children at a curfew center.
Mayor Rawlings-Blake replied: "Once you decide to be a parent you
are a parent 24 hours a day, and when you have difficulties you
cannot cast off your responsibility."
The forum at the University of Baltimore Law School was sometimes
interrupted by shouts from the crowd. When the session ended,
members of a leftist group, Fight Imperialism Stand Together,
shouted obscenities and chanted: "No new curfew".
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FBI statistics for 2012 show Baltimore, which has about 625,000
people, almost two-thirds of them black, had one of the highest
rates of violent crime of any U.S. city, with 218 murders. But there
are signs that crime is starting to fall. The mayor's office said
homicides for the year so far totaled 116, down 14 percent from the
same period last year.
The American Civil Liberties Union, as well as the Fraternal Order
of Police, have argued that the tougher curfew will be ineffective
and burdens police officers who are given few guidelines about how
to enforce it.
The ACLU of Maryland said in a statement that the curfew was more
likely to entangle young people in the criminal justice system.
Baltimore is among many U.S. cities with curfews. The U.S.
Conference of Mayors reported in 1997 that 80 percent of 347 cities
surveyed had nighttime youth curfews.
A 2011 University of California-Berkeley analysis of FBI data showed
arrests of youths affected by curfew restrictions fell 15 percent in
the first year and about 10 percent in following years.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney and
Miral Fahmy)
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