Curfew for Teenagers

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GlottalGreekGeek
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Curfew for Teenagers

Post by GlottalGreekGeek »

I've been hearing stories about police harassing (younger college aged) people for being out late at night in this area. This came up in a conversation with someone who's lived around here a long time, and she mentioned that there is a 10pm curfew for all minors in this area, and that the police probably thought that these college students were high school students. That just strikes me as being so odd. There were many times when I was out about in the streets after 10pm while I was a minor. Sometimes I was just outside talking a walk to clear my head before I went to sleep. It's hard to think of that as being illegal. Also, in this conversation, this person talked about how the local taxes are high here - much higher than they are in San Francisco - and in exchange, the police take on a semi-babysitting function for the parents to ensure their good behavior. That just strikes me as a waste of time/energy/money - I'd rather have the police fighting crime. And if you're going to raise taxes, there are a whole bunch of things I'd rather see that money going into than enforcing a curfew for teenagers (especially a 10 pm curfew ... I could almost understand a 1 am curfew, but a 10pm curfew just seems extreme to me). But then, I didn't grow up around here.

Granted, whenever I went out anywhere during the evenings, I always told my parents where I was going, and I was always honest. However, it also seems to me that a curfew like that restricts the parents freedome as well - my parents encouraged me to go out during the evenings (as long as they knew where I was and I was going to safe places) since they felt that it helped me develop independence (which it did). On the other hand, my parents feel that San Francisco is a much better place to live than Silicon Valley, so it's probably not a coincidence. I guess parents move to communities with like-minded parents - I knew a lot of people in high school who were frequently somewhere other than home at 10pm, and their parents (for the most part) felt it was okay - parents like mine live in cities where the police have higher priorities than harassing law-abiding youth. and parents who want to keep their kids more sheltered move to suburbs.

So, while this is getting longer than I wanted it to be, I'm wondering how other Textkittens feel about this. I guess it's good that I'm going to college in a surburban enviornment (though Sillicon Valley deviates from the stereotypical suburb in a number of ways) because I am experiencing a different approach to live, but I personally feel more comfortable in the inner city.

Chris Weimer
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Post by Chris Weimer »

Why is this in "Learning Greek"?

GlottalGreekGeek
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Post by GlottalGreekGeek »

Good question.

I thought I posted this in the Open Board, and I was wondering why it wasn't there this morning.

Would one of the mods be nice enough to move this thread?

Chris Weimer
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Post by Chris Weimer »

PS - I think curfews should be mandated by parents, but parents should have legal responsibility over their children. I think laws like this are stupid. Jail the teen, fine the parent, and that'll put a stop to crime.

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IreneY
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Post by IreneY »

That's plain stupid if you ask me. I would say the same for a 1 am curfew. 10 pm though sounds impossibly stupid. What will this really accomplish?

Bert
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Post by Bert »

Did this district have a major discipline problem to which this is a knee-jerk reaction? Sort of a martial law?

GlottalGreekGeek
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Post by GlottalGreekGeek »

On the contrary, this town (well - at least the neighborhood I'm living in, I hear that not all the town is the same) has one of the lowest violent crime rates in the United States. My old neighborhood in San Francisco probably has a significently higher crime rate - yet I always felt safe there, even in the wee hours of the morning.

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