The Mayor of Chicago and our city council took time away from actually creating jobs for the people to approve without debate a new citywide curfew ordinance for youth ages 12 and under.

From the Huffington Post:

Unsupervised minors aged 12 and younger will now need to be in their homes by 8:30 p.m. on weekdays and by 9 p.m. on the weekends in order to avoid a fine of up to $500 or community service. Three offenses within a one-year period will be subjected to a $1,500 fine in addition to community service

At a time in Chicago when parents/guardians who are lucky enough to have employment have to work two jobs just to survive, the politicians in this city are basically levying another tax on families. How many 11 year olds in Chicago are responsible for basically caring for their younger siblings? Thousands. Yet if these same young people are outside of their homes “unsupervised” then they are subject to arrest and fines now? This is perverse and disgusting.

Here’s a quote from our dumb mayor on the new ordinance:

“I advocated for curfew laws while serving President Clinton because I believe the safest place for a child is at home,” Emanuel said. “I commend the aldermen for getting this ordinance passed. This is another tool that will help fight crime and help children from becoming victims of crime.”

Infuriating and so uninformed. Actually, Mr. Mayor, the LEAST safe place for children in America is the home. You can actually just go to the Department of Justice website to review the data from their national survey of children's exposure to violence. Children are overwhelmingly victimized, assaulted, and harmed by ADULTS who they know and most often at HOME. Those are the facts. Any attempt to address so-called youth violence ought to begin by addressing ourselves to the adults who perpetrate violence AGAINST young people.

This new ordinance purportedly is intended to “protect children.” How completely ridiculous… In fact, the actual empirical evidence DOES NOT support the assumption that curfews have any effect on youth violence or crime.

Instead of passing symbolic ordinances, our city council should have been busy finding funds to support the 3,000 summer jobs that were lost from last year. We should be organizing to throw all of these elected officials out of office as soon as possible.

Note: NPR just did a a story about whether curfews are actually effective or whether they are just another form of racial profiling.