Chicago’s city council voted to give its police chief the green light to enforce temporary curfews for minors in a bid t
o curb violence that has typically ramped up during the summer months, prompting Mayor Brandon Johnson to vow to block the measure.
The council approved a proposal Wednesday to allow Police Superintendent Larry Snelling to enact three-hour cu
rfews with just 30 minutes of notice. Under the measure, which will take effect in 10 days un
Less it’s vetoed, a so-called snap curfew can be enacted when gathered 20 or more minors are thought to present a threat to public safety.
The third-largest US city has struggled to manage mass gatherings of teenagers in recent years, many of which have
taken place near Millennium Park and the Magnificent Mile, Chi
cago's luxury shopping district. In March, a tourist from Connecticut was accidentally shot when a 15-year-old opened fire
after his group of teenagers was kicked out of a movie theater downtown, according to a local news report.
Johnson called the measure a “knee-jerk reactionary ordinance” and said there isn't any empirical evidence
hat curfews will reduce violence. He pledged to veto the bill, which passed with 27 votes in favor and 22 against.
The proposal was sponsored by Brian Hopkins, the councilman wh
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ose district covers much of the wealthy Gold Coast and Streeterville neighborhoods.
“This curfew ordinance is a better alternative to arresting teenagers,” Hopkins said at Wednesday’s meeting. “The police can arrest them, but
let's give them something better so that they don't have to. Let the teenagers be safely returned to their families
when a parent or guardian comes and gets them. That
is much better than having to arrest them for doing the things that are in fact criminal acts. These are criminal acts, not innocent high jinks.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois opposes the measure, saying in a letter that it “does not comport
with legal standards for arrest and prosecution.” The Chicago chapter o
f the National Lawyers Guild was also against it, saying it “has the serious potential to violate people’s due process rights to have notice of what conduct is prohibited or illegal.”