Councilman proposes teen curfew that critics call dangerous, unfair and hastily assembled

Published on 10/9/2008 by Metroland written by David King

Elizabeth Alexander, a resident of Second Street and Lexington Avenue in Albany, described to the Albany Common Council on Monday night how she has to beg and pester the group of teens who sit on her stoop during the day “gambling and cursing” to move to let her 11-year-old daughter into her house. “They vandalized my car because I asked them to move,” Alexander told the council. She now has to pay a deductible she can’t afford in order to fix her car.

“They took the parent out of parenthood, and all that is left is the hood,” said Alexander, who explained that while she supports a youth curfew proposed by Councilman Glen Casey (Ward 11) that would require youths younger than 17 to be inside after 11 PM, she wonders if it will do any good to help with the teens who harass her during the day.

Marlon Anderson told the council that he had proposed the idea of a curfew earlier in the year but stood against Casey’s proposal because he felt it was hastily assembled without the input of the communities it would most affect, and that it will “take a bad situation and make it worse.” Anderson went on to say that while he felt the youth of the city had “earned a curfew,” he worried a curfew would “fast-track the youth into the court system.”

Anderson’s concerns were echoed by councilmen Corey Ellis (Ward 3) and Dominick Calsolaro (Ward 1). “I am not in favor of it because it gives the police department a legal way to further unpleasant contact with our teenage population,” said Ellis. “I am disappointed Councilman Casey didn’t reach out to council members whose district will most likely be targeted by the curfew. According to data on other curfews implemented in other cities, 67 percent of the youth brought in by the curfew were from minority districts.”

Under the terms of the proposed curfew, parents whose underage children are caught out past 11 PM on weekdays and midnight on weekends could be fined up to $500.

Casey did not return calls for comment.

Alex Forster of the New York Civil Liberties Union voiced his organization’s opposition to the proposed curfew on Monday night.

Ellis said he is also concerned that Casey did not consider the full ramifications and financial requirements a curfew would entail. “I want to know, where did he get the notion to introduce this? He obviously didn’t talk to any council members, and knowing that . . . it looks to me like political grandstanding. A curfew will get a lot of media coverage, but the real question is: How are you going to pay for it?”

Besides how to pay for it, Ellis and Calsolaro wonder if the already taxed police force has time to “babysit.”

Calsolaro said he has been told by officers that they think the curfew will interfere with their work.

“If Glen was really serious about this,” said Calsolaro, “he would have introduced this months ago in time to put it into the budget. I don’t know if Glen is really trying to do it—he has been throwing out a lot of things lately.”

Casey recently introduced anti-gang legislation that was panned by other council members as poorly and hastily conceived, as it failed to take into account the fact that the Common Council does not have purview over state criminal law.

Council members also openly wondered why Casey has proposed the curfew now, since the gun-violence task force—which has been considering the notion of curfews—is likely to present its recommendations in the coming weeks.

Calsolaro said he has heard talk about how well Rochester’s youth curfew has worked in curbing crime. But, he pointed out, “Rochester put a load of cops on the street last year, walking beats. They had 30 to 40 officers walking the beat in high-impact areas. And at the same time, they initiated the curfew.”

And, Calsolaro points out, Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings’ current budget proposal phases out 10 currently unfilled police positions.

Jennings recently told the Times Union that while he would consider Casey’s proposal, “There are pros and cons to curfews. I don’t want to penalize good young people.” Casey’s proposal is now pending before the public-safety committee.