Oakland City Council Considers Youth Curfew

OAKLAND (KCBS) — The Oakland City Council's Public Safety Committee will consider a curfew proposal for the city's youth on Tuesday night. The proposal—the third in the last several years—comes as 11 minors have been killed in gun violence this year.

The curfew would start at 10 p.m. every night and from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on school days. Oakland City Councilman Noel Gallo, who proposed the curfew, said his intention was not to arrest children.

"Because all their going to do is come out dumber from prison or probation," he said.

The proposal, he said, will include up to three "youth action centers."

"The counselors that are there would call mom and dad, or whoever your guardians are, and would also be able to look up and see...your academic program," Gallo said. "They're not going to solve their Chemistry exam by being out at midnight and hanging out on Furitvale trying to look for someone to violate."

Critics, like Daniel Macallair, of the Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice, say that a curfew would do more harm than good by leading to racial profiling.

"There is a disproportionate number of kids of color who are arrested on curfew," he said.

"They (Curfew Laws) are primarily symbolic. Research shows that they have virtually no impact on youth crime," he said.

More than 600 of Oakland's armed robbery cases this year involved juveniles as suspects.

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the Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice Director