Imagine being out late one night with your friends. You have nowhere in particular to go, so you're just hanging out at a neighborhood park. You're not drunk, on drugs, selling drugs, breaking into people's houses or cars or anything else even slightly illegal.
Suddenly, a spotlight illuminates you and your friends. "Stand up and put your hands in the air," an amplified voice commands.
Some Albuquerque natives, like me, who were under 17 the last time Martin Ch†vez was mayor, remember too well the dreaded curfew law. Basically the theory was that, because you were young and were out late at night, you must be a criminal.
Now that I'm older, I don't have to worry about being crammed into a police car at two in the morning just for being outside my house. I now realize there are other implications to this sort of law that I didn't think about the night the black shirts asked me if I would like to see my parents thrown in jail for my "crime."
After an hour or so of debate with three different officers, they let my friends and I go. I guess they realized we weren't juvenile delinquents after all, for which I give them credit.
How often did something like that happen?
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How much money did the city waste to determine I wasn't worth the trouble?
How many real crimes were committed while those officers were twiddling their thumbs at the park?
In the current mayor's race, five of the seven candidates have said they favor a curfew law even though the New Mexico Supreme Court threw out Ch†vez's law. Ch†vez reason for backing curfews is, "There's nothing good that they could be up to." Mike McEntee's reason is to, "Keep kids off the street and out of trouble."
What sort of reasons are those?
Why don't we just have a curfew for everybody, the way they did in the Soviet Union, to keep everyone safe at night?
Are these candidates showing a lack of concern for the safety of citizens over 17?
In truth, they are just picking on the one group of people in our society who don't have legal recourse. And for what? It sounds suspiciously like the entire idea of a curfew is designed to attract voters who are afraid of any fun they are too old to have anymore.
Thus far, no one has offered a substantial and rational argument in favor of a curfew that explains why violating teenagers' civil rights and wasting police resources make it worthwhile.
Think of what would happen if a mayor tried to enact a curfew against any other group of people in the city.
Can you picture a mayor saying, "Hispanics couldn't be up to any good at 2 o'clock in the morning," or "elderly people have no business being out at night," or maybe, "people on the Westside have no good reasons for being on the streets at night."
There would be outrage! There would be riots! The mayor who said that would be in mortal danger of being tarred, feathered and ridden out of town on a rail.
Nevertheless, when they seriously propose exactly the same thing for teenagers, hardly a whisper of protest is heard.
Part of the problem is that teenagers don't have a powerful lobby. They're not voters, they aren't even afforded the full rights of citizenship yet, so obviously their interests are irrelevant. The American Civil Liberties Union or other private organizations might step in to help, but that's very different from having direct influence with City Hall. Children and teenagers are society's last legally oppressed minority.
Fortunately, state law, the New Mexico Constitution and the U.S. Constitution protect everyone, even those under 17, from the shadow of curfew laws. The next mayor cannot make curfews legal.
Even so, Ch†vez has listed it as the first of his medium-term goals and four of the other candidates have said they support it as well.
I for one intend to find out why they are so interested in pursuing this unconstitutional goal. All of the candidates, except Baca, who is sending a representative, will be here tonight at 7 p.m. in Woodward Hall, so if there's anything you'd like to ask any of them, attend the debate.
There will be time for questions from the audience, so no matter which of them ends up being elected, you have the chance to let the next mayor of Albuquerque know what you think.
