Letter to the Editor
Curfew would help city’s Southeast Side
With all due respect to Colin Davis-McElligatt and his opinion that the curfew for non-adults is solely a race-driven agenda to further the “ethnic profiling” that is going on in our town (DI, Aug. 31), but did you read the full article? The police need a curfew to allow them to get the kids who are in danger of falling in with gangs, as well as becoming victims of gang activity, off the streets. Right now, the best they can do is return children to their homes, and way too often there are no parents there to take them to, because parents are working extra jobs to make ends meet.
Being able to reduce the number of children on the street late at night when there is clearly gang activity going on in the neighborhood is not profiling. It is the police doing what they are paid to do — protect and serve. In this case, they are protecting the children and serving their parents by keeping them out of trouble when they can’t.
If you wish to view how law enforcement is reacting to a situation that has been building for the last few years as a race issue instead of the more pressing criminal issue that these activities are directly responsible for, that is your choice. You should come hang out in my neighborhood and see what is actually going on, with kids running around until 3-4 in the morning unchecked. If you really think this proposed curfew is just a “discriminatory ordinance” and not meant to do real good for the sake of keeping children and adults alike safe, then come to my house on any given night. I live one block from the location of the first shooting of this summer. You’ll have to wait until you are allowed to enter the neighborhood by the many groups of roaming children in the middle of the street, but, eventually, they’ll let you by.
Ben Bessman
UI employee and graduate
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