Henry Lowendorf (pictured) told an audience at City Hall how much of New Haveners’ tax dollars are going to the war in Iraq, what that money could do at home “” and what that has to do with a proposed youth curfew. He was one of many adults who voiced their opinions on the curfew at the third hearing on the subject in the past week, the first open to people over 20.
Lowendorf, the head of the Greater New Haven Peace Council, said the youth curfew is not the answer. The curfew, under consideration by the Board of Aldermen, would ban people under 18 from being out in public between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. unless they’re coming from a religious event.
Lowendorf pointed to the loss of $184 million in tax dollars, and counting, that the war has sucked from New Haven (according to the National Priorities Project). “Our country spends $250 million every day to carry out the war in Iraq,” he said. “Our beautiful New Haven’s portion of that is $122,000”¬¶ going into death and destruction. Could the city use an extra $122,000 every day? That’s $45 million every year.” The audience answered with cheers and applause.
Lowendorf said money could go to building youth centers, funding programs and creating jobs. And he suggested there are three cost-free ways the Board of Aldermen can turn the situation around: help parents and students opt out of having to deal with military recruiters in school; ask federal elected officials to co-sponsor a bill in Congress to defund the war, and ask other municipalities in the state to do the same. ( Click here to read the details.)
It became clear early on that most of those who testified Wednesday night, like almost all the youth who testified at two earlier hearings, oppose the curfew. They predicted it would be administered unfairly (targeting youth in certain areas or of certain ethnic backgrounds), because curfews have not been shown to reduce crime, because it would not be a good use of police resources (and would increase the mistrust between cops and kids) or because it would be just plain impractical.
East Rock Alderman Ed Mattison asked speakers who were opposed to spend some of their allotted time talking about their ideas for solutions to teen violence, which is what the curfew is supposed to address.
Rabbi Peter Stein (pictured) mentioned most of the above reasons for why he opposed it, then advocated building personal relationships with young people as one component of a solution. “If they’re out in the streets, then more of us need to be out in the streets.” He also put in a plug for more community policing and more community centers.
A few young people were repeat-testifiers, like Moses Jean (pictured), a high school junior. When he spoke at one of the youth forums last week about his idea for a place where teens could come to engage in all forms of visual and performance art, Westville Alderwoman Ina Silverman challenged him to come up with a business plan. So on Wednesday night he came to say he and some other teens had done that, and now needed help from the city to find space to realize their dream. Maybe with some of the money that could be redirected from the war”¬¶ Aldermanic Youth Committee chair Bitsie Clark said, “I promise you we will follow up with you.”
Just about the only people to speak in favor of the curfew were three African-American mothers and grandmothers (like Theresa Howard, pictured). They spoke of how youngsters are victimized by older youth who lure them into illegal activities after school and of their struggles to keep tabs on their kids in the evening. The proposed 10 p.m. curfew wouldn’t have any effect on the activities of kids after school, but in any case the women all called a curfew a desperately needed tool in their arsenal to help their children survive. Click here to listen to grandmother Cheryl Wilson’s plea/demand for community responsibility.
Doug Bethea, a youth drill team leader whose son, Robert Scott Bennett, was killed last week, spoke passionately about the need for more activities for youth.
A number of people who spoke focused on the need to get guns out of the hands of young people, and saw a curfew as irrelevant in accomplishing that goal.
Long-time youth worker Kaye Harvey (pictured) said, “I am opposed to the curfew because it is masked as a cure instead of the prevention that is needed to end the violence.” She parsed the city’s 2006-07 budget to see where money for youth programming is being allocated. She said she and other concerned youth advocates will continue to analyze the budget and try to find more money for youth programming. “As each line item is evaluated,” she said, “questions will be generated and we will seek explanations from you, the Board of Aldermen, who approves the budget.”
At least one member of the board was delighted to hear about citizens scrutinizing the budget over the board’s shoulder “” downtown’s Bitsie Clark (pictured), who as chair of the aldermanic Youth Committee convened a committee of the whole to listen to community input regarding the curfew and who presided over the three hearings. When the third and final hearing wound up after almost four hours, Clark was pleased. “What I hoped would happen is that it wouldn’t be polarized but that it would be a community dialogue in which people could talk about how they could help, how they could participate, and that’s actually what’s started to happen,” she said. “You don’t want to have that dialogue and have nothing happen. The aldermen have to think about next steps. We will deliberate next week, and probably vote [on some proposal] in January. Our biggest challenge is where do we get the resources for things that people have said so clearly need to be done.”
Sorry kiddies, it is time for a time out. Curfew now. Behave appropiately, and then you will be given the deserved priviledges.
New Haven needs a big time out. Curfew now. Get a control of our neighborhoods and the kiddies.