It's 11pm. Do You Know Where Your Children Are?

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Mar 21, 2008 7:25PM

Well, if they were anything like us as adolescents, they're in the basement drinking Boone's Farm and watching Star Wars for the 356th time. But seriously, they really should be at home. We mentioned back in January that Mayor Daley wanted to push back curfews for youth, ages 17 and under. As of this weekend, Mr. Mayor gets his wish.

The new curfew for teens is now 10 pm on weeknights and 11 pm on Friday and Saturday nights. The new law was announced by the Chicago Police Department among a myriad of crime statistics, some related to teens.

Although shootings of minors actually are down—14 were shot in the first two months of this year compared with 25 last year—Deputy Supt. Beatrice Cuello said parents need to help curb violence by ensuring their kids obey curfew.

In the first two months of 2008, Chicago police issued more than 3,000 tickets for curfew violations, she said.

"Any one of these 3,006 juveniles could have been a victim or an offender of crime," Cuello said. "Government and law enforcement can't do it alone. Every parent and guardian in this city has the responsibility to protect their children. As a mother I know that isn't always an easy task. But we do our job to ensure that our children are kept out of harm's way."

Officials also met to discuss other options such as a longer school day and the stress the curfew will put on the city's police force. We applaud the efforts to protect the city's teens, but as the statistics show, it's one thing to have the curfew in place, it's another to enforce it successfully. Here's hoping the people involved can. [Trib]