Montgomery County debates merits of teen curfew

The article opened with relating the story of 15 young men in Montgomery County that were walking around late a night that appeared suspicious to county police and were tracked for the remainder of the evening. This came after an incident that had happened a few days earlier when a gang of 50 young men began a series of late night brawls that ended in the stabbing a young woman. That incident prompted County Executive Isiah Legett to lobby for a county wide curfew, dictating that teenagers 17 and younger are required to be in doors by 11 on weekdays, midnight on weekends. There's recently been an increase in juvenile crime and Montgomery's neighboring PG County and District have imposted teen curfews of their own, resulting in a "funneling" of teenagers and delinquent behavior. Some resident's feel that the proposed curfew would prove to be ineffective, is an overreaction and could lead to racial profiling. But most crimes don't occur late night anyhow, with 92% of assaults and 83% of robberies taking place outside of the parameters of the curfew.

At least their aren't forcing the parents of children found to be out after the curfew hours to take parenting classes which i do believe is insulting and beyond imposing. While a curfew ideally would curb teen crime, it doesn't appear, statistically, that it would make suck an impacting difference, and may cause more trouble trying to enforce the new regulation than generate noticeably reduced teen delinquency. Racial profiling is already prevalent, adding age prejudice might only worsen societal conflicts, black young men being the target of police discrimination as is. I do think though, that if the county feels DC and PG teens are fleeing their jurisdiction and negatively impacting Montgomery citizens, a curfew utilized as a deterrent for those teens may be a legitimate reason for implementation.