Why The State Curfew Law Should Be Abolished I remember answering the telephone at 5:30 AM on a Saturday morning in November like it was yesterday. It was a policeman telling me that my brother had been taken to juvenile, he did not state that reason my brother had been taken there. So immediately thoughts began running through my mind; Was my brother in a fight? Did he shoot someone? Did he commit some kind of crime? When I told my mother that my brother was in juvenile, she went hysterical. We ran down to the car and got to the lock-up around 6:00 AM. When my mother started to fill out the paperwork she read that the reason my brother had been picked up was for violating state curfew. He had been picked up on his way to my stepbrother's house. They were leaving for Florida that morning. Something as important as leaving for vacation on time should not be punishable.
Young people have no respect for authority nowaday...
The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Buildi...
Young Couple in Relationship ConflictI believe the state curfew law should be abolished.
Young citizens have responsibilities such as school, work, and family that can keep them out past 11:00 PM on weeknights and 12:00 AM on weekends. First that law states that the absolut latest time a business can work a person under the age of 18 is 11:00 PM. How is it that the government expects these young citizens to get off work and be at home at the same time? Also society has facilities that stay open later than curfew and advertise their main hours past the curfew time. Most of these businesses have that direct audience of minors. An example of this is the Roller Cave located on 21st street. The Roller Cave is open to people over the age of seven an is open until 3:00 AM. School activities are also known to keep young citizens out past curfew. Take the first soccer practice of the year as and example; it does not even start until 12:01 AM on the first day possible for practice. Is the government going to arrest an entire soccer team because they want to get as much practice in as possible? The state curfew law also prohibits a young person to visit a family member if it is past the time they have set to be home. These are just some of the reasons the state curfew law should be abolished.
Furthermore, young people are not the only citizens committing deviant acts, the government should not penalize them by setting tiomes for them to be home. In a recent study done by The Department of Justice, huit was proven that the highest gun rate use in America is done by persons over the age 18 and has a slow decline in use until age 25. These are the people that government feels inclined to let walk the streets at night. Citizens 18 years of age and older have commited 11,630 homicides in the past three years. As opposed to pepole under the age of 18 committing 943. Again this pattern seems to continue with people over the age of 18 committing 36,447,124 acts of violence that did not result in death and citizens under the age of 18 only committing 9,449,485. The state is tying to protect us by having this curfew law, but in Indiana alone 78.41 percent of crime has been committed by persons over the age of 18. The people that the government are depending on to control themselves at night boviously can not, it seems as though our younger citizens are setting the examples for the adults in our communities.
Some people believe that young citizens are not yet mature enoughto handle late hours and that the urge to be deviant is greater when no one is around. This is in some repect true, as stated earlier, it has been proven that the more deviant people in our society are the ones that we do let walk around at night, the citizens over the age of 18. Also, young person's maturity should not be determined by age, people who are above the age of 18 can be just as immature and foolish as someone younger can. The government also cannot determine a young citizen's maturity unless they have met and studied every young person in this state. It should be the person's legally resonsible for the young person who set the curfew for that individual to respond with their maturity level.
So, what is it that makes the state curfew law so wrong? First, the government is setting a time for young citizens to be home no matter the reason they are out late for. Is America not the land of the free? The people who are influenced by curfew law are actually the ones who are not committing much crime. Seventy-eight point four one of the crimes in Indiana alone were committed by the very people the government allows to walk the street at night. Does it feel safe now knowing that criminals are being allowed to walk around in the middle of the night? The state curfew law should be abolished; young citizens have rights too.
Young Couple Sleeping
Seal of the National Crime Information Center (NCI...
Seal of the National Crime Information Center (NCI...
English: Time Jan 6, 1930 cover showing Owen D. Yo...