Oakland curfew ordinance stopped

OAKLAND, Calif.--Opponents of a curfew that would have made it easier for Oakland police to sweep up young people scored a victory February 10 when the Oakland City Council Public Safety Commission voted against sending the ordinance to the full council.

The ordinance changes would have enabled the Oakland Police Department--whose chief announced his resignation on January 28 amid an FBI inquiry, and in the wake of the BART transit police shooting of Oscar Grant III at a station in Oakland on January 1--to pick up minors between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. on weekdays and 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. on weekends.

Under the ordinance, officers would take name and address information and return young people to their homes, a "receiving center" or Alameda County social services. Repeat offenders and their parents would be subject to court proceedings.

More than 100 people, most of them young and from many racial and ethnic backgrounds, appeared at the city council chambers on February 10 to speak against the curfew. Adults from a variety of community service organizations also raised their voices against the ordinance changes. Of the 25 speakers, only two spoke in favor.

Oakland's Vice Mayor Larry Reid, an African American, introduced the measure and justified it by citing examples of young men assaulting people and young girls working as prostitutes on "San Pablo Avenue...problems at home...and lack of parenting." But nothing in the ordinance actually addressed the immediate causes of these conditions--a lack of jobs, crumbling public schools and the disappearance of basic social services to support families who have been pushed to edge by the failing economy.

Despite support from the police, city attorney and the Oakland Department of Parks and Recreation, the Public Safety Committee bowed to public pressure and voted against sending the measure to the full council. Reid was forced to admit that opponents of the ordinance had won the night.