Discussion: Ferguson Extends Curfew For Second Night

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Discussion for article #226528

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waiting for the sense of futility to come back… Then the cover up and whitewashing can get into full swing.
Let resolve and the demand for justice stay strong in Ferguson… These people, this community, is fighting for all of us… support our defenders.

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I’ve been trying for days to find a “listicle” or some such thing of adult curfews in the US unrelated to natural disasters. There are plenty of youth curfews around the country, but adult curfews outside of natural disasters seem to occur only in large urban areas populated in predominantly black communities. This is one of the main reasons this won’t work. Show me where a curfew has ever been placed on a predominantly white community in this country in the last century or more? Anyone?

This is all I’ve come up with:

http://www.citymayors.com/society/usa-youth-curfews.html

http://law.jrank.org/pages/5925/Curfew-Adult-Curfews-Strict-Scrutiny.html

Adult curfews are antagonistic by their very nature. Even some youth curfews have come into question over the years as having any sizable effect on reducing crime as most crimes are committed by adults by and large.

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I might add, even fucking Wikipedia doesn’t have an entry on Adult Curfews in the United States…Juvenile Curfews yes under the topic “Curfews”, but Adult curfews…uh, no such luck. They do exist, they have occurred, they are a part of natural disasters and the history of race-based policing in this country…but no entry. I find that odd.

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I completely agree. The curfew is insulting and the wrong way to treat this community.

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Everyone remembers the curfew that took place in LA following the beating of Rodney King 23 years ago. This is an institutionalized approach to subduing the black community when they become outraged over issues concerning justice and equal rights. It doesn’t occur in any other communities from what I can see…though Occupy Wall Street did get Bloomberg’s dander up as he instituted police action in kicking people out on the street from a public park; still there was no curfew as I recall…or was there?

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Akron, Ohio, 1968, starting at 8PM. I’m sure there were many other adult whites inconvenienced by curfews in other citys during the 1960s’ riots.

This is a limited curfew (12AM - 5AM) to prevent personal injury and property damage while passions run high. It is not intended to stifle legitimate protesters, but rather those who would use the presence of protesters to do harm.

Assembly for the redress of grievances can still occur 19 hours a day, every day.

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You know what would go a long way towards restoring peace and order in Ferguson? Replacing the police chief with somebody trustworthy, preferably African-American, since 2/3 of the community is African-American. Then there has to be a thorough investigation conducted by the federal government, not one that is at least perceived to be a sham by the county prosecutor.

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It subdues and also minimizes the witnesses when police stop “protecting”.

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Did Boston impose a curfew after the bomb at the Marathon? Or was that just a shelter-in-place?

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Good question…time for The Google.

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It was a request to shelter-in-place.

From Time (online):
“The lockdown is really voluntary, to be honest with you,” says Scott Silliman, emeritus director of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at Duke Law School. “The governor said he wants to use sheltering in place. Sheltering in place is a practice normally used if you’re dealing with a pandemic, where you’re telling people, ‘You may have been exposed and we want you to stay exactly where you are so we can isolate everything and we’ll come to you.’”

The “shelter in place” request is legally different from a state of emergency, which Patrick declared earlier this year as winter storm Nemo descended on the Bay State. Patrick imposed a travel ban, threatening a penalty of up to a year in prison and a large fine if people were found on the roads. Massachusetts suffered very few fatalities during the storm.

When it came to keeping the public off the streets on Friday, an order, it seems, wasn’t needed. “When the governor suggested in light of last night’s events that we have an armed subject on the loose who is very dangerous, who has committed murder, I believe the citizens of the commonwealth, in the hopes of helping law enforcement, voluntarily stayed off the streets,” Massachusetts State Trooper Todd Nolan told TIME. “This is a request that the public stay inside and they are adhering to it. There has been no law mentioned or any idea that if you went outside you’d be arrested.”

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You do know how that sounds, right? “We have suspended your Constitutional Rights unilaterally for 5 hours a day. But rest assured, we are willing to let you keep them for the other 19 hours…for now.”