Chicago IL – Youth and community organizers packed the main chambers and the overflow room of City Hall on Wednesday morning, June 18 to speak out against the snap curfew ordinance which would allow the police superintendent to call a curfew with a 30-minute notice before enforcement. Any minors outside after the curfew would be taken into custody and their families forced to pick them up from the police station with the possibility of a $500 fine.

“Curfews don’t create safety. They create opportunities for criminalization, for injustice, for surveillance and trauma, especially for youth like me,” Reynia Jackson, a youth organizer with Good Kids Mad City (GKMC) said at a press conference before the meeting.

The ordinance was sponsored by 2nd Ward Alderman Brian Hopkins in response to the occasional mass gatherings of young Black people downtown, hyperbolically referred to as “teen takeovers” in corporate media.

“This ordinance reminds me of sundown towns, saying Black children can’t be around at certain times. It comes from fear mongering about mass gatherings at a time when the people are protesting in historic numbers,” said Frank Chapman, field organizer of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR).

Chapman went on, “We know from past experience with CPD that it would be used to terrorize Black and brown communities like the Jim Crow legislation it is.”

Half of the public comments spoke against the racist motives of the ordinance and called for the city to invest in the development of youth rather than wasting money on repressing them.

“We don't need a snap curfew. We don't need a $300 million slush fund for CPD. We need proven public safety solutions that work,” Itohan Osaigbovo, a member of CAARPR said during the public comments. Osaigbovo and other public commenters raised the Peace Book, an ordinance initiated by GKMC to provide resources for community programs, as an actual solution to violence at youth gatherings and in the city in general.

Many alderpersons speaking for the snap curfew ordinance referred to it as a “tool” which the police could use for public safety.

“We have to fight for tools like the Peace Book,” said 46th Ward Alderwoman Angela Clay highlighting the hypocrisy of alderpersons like Hopkins, Raymond Lopez and Monique Scott, who are pushing for the curfew but have not supported the Peace Book. During her comments on the ordinance, Clay read letters from high school students who felt targeted by the ordinance as Black children.

28th Ward Alderman Jason Ervin spoke about how the curfew ordinance would give the police even more power to segregate the city. “We don’t need more powers for the police. We need more power for the people!”

After more than an hour of debate, the city council passed the ordinance by a vote of 27-22, seven votes short of a veto-proof majority.

“I will veto this ordinance because it is counterproductive to the progress we have made reducing crime and violence in our city,” Mayor Brandon Johnson stated in a press conference after the meeting. He continued, “it’s unfortunate the number of crime bills that have overwhelmingly led to the criminalization and incarceration of poor people, particularly people of color. It’s important now more than ever that we do not repeat the sins of the past.”

#ChicagoIL #IL #InJusticeSystem #Curfew #CAARPR #NAARPR

Tampa, FL – Thousands continue to march and demand justice for George Floyd as protests across the Tampa Bay enter their second day. Jane Castor, current mayor of Tampa and former chief of police, enacted a curfew in an attempt to stop the people’s uprising. Despite the curfew and heavy police repression, people are staying in the streets until justice is served.

Tampa had two organized protests May 31. The first protest was held in East Tampa, a majority African American neighborhood. Demonstrators marched through East Tampa and Ybor City. After the end of the march people began moving to downtown for the second march at 5 p.m. Once the crowd had lowered to a smaller size, Tampa Police Department began shooting tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters, hitting a woman in the head causing her to bleed. Confrontations with police continued to escalate into the night as members of the community set tires on fire in a major intersection in East Tampa.

The second protest was held in Downtown Tampa. Protesters gathered to hear speeches and then marched towards Interstate-275. The police responded by nearly running over peaceful protesters in an attempt to head off the march and prevent an occupation of the freeway. The people continued to push forward, and the police responded by shooting tear gas and pepper-spraying demonstrators. Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan shortly after declared the gathering to be unlawful and police continued to push protesters back with force. The march then went to Curtis Hixon Park, where people continued to face off with police despite the newly enacted curfew.

“It was completely peaceful and the cops were telling people there was no curfew as long as it was peaceful,” said Taylor Cook, an organizer from Tampa Bay SDS, “but then they showed that they were lying when they started arresting peaceful protesters and blocking people on the bridge.”

Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society, a student group at the University of South Florida, is currently raising a bail fund for protesters who have been arrested. It’s not clear when protests will end but one thing is certain: the people of Tampa are sick and tired of police terror and are ready to rise up until true justice can be served.

#TampaFL #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #MinneapolisUprising #curfew

Tampa mayor Jane “Cover-up” Castor announced on May 31 that she would be implementing a curfew starting at 7:30 p.m. Castor is notorious for having presided over a program that targeted bike riders with tickets for violations of minor and obscure laws surrounding riding bikes. This was usually used as a way to search, arrest and otherwise harass the African American community. Of the tickets that were given out, eight out of ten were given to African Americans, who make up a quarter of the population in the city.

The curfews will not succeed at the politicians’ stated goal and will likely be used as an excuse for police to brutalize protesters and others. Unfortunately for them, the protests will continue until justice has been achieved for George Floyd. Nothing less will do than full civilian accountability for police across the country.

#CentralFlorida #FL #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #Socialism #MinneapolisUprising #curfew #CentralFloridaFRSO