cities such as austin and san antonio have decriminalized or eliminated curfew violations - arresting youth who remain out of their homes at late hours - but denver's curfew law, which began in 1994, is still on the books.
a recent review by the denver post reported female and male latino youth, who comprise 41% of their teen population, accounted for 67% of the city's arrests. the police department asserts they target areas with "a lot of juvenile activity" and deploy extra curfew runs during cinco de mayo.
curfew citations mandate female and male youth undergo a months-long program and can result in fines, a permanent record and consequences for immigration proceedings.
"the numbers here suggest that if you happen to be a mexican kid living in denver, then that's a crime," said councilman paul lopez, who represents the area most targeted by law enforcement. the denver post highlighted stores which include a latina girl ticketed for stopping at a convenience store on the way home from her late shift at a restaurant.
the latina youth was saving money for college, but quit the job to avoid potential encounters with the police. these culturally insensitive problems existed for years, but denver's police department made data errors (uncovered by local media) which hid the existence of racial disparities.
i am
- mark j. tuggle
- harlem, usa
- same-gender-loving contemporary descendant of enslaved africans. community activist, feminist, health educator, independent filmmaker, mentor, playwright, poet & spiritual being. featured at, in & on africana.com, afrikan poetry theatre, angel herald, bejata dot com, bet tonight with tavis smiley, blacklight online, black noir, brooklyn moon cafe, gmhc's barbershop, klmo-fm, lgbt community services center, longmoor productions, nuyorican poets cafe, our corner, poz, pulse, rolling out new york, rush arts gallery, saint veronica's church, schomburg center for research in black culture, sexplorations, the citizen, the new york times, the soundz bar, the trenton times, the village voice, upn news, uzuri, venus, vibe, wbai-fm, wnyc-fm & wqht-fm. volunteered with adodi, bailey house, inc., black men's xchange-new york, colorofchange.org, drug policy alliance, east harlem tutorial program, imagenation film & music festival, presente.org, save darfur coalition, the enough project, the osborne association, the sledge group & your black world. worked on films with maurice jamal & heather murphy. writing student of phil bertelsen & ed bullins. mjt975@msn.com.
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