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By Paige Fry
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Good Children Mad Metropolis filed a lawsuit Wednesday towards the town of Chicago to hunt aid from the town’s curfew on Halloween so younger folks with the group can “cop watch and peacekeep” within the metropolis’s Hyde Park neighborhood on the vacation.
The town’s curfew prohibits these beneath the age of 18 from being on the streets after 10 p.m. Yearly on Halloween, Good Children Mad Metropolis holds an occasion in Hyde Park the place members cop watch — observe police exercise with the purpose of deescalating and discouraging police misconduct — and conduct outreach to younger folks. In keeping with the lawsuit, members are involved officers will arrest and harass them throughout their occasion.
Trick-or-treaters in costumes throughout a Halloween occasion at Armstrong (Lillian Hardin) Park on Oct. 31, 2021, within the Bronzeville neighborhood in Chicago. (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune/TNS)
The swimsuit seeks a brief restraining order and preliminary injunction that might forestall police from implementing the curfew towards activists who have interaction in “nontraditional First Modification actions.”
When requested concerning the lawsuit at a information convention Thursday afternoon, Mayor Lori Lightfoot stated she doesn’t usually touch upon pending litigation and she or he’ll let the courtroom determine what’s appropriate.
“However for those who learn the ordinance, there’s loads of alternative within the ordinance itself for them to do precisely what they’re saying they wish to do … however there’s nothing that forestalls people who find themselves lively and engaged, going to occasions, staffing occasions, from being out within the metropolis,” she stated. “The curfew ordinance doesn’t cease that.”
The ordinance notes that the curfew doesn’t apply for youth who’re collaborating in or returning house instantly after a ticketed or sponsored occasion, however that the youth ought to have proof of their attendance on the occasion equivalent to a ticket stub or wristband.
For the reason that Metropolis Council amended the curfew in Could, the Police Division has elevated enforcement by no less than 57% in contrast with enforcement final yr, in response to the lawsuit. The lawsuit additionally argues that enforcement focuses on Black and brown neighborhoods, which is the bottom of Good Children Mad Metropolis’s operations.
The lawsuit additionally asks that the Police Division inform all officers throughout roll name that they’re prohibited from implementing the curfew towards the youth collaborating in these actions.
Good Children Mad Metropolis’s peacekeeping and police watching actions usually happen throughout curfew hours as a result of that’s when members imagine it has probably the most impression, in response to the lawsuit.
“That is notably true on Halloween, when each younger folks and police are notably lively after the curfew hours. As a result of GKMC’s cop watching and peacekeeping actions should happen throughout curfew hours, there are not any different channels for this expression,” in response to the lawsuit.
Kristen Cabanban, a spokesperson for the town’s Regulation Division, declined to remark.
“This matter is now pending litigation and the town has no remark,” she stated in an e mail.
Superintendent David Brown stated on the information convention Thursday that the Police Division is collaborating with extra teams and metropolis departments this yr through the vacation, and it plans to deploy extra officers in all neighborhoods and on the CTA system through the Halloween weekend in comparison with earlier years.
The youth curfew shouldn’t change how police patrol this yr’s Halloween given the curfew’s exceptions, Brown stated.
“We would like everybody to have enjoyable. We would like you to take pleasure in being out, however we additionally need you to be secure,” he stated.
©2022 Chicago Tribune.
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