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Closing these establishments earlier does not solve the problem of underage drinking. Furthermore, it hurts the economy of the city. What we need is to reinforce the curfew ordinance and monitor our youths’ late-night activities. The easiest way out of any problem is to prohibit, impose or ignore. That’s what this proposal was all about. Sure, let’s put the entire burden on the club owners and wash our hands! It goes both ways. The club owners, specifically the ones that were granted licenses to serve alcohol as long as they also sold food, ought to abide by the law by checking ID’s before serving alcohol to customers. On the other hand, the police and the members of the Licensing Board should patrol these businesses more often. Parents, too, have probably the biggest responsibility to make sure that their children are in bed at a decent time rather than let them wander around at 3 o’clock in the morning. But they are often confused with a system that many times protects more the rights of the minors over the rights of the parents. We could address this matter in many different ways, but the key issue here is the curfew. Back in March of this year, after a couple of incidents involving youths, some community leaders organized and held a vigil at the Campagnone park to give the people a chance to express their ideas as to how the municipal government could help reduce violence in our city. One of the suggestions was to enforce the curfew ordinance. After that vigil, we met a few times with Mayor Sullivan, Police Chief John Romero and Lieutenant Driscoll to draft a plan that would hopefully help reduce violence among our teens. The curfew option, according to the Chief, was out of the question. He and Driscoll cited information that the law didn’t work in New York or Boston and it will not work in Lawrence. They said that when the law was enacted, police were stopping kids that were coming out of the movie theaters. Well, it’s different now. First of all, movies end at around 12:30 a.m., but children under 18 are found everywhere in Lawrence well after 3 a.m. So perhaps we should revise the curfew ordinance to begin at 1 a.m. Imposing a curfew law might also be seen as a way out of the real problem, but we are talking about minors that don’t know better. They are going out to have fun, just as everyone else does, but often end up in trouble. While implementing a curfew law sometimes is seen as a violation of the basic constitutional guarantees in the Bill of Rights, it also protects our teens, helps reduce violence and improves the quality of life. It can also be a negative measure, some might say, because of the potential of turning innocent youths into criminals once the police establish a criminal record for violating the curfew. Nevertheless, what the heck is a 14-year-old kid doing wandering the streets at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning? So, maybe we shouldn’t be too harsh when applying the law — perhaps a couple of warnings at first, and then… well… three strikes and you’re OUT! Angel Rivera is a candidate for councilor at-large and has been a reporter /political columnist for Spanish language newspapers for over ten years, and is also a member of the Democrat City Committee. You can email him at angel.rivera36@verizon.net *Send your questions
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The Lawrence Licensing
Board was right to vote against a proposal to close all
restaurants serving liquor by 11 p.m. Why should everyone
pay for the irresponsibility of a few?