NEWBURGH – Following a violent weekend in Newburgh where a 16-year-old boy was shot to death and a man was shot in the neck and back in separate incidents, members of the city council Monday night discussed the possibility of imposing a curfew on youths under 18.
Acting Police Chief Daniel Cameron said the police department does not have the capacity to take kids who violate off the street and return them home.
Councilwoman Jeannie Abrams said the killing of a child is any mother’s worst nightmare; a curfew is not the answer.
“I just don’t think that you lock up all of our children
who are under the age of 18 because they are doing nothing wrong except
being out, especially in the hot weather. Everyone wants to go out in
the hot weather,” Abrams said. “In my ward, they don’t
have air conditioning so everyone wants to go out and walk, and I don’t
see that locking them up or having our cops chasing them around and lock
them up because they are out past a certain hour, I think is a violation
of their constitutional rights.”
Councilwoman Cindy Holmes said parents must be more involved with their children’s upbringing.
Councilwoman Regina Angelo, who has been on the city council for more than 40 years, said when the city faced riots in the early 1970s, a one-week curfew was imposed and it didn’t work. The police could not handle it because it did not have the staff needed, she said.
