Party on, Newark!
After scheduling a juvenile curfew to take effect at 11 p.m. Friday, Newark officials announced they were postponing the move pending a more detailed announcement of the plan sometime next week.
“Even during the updating of our juvenile safety initiative, the Newark Police Division will continue to engage positively with the community, including our city’s youth and their families,” Public Safety Director Fritz Fragé said in a statement issued shortly after 5 p.m. on Friday. “As always, our work is aimed at strengthening community relations while reducing crime.”
The city’s annual warm-weather curfew was first imposed in 1992, forbidding youths under 18 unaccompanied by an adult from going beyond 100 yards of their home between the hours of 11 p.m. and 5:30 a.m., except for work, school-related activities, or life-threatening emergencies.
The announcement did not give a reason for the postponement, and a spokesperson for the public safety department, Catherine Adams, said she could not immediately provide one.
In an announcement earlier in the week that the city would implement the curfew on Friday, Mayor Ras J. Baraka stated, “We want the children of our city to enjoy the outdoors safely by limiting the opportunity for them to find themselves in harm’s way.”
In announcing the postponement, the mayor stated, “We are once again enforcing an ordinance that already exists and will hold a press conference to explain details of this youth safety measure and other programs to ensure summertime safety and enjoyment.”
Curfew critics say they’re unconstitutional and difficult to enforce, and in the past the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey has successfully fought the local restrictions on movement in other cities.
Hours before Newark’s postponement was announced, the state ACLU’s policy director, Sarah Fajardo, issued a statement Friday urging Newark officials “to reconsider the enforcement of a youth curfew.”
“Young people should always have the right to be out in public with friends and family,” the statement read. “Stricter curfews with increased police presence will not protect communities, and will instead put Black and brown youth at further risk of criminalization. Parents and guardians should be setting curfews for their children, not the city.”
In their original announcement on Tuesday, officials said police would accompany curfew violators back home for release to a parent or guardian; second offenders would be taken to a Newark Police youth facility on Dickerson Street and held until being picked up by a parent or guardian. The youth would also be referred to the city Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery for an assessment of any needs. Repeat violators and their families would be referred to the state Office of Child Protection and Permanency in the New Jersey Department of Children and Families.
Curfew violators would not be arrested, officials said.
Youth curfews have proliferated in recent years, especially along the Jersey Shore, where pop-up parties involving large crowds of teenagers mobilized on social media have tested the ability of local police to keep order.
Baraka, a Democrat running for governor, and Fragé, said the curfew was intended to protect the young people subject to it.
“The overnight hours are particularly hazardous for children because fewer adult family members and neighbors are outdoors late at night to monitor their safety,” said Fragé, who vowed to increase police presence in neighborhoods while also asking families to help. “We respectfully request that parents and guardians abide by the juvenile curfew ordinance to add an extra layer of safety for their children.”
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Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com
