Unwanted Laws in San Diego

The San Diego politicians are waging a War of Intolerance and you are the victims. They have passed laws that outlaw skate boarding, dancing, and even cruising. And there is no end in sight. There latest law of intolerance is the San Diego Juvenile curfew.

The teen curfew forbids people under 18 from being out past 10 pm. In June of 1997, that curfew was ruled unconstitutional by a Federal Court. So what did the City Council do? They simply revised the curfew by adding some narrow exceptions.

20 days later we started to fight back. On July 11th, 1997 we launched our campaign to repeal the curfew in Mission Bay Park. We began with 50 people and, two weeks later we had 150 anti-curfew protesters. Since then we have had protest marches throughout San Diego including one that was covered by M-TV.

Many people justify the curfew by saying that teenagers do not have the same rights as adults. But this campaign is not about teenage rights. It is about the unjust punishment of honest Americans.

We are protesting the curfew because every law-abiding American should have the right to freely socialize at any time. No one is harmed when a law-abiding teenager stands in a park at night. Therefore, it should not be a crime. It has only become a crime because the Mayor will not allow people to choose their own lifestyles.

Our politicians may believe that hanging out is harmful but that doesn't mean it should be illegal. They like to call it loitering. Well, allow me to suggest another description: I call it socializing. Every time that you see a sign that says no loitering, what it is really saying is no socializing. And if socializing is illegal, should we still call America the land of the free?

Some people like to go to movies and others like to hang out in a park. Neither activity should be illegal. If we allow the government to dictate a teenager's lifestlye, then we give the government the power to dictate every person's lifestyle.

On Thursday, the nation celebrated the racial integration of a high school in the South. Yet today, in San Diego, we are still limiting the freedom of a minority. Teenagers, like the Blacks in the Old South, are treated like criminals. Every night, they are the victims of segregation. Every night, everyone under 18 must go home while all other individuals are allowed to travel freely.