U.D.P. objects to curfew
To protect children as well as combat violence involving youths last week the Government imposed a curfew for all children aged sixteen and under. The statutory instrument signed last Friday by Minister of Human Development, Dolores Balderamos Garcia specified that parents or guardians who allow a child to loiter, wander or be in the street, park or other public places unaccompanied between 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. will be penalized. He or she may have to pay a fine of up to two thousand dollars or be imprisoned for up to a year. An informal survey last week by News Five found many adults think it is a good move by the Government that will help combat crime against young people. A few, however, do feel the curfew should be extended to 10 p.m. for older children or on weekends. But today the United Democratic Party denounced the curfew saying it violates children’s rights and puts an unfair burden on the parents. At a press conference held this morning at the U.D.P. Headquarters, Leader of the Opposition Dean Barrow said he thinks a curfew should only be imposed in times of emergency such as the aftermath of a hurricane or other natural disasters. He says the 8 p.m. curfew prevents young people from enjoying leisure activities and pursuing their education.
Dean Barrow, Leader of the Opposition, U.D.P.
“By the way of regulations you turn around and say that the children cannot go to basketball, the young persons cannot go to basketball after eight o’clock unless an adult accompanies them. Which? How many adults can find that much of a time? And forget leisure time activities, educational activities. Like I said, a sixteen year old is going to sixth form. You are going to tell a sixteen year old he or she cannot be on the street no matter what his or her business is? It doesn’t make sense. It seems to me, ladies and gentlemen, that the government has allowed this crisis situation to occur. Everyone is so brutalized about what is happening that they are prepared to forget this question of our rights.
We in the United Democratic Party are saying perhaps there might come a time when these measures are justified, but nobody has attempted to show the people of this country that this is the time. Nobody has attempted to deal with the situation, which is in fact a crisis by going the route by what we suggested, by getting the people in this society who can contribute and come up with the kind of strategy that can deal with it. We know that there are many numbers of citizens of goodwill who are prepared to be pressed into service to assist the police physically, perhaps working hours at the station house doing administrative work so that more people can be out on the streets. Is there not some effort being made to involve the society before coming up with this kind of unilateral measure that is as I said a fundamental abridgement of rights? It is unconstitutional.”
Barrow says that the police also need training to deal with minors once they are found on the streets after eight p.m. According to the U.D.P. members at the meeting this morning, one of their primary concerns is where the children found loitering will be detained. The party says they plan to hold public meetings in the next few weeks to get the public’s reaction to the new curfew.
When asked if the U.D.P. had any alternative suggestions to the curfew, Party Leader Dean Barrow said no and that it would be, in his words, “arrogant” for the party to say they had the answer to the issue.
