The City’s Corporation Counsel is being asked to justify, identify or explain the authority and procedures that Chicago police intend to use to enforce draconian new curfew measures publicly outlined by Mayor Lori Lightfoot in recent days. On Sunday, the Mayor declared that she was issuing a curfew/ban on “unaccompanied” minors in Millennium Park after 6:00 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays. She followed up that declaration by moving the citywide weekend curfew for young people from 11:00 to 10:00 p.m. at a news conference on Monday. In a letter to Celia Meza, the City’s Corporation Counsel, the ACLU of Illinois today asked the Counsel’s office to explicitly identify the legal authority for such changes and explain how these measures would be enforced.
“The Mayor has suggested that her approach to these issues is ‘surgical’ and ‘narrow,’” said Alexandra Block, senior supervising attorney with the ACLU of Illinois. “But our letter demonstrates that without specific answers about how this policy will be implemented and overseen, it could turn into an overbroad policy that encourages unconstitutional stops and searches of young people and results in racially-biased policing.”
The ACLU letter notes, for example, that the Mayor declared she would sign an executive order to move the time of the citywide weekend curfew, but has issued no such order. The ACLU also asks the Counsel to explain how the Mayor can change an ordinance passed by the City Council through proclamation. And, the ACLU asks how the citywide curfew is to be enforced and what steps are being taken to assure residents that police will not target youth of color for disproportionate enforcement.
The ACLU notes that concerns about racial bias are justified – during the week that followed the imposition of a curfew following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, 3 in 4 curfew arrests were of Black Chicagoans.
In regards to the ban on youth at Millennium Park from Thursday through Sunday after 6:00 p.m., the ACLU again is asking for the legal authority for such a ban, as well as some idea of what a “responsible adult” is – given that the ban requires all minors to be accompanied by such an adult. And, the ACLU is asking the City to explain why youth are banned from Millennium Park when youth are not (and should not be) banned from other parts of the city that suffer from gun violence.
“The public has been given only the outlines of these new rules – without any supporting justification or program for implementation,” the ACLU’s Block added. “The authority and enforcement plans should be very clear before any changes to curfew policies are implemented.”
“We hope the City will provide us this information before attempting to enforce the first ban at Millennium Park at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday.”
A copy of the letter can be found here.