Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said he will veto a “snap curfew” ordinance the City Council passed Wednesday, which would give police leadership the ability to break up large, unruly gatherings of teenagers anywhere in the city rapidly.
Mr. Johnson said he opposed the proposal that would allow Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling to order minors to disperse from an area within 30 minutes. The roving curfew power is meant to put the kibosh on events where 20 or more young people plan to get together.
The Democratic mayor came out against the ordinance because, he said, it upends the city’s crime-fighting efforts and could see racial minorities targeted by law enforcement.
“This is not good policy. It’s not good, sound policy,” Mr. Johnson said at a press conference after the vote. “We’ve seen this play out before that offering up police power, extended police power without any check or balance, [does] not bode well for Black people and Brown people in this country.”
The council passed the ordinance by a 27-22 margin. Lawmakers would need 34 votes to override Mr. Johnson’s expected veto — which could be the first mayoral veto since 2006.
The proposal was borne from concerns about “teen takeovers” in which young people swarm a location and incite mayhem.
Two takeovers downtown in March saw gunfire break out among the masses — a female tourist was shot in the arm during a gathering March 9, and a 15-year-old boy was grazed by a bullet after shots rang out during a takeover March 28. Police later charged a 14-year-old boy with injuring the other teen.
Just outside of the city in Naperville, Illinois, a 150-person teen takeover last weekend saw five people arrested. That included charges for disorderly conduct, battery and a 14-year-old boy caught with a loaded pistol at the event.
Alderwoman Monique Scott, 24th Ward Democrat, backed the ordinance as a way of heading off the events that are often promoted by teens on social media.
As the mother of a 17-year-old girl, she said she wouldn’t let her daughter venture downtown because the possibility of a takeover means “the streets are not safe for her.”
“We’re not saying get your billy clubs and beat the kids upside the head,” Ms. Scott said. “This is a tool before the crowd starts so we can shut it down.”
But Alderman Jason Ervin, 28th Ward Democrat, raised many of Mr. Johnson’s same concerns about the new policy being racially tinged.
“When this ordinance first hit, it was eerily familiar to saying that Black kids could not go to downtown,” said Mr. Ervin, who is Black. “Unfortunately, what we have now is worse than what we started with. Now, not only can it happen downtown, but it can happen all over the city.”
The proposal’s language says the “snap curfew” can last for three hours. Chicago already has a citywide curfew for teens beginning at 10 p.m.
Police brass have offered mixed signals about how much they support the far-reaching measure.
Alderman Brian Hopkins, Ward 2 Democrat and the ordinance’s lead sponsor, told Axios just ahead of the vote that Superintendent Snelling “unequivocally supports” the proposal.
But Superintendent Snelling told a federal judge last week that he would “never use” the “snap curfew” authority.
“It would be unfair to the youth who are already in that location,” he said at a hearing as part of the city’s federal consent decree, according to court transcripts. “That is not something that I asked for or that I need. That is a proposal within that ordinance from the alderman.”
Superintendent Snelling told the judge he wants to be able to issue the curfew outside of the post-10 p.m. time frame when police know about a takeover in advance.
Mayor Johnson is expected to veto the ordinance this week.
