Melissa Ross
Calls from the Jacksonville faith community to impose a 9 p.m. curfew in the city’s high-crime areas are getting pushback from activists on the ground in the Northwest quadrant.
“In studies of dozens of U.S. cities, our research shows overall, youth curfews have had ‘no effect’ … in other words they just don’t work!” writes Ben Frazier, one of Jacksonville’s first black news anchors, now blogging at the website www.theblackviewpoint.com.
“Essentially curfews routinely criminalize black youth for merely venturing into public places during arbitrarily forbidden hours. Reason: Some people are campaigning for curfews in Jacksonville and that’s OK, but our point is that we should not rush to accept a curfew as being a magic wand,” Frazier said.
“Come on folks, we all know, that this rampant violence is the result of root causes that go a lot deeper than the issue of what time our kids go to sleep. We would do well, not to get caught up in the emotion of the moment. Right now the curfews main appeal is that sweeping our kids off the streets will make some of us feel satisfied and safer.
“But again,research does not support that ‘feeling.’ We suggest that research and reason should be the deciding factors on whether a curfew should be imposed. It should not be based simply on raw emotion, grand standing and the theatrics of street corner appeals.”
That skepticism is shared by other members of the community. As At-Large Group 5 City Council candidate Ju’Coby Pittman told Florida Politics, “Once you start a curfew, you have to continue it. It costs money,” she said. Such a measure would put “handcuffs on people” without conferring any guaranteed benefits, Pittman said.
Pittman made those comments during a walk-through of Eureka Gardens, a Section 8 complex on the city’s Westside known as a flashpoint for gun violence. The event was sponsored by sheriff candidate Ken Jefferson, who has been spending the night in high-crime areas as part of his campaign.
The city’s crime rate has emerged as one of several key issues in the city’s mayoral and sheriff’s races.
“I think it’s important to point out there’s not a great deal of difference in what all four candidates are saying they’d do about it,” UNF pollster Mike Binder said. Binder runs the school’s Public Opinion Research Laboratory.
“Crime is always a big issue in Jacksonville. It’s Jacksonville! We have a lot of crime, particularly in the Northwest quadrant. But now that the economy has turned around and education has settled down a bit with the new superintendent, well those are the big three issues, so crime will come to the forefront,” he said.
“But none of these four candidates are coming out and saying we need to raise taxes, or we need to hire 500 more police officers. Instead they’re mainly saying the same things.”
Meanwhile, GOP mayoral candidate Lenny Curry has hit incumbent Mayor Alvin Brown hard on the public safety issue, criticizing Brown’s former budget that opponents have worked to tie to the cutting of 147 police jobs and a spike in homicides.
For his part, Brown points out the crime rate is going down overall, and that in a second term, he’d favor a two-pronged approach of hiring 80 more police officers while simultaneously focusing on crime-prevention programs.
In the sheriff’s contest, voters are weighing GOP candidate Mike Williams, outgoing sheriff John Rutherford’s hand-picked successor, against Democrat Jefferson, the agency’s black former PIO.
“I think the issue there is going to be about administrative experience and how that impacts public safety,” Binder said. “If people think that Jefferson’s lack of administrative experience is outweighed by Williams, who has it, that’s a factor. Also, will they think the role that continuing the basically the status quo under Williams is the way to go, or will they vote for a change in direction with Jefferson?
“There’s not a whole lot that mayors and sheriffs can do when it comes to crime,” Binder said. “There’s so much that’s baked in, socioeconomically, that it’s hard for a mayor or a sheriff to make huge changes. On the margins absolutely, but it’s difficult. What do you do when you have a 10-year-old kid whose mom is working two jobs and the people influencing that kid are gang members?”
Which returns to the curfew proposal. Could imposing a curfew protect children and put a lid on crime on the Northwest side? And is that an issue the four candidates running at the top of the local ticket would support?
According to Frazier at least, it’s still a tough sell.
“The fact is, if a determined teenager wants to find trouble, he or she can do so before any curfew ends,” he said. “What protects teens from this nauseating cycle of violence is not rules and punishments but meaningful social programs, conversations and relationships. We must not give up on our youngsters, we must reach out to them.”
