MAILBAG - April 1, 2007

Daytime curfew could lead to more problemsThe Costa Mesa Police Department’s proposed daytime curfew is an example of a proactive police department seeking to make Costa Mesa a safer place and help tackle our serious gang problem, (“Police propose daytime curfew,” March 26).

Unfortunately, it is also an idea with potentially serious negative Constitutional ramifications. School-age kids aren’t easily identifiable. Sure, pre-teens may be, but most teenagers often look older than they are, and many young adults look younger than they are.

If we implement a daytime curfew, we are empowering the police to stop and question anyone appearing to be school-age during traditional school hours. While this may sound like a great idea, it is a shotgun approach to a sling-shot problem.

In a city of 110,000, we have approximately 300 gang members, of which half are inactive or incarcerated, according to a recent Pilot editorial, (“Encouraging news in the fight against gangs,” March 18). How can we possibly justify subjecting thousands of teens and young adults in Costa Mesa to random and arbitrary police questioning in order to deter a few gang members from skipping school?

The police department is a great organization that will hardly go crazy with their new powers to stop and question young people, but let’s not be so cavalier with our civil liberties. We have well-established procedures for dealing with truant kids. Let the schools handle truants, and let the police department target gang members. The 4th Amendment protects us from unreasonable search and seizure. Being stopped and questioned by the police for looking young is pretty darn unreasonable in my book.

ROB DICKSON

Costa Mesa

More questions about curfew proposalRecently, the Costa Mesa Police Department, as part of its comprehensive plan to reduce gang activity in our city, recommended the establishment of a Truancy Ordinance, which amounts to a daytime curfew for school-age children.

I watched the police department presentation before the City Council at the study session and also watched a handful of concerned parents speak to this issue before the council at a subsequent meeting the following week. I agree with most of the views expressed that night — this smacks of authoritarianism.

Quite honestly, I’m not surprised that this City Council is considering such a move. The council has demonstrated many times in the past that it is more than willing to compromise the rights of residents to attain personal goals.

At a time when we’ve seen actions proposed by Mayor Mansoor and his majority cause a rift between the Latino community in this city and the government — including the police department — do we really want the Costa Mesa Police Department to be tasked to become truant officers? At a time when we should be attempting to build relationships between the police and the youth of this community, do we really want our officers randomly stopping kids who might legitimately be away from their campus for a variety of reasons?

What guidelines will they use for stopping children during school hours? Will they stop a white kid driving mom’s Mercedes to the skate park? Will they stop and interrogate the Latino children waiting at a bus stop for transportation from school to their after-school job on the other side of town?

Many of you have dismissed my assertions in the past that our current elected leaders are tending to resemble the leaders of Nazi Germany in the run-up to World War II. This, I’m afraid, is just another example of that kind of behavior. Before we unleash the good men and women of the Costa Mesa Police Department with an open-ended, inadequately defined plan for the interrogation of our kids, more reasonable, rational consideration should be given to this kind of plan.

Yes, we have a growing gang problem in Costa Mesa. Yes, we need to provide the police department tools with which they can combat this problem.

But it has the very real potential to create animosity and distrust among the children. I urge more debate and caution before this curfew plan is codified.

GEOFF WEST

Costa Mesa