Mayor Brandon Scott, like most of us, is clearly frustrated by the levels of gun violence in Baltimore, including Sunday night’s attack on two young people, a 16-year-old and a 14-year-old, on the 400 Block of East Pratt Street in the Inner Harbor, which sent both teens to area hospitals. The mayor has probably used the word “unacceptable” more times than one can count and would no doubt offer less polite phrasing if he thought for a moment it might lower the victim count.
To his credit, he has been willing to explore all kinds of strategies to reduce shootings, including social interventions meant to prevent them from happening in the first place. Some have proven effective, some less so — at least in the short term. And we have generally embraced the mayor’s holistic approach, with the understanding that policing is only one piece of the public safety puzzle’s solution.
The approach Mayor Scott offered Sunday night gives us pause, however. He announced his intention to go “back to the old days” and enforce through the summer youth the curfew restrictions already on the books. As Scott explained to reporters, this means it would be a violation of the city ordinance for young people ages 13 and under to be outside after 9 p.m., and for older teens up to age 17 to be out after 10 p.m. Police have made it clear that enforcement would not involve an arrest unless criminal behavior was involved, but it might involve police detaining a young person and taking him or her home or to a relative’s house or to a city-operated Youth Connection Center. A parent or guardian could get a warning for permitting such behavior or even face a $50 fine.
