4 minSociety
Cities impose curfews and extra patrols to head off Halloween teen takeovers
Cities from New Jersey to Georgia and Illinois are setting teen curfews and adding police patrols ahead of Halloween weekend after violent takeovers drew hundreds of young people in previous months.
Cities across the United States are putting teenagers on notice ahead of Halloween weekend, rolling out curfews and police crackdowns to prevent the kind of chaos that has marked so-called teen takeovers. From the Jersey Shore to suburban Atlanta, local officials are setting curfews for minors and adding patrols in places that are still recovering from gatherings that drew hundreds of teens and ended in fights and arrests.
In Oak Park, Illinois, the police chief said her agency is working to keep a repeat of last year's Halloween episode from happening again. An estimated 500 teenagers swarmed downtown Oak Park, where fights and gunshots broke out and police called in help from six neighboring agencies, according to a department memo. Chief of Police Shatonya Johnson said the department will put more officers on shift during Halloween and take several additional measures aimed at preventing another takeover.
In Covington, Georgia, a city outside Atlanta, anyone under 16 who is in the downtown area after 7 p.m. on Halloween will be required to go home or be accompanied by an adult, according to CBS News. In Long Branch, New Jersey, police plan to strictly enforce a Halloween curfew for those under 17 on October 30 and 31, running from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., according to News 12. The curfew was set in response to hundreds of people gathering for a teen takeover in May, which led to fights and six arrests.
Residents are also organizing on their own. In the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, a group called CollaBOOration was formed after a series of large Halloween gatherings from 2016 to 2019 turned violent, according to Block Club Chicago. Its founder, Bennie Currie, said the aim is to build a visible presence on the street before the festivities begin. « What we’re really trying to do is establish a critical mass on the street, possibly before the Halloween festivities even start », Currie said. « So when these large gatherings happen, like we’ve seen every year, we will already have taken over 53rd Street … we’ll be walking up and down in orange shirts and keeping in contact with one another. »
Law enforcement officials say the measures reflect a broader concern. National Police Association spokeswoman Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith called the proactive approach a « great idea » and said teen takeovers are not slowing down. She noted that call volume on Halloween night typically rises four, five or even six times, with complaints ranging from fireworks and schoolyard fights to missing children, and that the appeal of large teenage crowds organized on social media adds another layer of risk.
Similar concerns have surfaced in France, where a planned protest on Halloween has also raised worries among authorities and residents, following recent street clashes in Paris in which protesters advanced toward riot police. The French situation is distinct from the American teen gatherings, but it shows how public-order planning around the end-of-October period is drawing attention on both sides of the Atlantic.
10
