Statement Regarding Curfew for Youth at the Brass Mill Center and Shoppes at Buckland Hills

Two Connecticut malls, the Brass Mill Center in Waterbury and Shoppes at Buckland Hills in Manchester, have announced plans to create a mandatory curfew for youth, including a chaperone and ID requirement, during certain times in November and December 2019. The following is a reaction from David McGuire, executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut: 

“Treating everyone who looks youthful as a potential suspect is inappropriate and wrong. These types of curfews are ineffective and leave too much room for selective enforcement. Will they be applied equally to youth from Waterbury’s East End and those from Bunker Hill? To kids from Hartford and those from Glastonbury? To youth of color and white youth? Malls can certainly set up standard rules for behavior, but targeting anyone who ‘appears to be’ youthful is a recipe for inequity.”