By Tessie Borden
Republic Mexico City Bureau
July 12, 2002 12:00:00
http://www.arizonarepublic.com/news/articles/0712tecate.html
TECATE, Mexico - A new teen curfew in this resort city has unleashed a full-fledged
constitutional debate and opened a window on what happens when controversial
law enforcement fads head south across the U.S.-Mexican border.
The curfew, which requires teens to be off the streets by 10:30 p.m., has drawn
praise and criticism from parents, anger from teens and a legal challenge from
Baja California Norte human rights prosecutor Raul Ramirez Baena. And it came
under the spotlight when an off-duty officer wounded three youths. The officer
is at large.
"It's not the way to solve a problem," said Andrea Vasquez, 20, who has joined her 16-year-old sister in speaking out against the rule. "Only your parents have the right to impose limits on your schedule. That's a right that belongs to the parents, not to the government."
Tecate Mayor Juan Vargas Rodriguez introduced the curfew initiative May 9. The City Assembly approved it the same day, and it took effect 11 days later. The measure lists the "increase in vandalism and juvenile delinquency on the streets of our city" as one reason for a curfew in this city of 120,000.
The measure is short. Only eight lines of text describe who shall be affected, who shall enforce it and what the sanctions are. Minors found in public thoroughfares past 10:30 p.m. without a valid reason shall be told to go home or be taken home by municipal police officers. First offenders get a warning; the parents of repeat offenders are fined.
Since the curfew's introduction, teens from the local high school have staged protests almost daily in front of City Hall, holding signs and hanging banners that say, "No to the curfew," and, "Respect our liberties." They say it is not fair to punish all teens for the bad behavior of a few, and they want the law thrown out.
The Vasquez sisters' mother, Guadalupe Oropeza Sotomayor, said the issue has awakened her daughters' civic pride, though she fears for their safety if protests get out of hand.
"I am pleased that they are involved in this, that they are finding out what's going on," she said. "I tell them 'You defend what you believe in, as long as you know you are in the right.' "
There also is support for the curfew. A May 28 poll conducted by the newspaper Frontera indicated that 68 percent of Tecate residents favor it, while 13 percent oppose it.
City officials, in the meantime, say they are trampling no one's rights.
"This is a very friendly law," Vargas Rodriguez said. "This law is not against teenagers."
According to the law, it is necessary, "for the good of the citizenry and our own youth, to implement energetic action to protect the residents of our community."
Are minors citizens?
Vargas Rodriguez insists the new law is not a curfew but a "special schedule" for minors. Besides, he added, minors do not get their rights as citizens until they turn 18.
"There are guarantees only for adults," he said. "They do not apply to minors because minors cannot vote."
Hector Acevedo, who represents Ramirez Baena's office in Tecate, said the prosecutor got involved when a group of teens showed up looking for advice on how to fight the measure. Acevedo contacted Ramirez Baena in Tijuana, and both set to work on a challenge.
Ramirez Baena said he believes the curfew sets dangerous precedents because it treats one group of people, those under 18, differently than it does adults. "Society has lost the ability to defend its own liberty," Ramirez Baena said. "This can encourage human rights violations by the very police officers that are supposed to be protectors."
Acevedo said the mayor and City Assembly did not base their decision on any research of teen behavior or studies on juvenile crime. They simply looked across the border.
Once the subject of heated debate in criminal-justice circles, teen curfews have lost some of their appeal in recent years, even as the courts consistently ruled them constitutional. Opponents, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, say that's because their effectiveness, despite wide use, is still in question.
A 1998 study by the Justice Policy Institute of teen curfew laws in California compares arrests from year to year in cities that adopt curfews, taking into consideration the vigor with which police departments enforce them.
"The current available data provides no basis to the belief that curfew laws are an effective way for communities to prevent youth crime and keep young people safe," it concludes. "On virtually every measure, no discernible effect on juvenile crime was observed. In fact, in many jurisdictions, serious juvenile crime increased at the very time officials were touting the crime reduction effects of strict curfew enforcement."
Brad Schoenfeldt of the National Capital Area ACLU in Washington, D.C., cited a 1999 report from the Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention that found that violent crime by young people tends to peak immediately after school hours and that it is adult crime that peaks around 11 p.m.
The report was based on FBI data from 1991 to 1996 and concluded that after-school programs may be better youth crime deterrents than teen curfews because they happen at the precise time when young people misbehave.
"The vogue passed," said Eleanor Eisenberg of the Phoenix ACLU. "People sort of moved on."
Legal challenge
Acevedo and Ramirez Baena's legal challenge of the Tecate curfew alleges, among other things, violations of Mexican constitutional guarantees of equal protection of the law, freedom of movement, freedom from prejudice and unfair punishment, and the right to be punished by a court and not by a legislative body. It also alleges that the mayor is usurping the president's exclusive powers to suspend civil liberties.
The conservative National Action Party, or PAN, which holds the state governorship but not the mayor's post in Tecate, is on Ramirez Baena's side. In early June, the state Assembly agreed to present the document before the Mexican Supreme Court, which likely will rule on the curfew's constitutionality.
The Tecate curfew also appears to have generated more than heated words.
On the evening of May 27, in a poor neighborhood known as La Coyotera, an off-duty police officer, Vicente Hurtado Parra, began arguing with two youths, one a minor.
According to local reports, Hurtado Parra appeared to head back to his car, but turned around and started shooting, hitting both youths. He then got in his car and drove a short distance to where the third member of the group, also a minor, was leaving a store, shooting him as well. Hurtado Parra fled and is now being sought by police.
Reach the reporter at tessie.borden@arizonarepublic.com
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