NewsNight Maryland; 547; Teen Curfew

a A new effort to enforce a team curfew goes into effect tomorrow. A look at the issues tonight, plus the expanding outlets in Hagerstown, and the State

of Unions on Labor Day. This is Newsnight Maryland. Good evening, everyone. If you live in or visit the District of Columbia, here's a new reason to keep track of the time. Because starting tomorrow night, DC Police will begin enforcing a night time curfew for anyone under the age of 17. Things could result in fines and orders to perform community service. DC joins a long list of cities and towns throughout America that are imposing youth curfews to cut down on crime. Not surprisingly, they are controversial, both unconstitutional grounds and for reasons of practicality. On tonight's Maryland life, do youth curfews work? And are they just? After a lengthy round of court challenges, the district's youth curfew law is about to

be enforced. Beginning tomorrow, people aged 16 and younger will be prohibited from public places in the city between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. on Sundays through Thursdays, and from midnight to 6 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The law was passed by the district council back in 1995, but was put on hold as it worked its way through the courts. Finally, this summer, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the city could proceed with the curfew. Now the police department is getting ready to enforce it. What we want to do is make sure that we simply have the ability to keep children out of trouble. And as we move into an enforcement, again, our role is to find people and make sure that we can account for whether it's supposed to be out or not. To equate children and their parents with the curfew, police have been distributing flyers like this one, the department's website also outlines the new rules. Not unexpectedly, the curfew has been controversial since its initial passing.

The American Civil Liberties Union challenged the law early on and succeeded in stalling its implementation, arguing it violates the constitutional rights of young people. The right to stand on the sidewalk and talk to your friends or to look at the stars on a nice summer night or to walk the dog, or go for an early morning run, are the sorts of things that we mean when we say it's a free country. This is what Liberty is all about. We don't think the government�