Newly elected Cambridge Mayor Steve Rideout opened the meeting on Monday evening by asking the question: “how do we do the best we can for the children’?
According to Rideout, the purpose of Monday’s meeting was to help the City Commissioners make a major decision about the children of Cambridge and their safety. Should the town use a curfew?
The Mayor stated that more data is needed before a decision is made, but parents and children need to be involved when it comes to a curfew.
The Chief of Police spoke about the number of arrests from July 2021 to today’s date, 140 arrests are from 7:00 AM to 10:00 AM, 97 arrests are from 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM. He suggested that the curfew would enable the community to find the reasoning behind a child being outside in the middle of the night and make the parents responsible.
LaShawn Foster spoke first about programs to keep children off the streets and prevent the curfew. Dr. Teresa Stafford is pro curfew and suggests asking kids why they aren’t at home. William Jackson is against the curfew and suggested that “it takes a village’.
Other voices were heard. Rob Magruder is against the curfew and suggested a boxing program as an aid in keeping kids off the streets. Greg Meekins of Moving Dorchester Forward suggested that more work needs to be done, that change won’t happen overnight, and that we need to sustain the current programs. A member of the ACLU remarked that curfews are illegal and that there was an increase in arrests in Baltimore during the 2014 curfew. Mr. Ames reflected that his father set the curfew when he was a child.
The consensus of the meeting is that there needs to be more communication between agencies and programs offered in Cambridge. Awareness of post pandemic mental health of families is a big factor to be addressed. The citizens that spoke agreed that something needs to happen to help Cambridge’s children, people need to get out and volunteer to help.
A member of the audience remarked that there wasn’t a single City Commissioner at the meeting. Commissioner Cephas called in and stated that it might be good to try something new, we need to work with the police department and there isn’t any solution that would solve the issue instantly.
Mayor Rideout commented that the Police Department already has authority to stop kids out on the streets.
Address recent and on-going threats to safety and property. No mention of the 5juvenile girls arrested in connection to the midnight burglaries this past week?
The sworn elected officials and sworn public safety officers take an oath to protect and serve ALL the community, not just children, parents and business.
It is not an either/or question, but an all of the above, and more.
Establish a curfew for juveniles as well as provide positive social activities and parental responsibility