Towns across America are imposing curfews and flooding streets with extra police this Halloween because they can no longer control their own teenagers.
This is what social order looks like when a society refuses to enforce consequences. Officials from the Jersey Shore to suburban Atlanta are rolling out crackdowns to head off so-called "teen takeovers" — flash mobs of hundreds of kids that end in fights, gunshots, and arrests.
In Oak Park, Illinois, an estimated 500 teens swarmed downtown last Halloween. Fights and gunshots erupted. Police had to call in help from six neighboring agencies, according to a department memo. Oak Park Chief of Police Shatonya Johnson says her agency is increasing officers on shift and adding more measures to prevent a repeat.
In Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, adults aren't waiting for police. A group called CollaBOOration, formed after violent teen takeovers from 2016 to 2019, plans to flood 53rd Street en masse before festivities even start. "We'll be walking up and down in orange shirts and keeping in contact with one another," founder Bennie Currie said, according to Block Club Chicago. Citizens doing the job institutions won't.
Covington, Georgia, outside Atlanta, now requires anyone under 16 to go home or be with an adult after 7 p.m. in the downtown area on Halloween, according to CBS News. In Long Branch, New Jersey, police will strictly enforce a curfew for those under 17 — 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. — in direct response to a May teen takeover that drew hundreds and ended in fights and six arrests, according to News 12. The New York Post reported the Long Branch curfew applies to Oct. 31; Fox News reported it covers both Oct. 30 and 31.
National Police Association Spokeswoman Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith called the proactive measures a "great idea," saying teen takeovers aren't slowing down. "On Halloween night, I can tell you from experience, our call volume goes up four or five, six times," Smith said. "Then you factor in this desire to have these large crowds of teenagers take over and, again, get it on social media."
Neither outlet touched the root question: why are hundreds of teenagers roaming streets unsupervised in the first place? Where are the parents? What happened to the family structure that used to keep kids accountable? And what role have progressive prosecutors — who refuse to charge, who divert, who dismiss — played in teaching these kids that consequences are a joke?
The curfews are a symptom. The disease is a culture that dismantled authority and called it justice.
