Editor:
A curfew is something I would never have approved of, being a parent in the ’80s through ’90s.
Nor in the 1960s and ’70s, during my years of growing up here in Crescent Beach and White Rock as a youth – this with the exception, I suppose, of the FLQ crisis in 1970.
Any permanent legislation as to a juvenile curfew would have been viewed by the majority – me included – as unacceptable.
The vast body of parents expected their children to be at home at a reasonable hour. Any such negative behaviour would have been dealt with swiftly and the corrective action in most families more than adequate.
However, for the many examples out there recently, I think law enforcement should be able to do what parents are failing largely in, and be able to arrest, detain and have the ministry responsible immediately involved. This requires a law that the province must enact making parents accountable for children in their care when police contact is involved.
Enabling our law-enforcement agencies to do a functional job in taking our vulnerable minors off the street at a moment’s notice – after a particular hour and/or for good reason – might be a thought to seriously consider.
I am sure that many police officers see our young people go from first-contact to a gang life, with no tools in their tool box to make change or effectively make change. Police officers must be extremely frustrated. The lack of sound tools for them to prevent further harm to youth in our community must be a challenge that more often than not is a losing game.
The number of failing marriages and parents unable to parent is, I surmise, one of many leading causes. The Ministry of Children and Family Development is dated, very dysfunctional and ineffective. They share not enough information with law enforcement and family involved.
I say create a provincial statute that enables law enforcement to engage an obvious minor and, if the circumstances warrant, take them off the streets, turning them over to a more effective ministry.
It seems the government is willing to pursue impaired drivers under their current legislation and not the Criminal Code of Canada, but pay no attention to our young and vulnerable juvenile people.
Our youth currently are being “bootlegged” by criminal elements, with the worst displays of negative social behavior yet to come, I suggest.
Ron Eves, White Rock