Curfew

Youth curfews are popular. In poll after poll, Americans support laws that restrict teenagers' activities during certain hours of the day and night. Youth curfews are also logical. If youngsters are getting into trouble, it makes sense to get them off the streets. There's only one problem with youth curfews: They don't work. And we shouldn't kid ourselves that they do. Yet that's what we're doing in Philadelphia, where Mayor Nutter recently extended a 9 p.m. curfew on Friday and Saturday nights for all unaccompanied minors in Center City and University City.

A 16-year-old boy out past curfew was shot and killed early today in North Philadelphia's Fairhill section, police said. The youth, whose name has not been released yet, was at North Fairhill and Cambria Streets about 12:45 a.m. when automatic weapons fire erupted, police said. Wounded in the chest and leg, the teen was taken to Temple University Hospital, where he died at 1:18 a.m. police said. Police broadcast an alert for a burgundy Ford F150 pickup truck carrying two men apparently armed with an assault rifle.

PARENTS would face steeper fines if their children are caught violating curfew under a bill to be introduced in City Council today in response to problems with groups of violent youths wreaking havoc around the city. Parents would be fined $75 if their child is caught violating curfew, up from $25, according to the bill to be introduced by Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown on behalf of the Nutter administration. The maximum penalty would be $500. Under the legislation, curfews would be the same seven days a week - there would no longer be later curfew on the weekends - and would be split into three age-group categories instead of two. The curfew would be 8 p.m. for children 13 and younger, 9 p.m. for those ages 14 and 15, and 10 p.m. for teens 16 and 17. The curfew lasts until 6 a.m. for all public places and establishments unless the child is accompanied by a parent, running an errand or working.

The new curfew law that Mayor Nutter promised this summer after youths were arrested in a series of random beatings in Center City is slated to be introduced in Council on Thursday. The bill, which Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown plans to introduce on Nutter's behalf, would make several structural changes to the current law and comes after weeks of discussions on the most effective way to employ curfews. Nutter spokesman Mark McDonald said the goal was a law with a "more developmentally appropriate" doling of rights to minors.

Camden activist Frank Fulbrook pulled out a measuring tape Tuesday afternoon to determine the distance between a 24-hour downtown restaurant and the closest residential zone. It was a last-minute attempt to prevent Broadway Food Court from having to close at 11 p.m. under a business curfew adopted last month by Camden City Council, an effort to curb crime near the city's late-night takeout food shops. The curfew was supposed to take effect Monday, but Fulbrook on Friday filed a lawsuit and sought a temporary restraining order to stop the curfew.

A Camden activist and three restaurant owners filed a lawsuit against the city Friday, claiming a business curfew set to go into effect next week is unconstitutional. "It's economic freedom we're defending, the right of people to freely associate and buy and sell products," said activist Frank Fulbrook, one of the plaintiffs. "There have always been 24-hour restaurants in Camden. It's a part of life here. " The City Council passed an ordinance last month that would require restaurants and shops to close early in an effort to curb criminal activity around takeout food shops that stay open late into the night.

Mayor Nutter said Friday that the weekend curfew he imposed on Center City and University City last month would remain in effect at least until the curfew law can be rewritten. After youths were arrested in a series of random beatings, Nutter announced in August that unaccompanied minors would have to vacate those neighborhoods - the social and economic heart of the city - by 9 on Friday and Saturday nights. He also ordered 20 of the city's largest recreation centers to extend their hours to 10 p.m. on weekends.

A TEMPORARY weekend curfew for minors in University City and Center City will remain in effect, Mayor Nutter said yesterday. The Friday and Saturday 9 p.m. curfew was installed last month to crack down on violent teen mobs. "I think that until we revise the current ordinance, it's in everybody's best interest to keep this in effect a while longer," Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said. "We've got to think about what's best for the whole community, and we can't have packs of teenagers assaulting people in any parts of our city.