Curfew

Tatiana Larry, 18, is headed to college soon and planned to spend Friday night shopping for clothes on South Street with friends. Larry, a graduate of the Math, Civics and Sciences charter school who is going to Georgia's Spellman College on a basketball scholarship, said she didn't know about the weekend curfew for minors until she and her 17-year-old friends were stopped by police shortly after 9 p.m. Next thing Larry knew, her friends...

A FEW MINUTES before the city's 9 o'clock curfew went into effect last night, 16-year-old Ryan Stanton was pretty sure he wouldn't be arrested for violating it on South Street. "They shouldn't be able to violate my rights," said Stanton, who came from Mount Laurel to hang out with friends. "If the cops ask me, I'm going to explain why I have the right to assemble peacefully. " That didn't work out too well for him. By 9:15 p.m., Stanton was in a police van at 5th and South streets waiting to go to the 3rd District station at 11th and Wharton so his parents could pick him up. "We're going to take this very seriously," said police spokesman Lt. Ray Evers as officers did paperwork for Stanton and a few other kids.

Common sense - that's how many business owners and residents describe the teen curfew being implemented tonight across Center City and University City. "It's definitely a good thing," said Lacy Brown, who works at Olympia Sports in the 500 block of South Street. "Kids will be home. There's nothing out at night besides trouble. " And there shouldn't be many kids out Friday night. The new 9 p.m. curfew for those under 18, announced Monday by Mayor Nutter in response to recent outbursts of teen mob violence, will apply in Center City from Bainbridge Street to Vine Street and from river to river, police said.

Defying the prospect of a legal challenge, the six-member Camden City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to impose a business curfew aimed at curbing criminal activity near late-night takeout shops. Civic activist Frank Fulbrook, who won two previous legal challenges against the city over restrictions on business hours, vowed to once again sue. "We're definitely going to file a lawsuit to challenge this long before it takes effect," Fulbrook said. "We need to get a temporary restraining order until the trial is held.

Will a 9 p.m. curfew stop the flash mobs?

Not everyone was pleased with Mayor Nutter's "sermon" Sunday on black youths and violence, but it's not hard to understand why. The mayor was on target in urging black youths and parents to act more responsibly, but his broad brush didn't make as clear a distinction as it should between who's been bad and who's good. Nutter may be making the same mistake in emphasizing a stricter curfew as one tool to stop marauding gangs of teens from attacking and robbing anyone unlucky enough to be in the same place at the same time.

The economic and social core of the city will be off-limits to minors after 9 p.m. on weekends after Mayor Nutter announced Monday that he was expanding the city's curfew in response to "flash mobs" of marauding teenagers. The early curfew will apply to anyone under 18 in Center City and University City, where police officers on foot, bike, and horseback will continue to be deployed in force. Nutter also said 20 of the city's largest recreation centers would be open until 10 Friday and Saturday nights as the city searches for more "long-term, sustainable . . . safe spaces for our young people.

MAYOR NUTTER announced yesterday that the city will have earlier curfews and increase police patrols in Center City and University City in an effort to crack down on roving groups of youths who recently have committed acts of violence. "If you assault a fellow Philadelphian, a visitor or anyone else in this city, you are going to jail," Nutter said. "The full force of the Philadelphia justice system will come down on your shoulders, and unfortunately your life will be forever changed.

MAYOR NUTTER has sent a new wake-up call to the teens participating in street-mob violence. Following his impassioned sermon on Sunday at the Mount Carmel Baptist Church, he announced yesterday earlier curfews in Center City and University City for minors; they now have to be off the streets by 9 p.m. Law-enforcement officials backed him up, including District Attorney Seth Williams, who vowed to prosecute and send away any teen caught up...

The economic and social core of the city will be off limits to minors after 9 p.m. on weekends, after Mayor Nutter announced Monday that he was expanding the city's curfew in response to "flash mobs" of maurading teen-agers. The early curfew will apply to anyone under 18 in Center City and University City, where police officers on foot, bike and horseback will continue to be deployed in force. Nutter also said 20 of the city's largest recreation centers would be open until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, as the city searched for more "long-term, sustainable . . . safe spaces for our young people.