West Palm Beach's Teen Curfew

by Downtown Resident
(West Palm Beach)

Jeffrey Nadel may be young and bright, but he has definitely taken up a wrong cause. He and the National Youth Rights Association of Southeast Florida fail to realize that the curfew in downtown West Palm Beach was put in place primarily to protect the minors, who were left alone to roam unsupervised late at night, in areas that also serve alcohol. The curfew in no way violates civil liberties or the first amendment because it allows the minors to roam around freely anywhere until dark, after which time they would need the watchful eye of an adult. It's plain old common sense (which seems to be getting rarer every day).

Whether Jeffrey Nadel wins or loses, he will move on to greener pastures, but unfortunately, a lot of the kids that he seems to be fighting for, may not see a bright future ahead or a future at all if Nadel gets his way. Is he or the National Youth Rights Association prepared to accept full responsibility for the safety of all the unsupervised kids after hours or is their attitude going to be "it's not our problem now" (which always seems to be the case) once they have won, and dump it all back on the City, its residents, its businesses and the parents (some of whom have sadly lost all control and authority over their children). Too many kids in this country go missing or get in trouble every year because of lack of supervision by the adults in their lives. Someone had to step in and take charge of this situation, and the City did. After much discussion and thought, the curfew was put in place. Jeffrey Nadel wants to undo everything that this City has done to make this downtown a safer community for the families to live in and enjoy.

There are plenty of meaningful causes that Nadel can find if he wishes to improve and enhance the lives of the teenagers. By taking on this particular one, he will just mess up something that seems to be working for everyone in this community. Where is his civic sense?