Silver Spring Curfew Proposed

Just as Live Nation is putting the finishing touches on The Fillmore in Silver Spring, Md., city and Montgomery County officials are considering whether to slap a curfew on the town’s teens in the aftermath of a melee that included gang members who arrived by mass transit.

The July 1 incident involved more than 80 people, according to the Washington Post, including gang members who arrived by bus and Metrolink train service for what police called a “flash-mob fight” advertised on the Internet.

Fights broke out over a two-hour period in downtown Silver Spring, formerly a fairly desolate area but quickly springing to life with its development as a vibrant arts and entertainment district. Police were called at about 10:30 p.m. and order was finally restored at 2:30 a.m., according to the Post.

Law enforcement and local businesspeople support a curfew as a tool for police to have handy when youthful exuberance threatens to break out into something a bit more intimidating to visitors.

With The Fillmore concert venue and a new transit center under construction, local officials fear the open-air district will attract “thousands more people,” Montgomery County city council president Valerie Ervin said during a July 26 public hearing. “Now we’ve created this space that’s known to youth in all jurisdictions,” she said, but “people really do not feel safe any longer.”

The curfew, proposed by county exec Isiah Leggett, would cover those under 18 years of age and be enforceable after 11 p.m. weeknights and midnight Fridays and Saturdays. Violators could be required to perform community service and parents could be forced into parenting classes, according to the Post.

Some city council members and several teenagers who attended the hearing voiced reservations about the necessity of a curfew. But all apparently acknowledge that with the completion of the downtown Silver Spring project, the city must maintain a minimum of security for visitors.

“We put a lot of investment and time in Silver Spring,” former county exec Doug Duncan told the council. “We can’t just walk away and say, ‘We’re done.’ … We have to make sure people feel safe.”

Police tried to assure the council and well-behaved teenagers that the curfew would allow them to break up fights and send stragglers on their way if trouble appeared to be brewing.

“We’re not going to be backing up the prisoner transport van to the back of the Majestic Theater [and say]’ ‘Hey all you kids coming out of the Harry Potter movie, everybody under 18, in the back of the wagon,’” county police Lt. Robert Carter was quoted by the Post. “We’re trying to enact a curfew law so that when we do have trouble, or we see trouble on the horizon, we can stop it.”