A new 3:00 PM curfew for juveniles goes into effect today at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. The controversial new policy comes in response to juvenile crime at the popular retail center, primarily in the forms of shoplifting, assault, and robbery. All patrons under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian after 3:00 PM, seven days a week. That adult will be held responsible for any crimes committed by the minors under their supervision at the mall.
The policy essentially ends the American pastime of teens hanging out at malls after school, and at night, at Westfield's Montgomery and Wheaton Plaza malls. This past Saturday night, teens crowded into Montgomery Mall's Dining Terrace food court, the last to enjoy a rite of passage of a Saturday night at the mall. In a sign of what brought us to this point, however, Montgomery County police officers were seen rushing to respond to a crime in progress at Champs Sports.
3 comments:
What are the details of the Champs Sports call, Robert? Were suspects identified as juveniles?
That should effectively shutter a good chunk of the stalls at the food court, other than McDonalds, Panda Express, and maybe Shake Shack, the gustatory equivalent of cockroaches, able to survive whatever apocalypse they encounter. None of the other places look like they have been beating back crowds. Ban what looks like 3/4 of the customers you'd see in the food court on a given afternoon or evening and the mall maintenance staff should soon be busy hanging "Exciting new tastes! Coming soon" signs all over the place. Small food operators will go out of business because their customer base is going to be strangled by this Westfield decision.
This is such an example of liberal logic. Don't enforce laws already on the books and then look like a deer in the headlights when crime escalates, all while mouthpieces scream everything is fine, nothing to see here.
There is a reason why merchants are locking up toothpaste behind plexiglass. McCarthy and the council refuse to do their job.
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