Mayor Brandon Johnson on Wednesday celebrated his veto of an ordinance that would give Chicago’s police superintendent the power to declare a teen curfew anytime, anywhere throughout the city, as supporters of the measure were set to try to override him.
Johnson held a City Hall event Wednesday morning to blast the proposal aimed at curbing so-called “teen takeover” events as “the same old tired forms of policy.” He was flanked by what appeared to be enough aldermen to permanently block the measure by preventing the City Council from achieving the two-thirds vote needed to trump his veto.
“The easy thing to do would be to play into the political theater of safety. The easy thing to do would be to tell people that if we threaten young people and their families with severe repercussions, that that somehow will make us safer,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t make us safe and it doesn’t make our city stronger.”
The ordinance’s sponsor, Ald. Brain Hopkins, said Wednesday morning some aldermen are reconsidering their positions on the ordinance. He remained hopeful he would reach the 34-vote majority needed to override Johnson later in the day.
Johnson touted his efforts to expand the city’s summer jobs program for young people, an effort he allocated millions more dollars to this year. The number of teens working city-funded summer jobs has increased 45% since the start of his administration, Johnson said, though Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s pre-pandemic version of the program featured more total jobs.
“Today we are doing the right thing. We are deciding to focus on investing in people,” he said.
The City Council voted 27 to 22 last month to pass the ordinance after months of political wrangling. But Johnson quickly vetoed the measure he called “counterproductive” to addressing crime, becoming the first mayor to issue a veto since 2006.
Hopkins said Wednesday he has urged aldermen to proceed with the vote without more prolonged debate at the council meeting.
“We’ve done that ad nauseam,” Hopkins, 2nd, said. “Let’s just get the roll call and see where we’re at.”
But Johnson’s aldermanic allies were confident they had more than the 17 votes needed to uphold the veto and finally defeat the curfew ordinance. The 19-member Progressive Caucus remains firmly opposed to the curfew, co-chair Ald. Maria Hadden said Wednesday morning.
Hopkins revived his push for a teen curfew, first launched last year after a teen gathering ended in violence, when two more such gatherings in March ended in high-profile shootings. Civil rights groups criticized the effort, arguing it violated teen’s rights to block them from gathering.
Chicago already has a citywide 10 p.m. teen curfew that has been in place for decades. The Hopkins measure would give police Superintendent Larry Snelling and future superintendents the power to declare curfews with as little as 30-minutes spot notice, though Snelling has said he would only use the power to declare curfews days in advance when social media posts suggest a large teen gathering will take place.
Johnson at times wavered as different versions of the ordinance came and went in the leadup to the June vote, but consistently doubted the need for such a curfew, citing a decline in violent crime this year and his police department’s efforts to prevent and stop gatherings using existing law.
But the mayor finally took a clear stance on the issue when Hopkins decided only the superintendent would get final say on a curfew in the version of the ordinance he ultimately advanced.
“If I was sent back in time and tested with this ordinance, I would do it all over again,” Johnson said Wednesday. “I would do anything and everything to protect our young people.”