Stop the ACLU!

From Gribbit:


Why Isn’t A Town Enforcing Their Law? – The ACLU

The ACLU is watching a small town in western Pennsylvania because of its curfew law.  Each night at 9:45 pm the Trafford fire station blows its alert sirens to alert teens and other children that the curfew is fast approaching.  All persons under the age of 18 are to be home by 10:00 pm according to local law.  But with the ACLU looking over their shoulder, the town has been reluctant to enforce their law.

This stems from one child.  Again it is the needs of the one trumping the needs of the many.  Mr. Spock wouldn’t agree with this total lack of logic but that is the principle that the ACLU operates under.

Under threat of lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, it appears the borough has backed off its curfew ordinance. Neither Mayor Kevin Karazsia nor solicitor Bill Ferraro would confirm or deny if the long-time curfew ordinance is being enforced — but this much is certain: In December, the ACLU contacted Ferraro after the Toocheck family complained to the organization. Attorney David Millstein, a volunteer at the ACLU who handled the case, said as far as he knows the ordinance is not being enforced. If he learns otherwise, he said, the ACLU will sue. Craig Toocheck contacted the organization after one of his sons was cited a second time under the Trafford curfew ordinance. The first incident occurred last summer when the boy, then 15, walked to the 7-11 without his parents’ permission around midnight. Craig Toocheck was asleep in bed when a police officer brought his son to the door. Surprised that his son had gone in search of a Slurpee without informing him, Toocheck agreed to pay the $73 fine and grounded his son — an active Boy Scout who posted a 4.11 grade point average on his last Penn-Trafford report card — for two weeks. The second incident occurred last August when the boy was watching a pre-season Steelers game at a friend’s house. At half-time — and with his parents permission — he left to walk home. The time was 10 minutes after curfew. Craig Toocheck said his son was a half block from his home on Edgewood Avenue when he was picked up by police. A week later, a fine for $98 was in the Toocheck mailbox. Millstein called the fine and the curfew ridiculous. “The whole thing was unconstitutional,” he said. “There’s no question about it.” The curfew violates one of the rights in the First Amendment — the freedom of assembly, Millstein said. “To impose a curfew on a person just because they’re a juvenile… It’s just not constitutional.” Toocheck said the curfew also violates the Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and 14th Amendments — which protect against deprivation of liberty without due process of law and includes the right to travel.  SOURCE

Ok, let me get this straight, the ACLU is claiming that a reasonable curfew of 10:00 pm for what we can all agree are minor children  violates the 4th, 5th, 9th, and 14th Amendments?  How absurd.  Next you will be telling me that a 9 year old has the right to buy a semi-automatic handgun provided they are willing to wait the required waiting period.  I won’t hold my breath on that one but it falls in line with the same logic.

Here are the facts folks:

   

  • Children under the age of 18 are just that – CHILDREN.  And are subject to the regulations that the home and society puts on them.
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  • Persons under the age of 18 (CHILDREN) cannot legally marry without consent.
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  • Children cannot own guns, securities, land, vote, and are not subject to taxation all because of their age.
  • At which point do we throw caution to the wind and teach youngsters the meaning of law and order?  If children are subjected to the same freedoms that adults enjoy, then why is it that no one is standing in line to represent children who are forced to live under their parents’ regulations as false imprisonment?  After all, a responsible parent would restrict where and when a child can travel outside of the home right?

    If you leave children alone for any amount of time, their inner demons will get the better of them and trouble usually follows.  As someone who lives with 2 teenage boys, I can tell you that if left to their devices there would be holes in the walls, broken fixtures, parties 24/7 where all kinds of unspeakable activities would be occurring, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.  Teenage children often times need to be restricted more than younger children.

    The ACLU will stop at nothing to remove all barriers to free will in order to create chaos.  Once that is achieved they will swoop in utilizing their dupes in black vestments to create laws restricting all liberties to restore order and a Communist state will be born.

    The needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few or the one.  In this case the needs of Trafford to be safe and secure in their community without an unchecked unregulated youth population roaming the streets causing trouble at all times of the night out weight any presumption that a minor child has to Constitutional rights to travel.  And if I remember right, there is no such right in the 4th, 5th, 9th, or 14th Amendments.

    The ACLU needs to allow local governments decide what is best for the citizens of their locality.  The beautiful thing about a representative democracy, if you don’t like the decisions being made on your behalf, you can vote the decision maker out of office.  Hence the terms government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

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    N.B. While I’m not in complete agreement with Gribbit’s latter comments (I raised two teenagers, and can testify that I know of one time when they were mostly unsupervised for a whole month, for perfectly good reasons, and they were very responsible people during that time. Ages? 15 and 17. BUT, whether teenagers in general are or are not well-behaved (something that it is entirely the responsibility of the parents to ensure by raising them well before they reach that age), is not the point here, nor is the serious point that the ACLU will sweep in with “men in black” to rip our freedoms away. No, the point as far as I’m concerned is the twisting of Constitutional provisions into something they are not, thus weakening the fabric of the Constitution even further and not coincidentally weakening the fabric of society at the same time.

    Recommended Reading

    Over at TMH’s Bacon Bits, DL has a post, “Conservatives Asking: Which Face Now?”, that I consider a “must read” for anyone who needs a reminder of the political dilemma facing responsible voters in upcoming elections. In it he makes mention of disaffectation among the Rpublican Paty faithful.

    Loyalty is a two way street. The party faithful can only maintain faith with the party when the party leaders maintain faith with them.

    BTW, “faith” entered the English language from Norman French. It was a term explicitly used to denote fealty relationships. relationships that required two-way loyalty. even more interesting is that “belief” came to English through a Celtic/Anglo linguistic journey. “Lief-an” was the relationship between a Celtic chieftan/leader and his people denoting much the same two-way loyalty that faith’s French journey into English followed. (The Anglic intensifier “be” was added much later as “lief-an” became pejorated to denote the highest form of lief-an.) The history of both these words was strongly reflected in their contemporary meanings at the times Wycliffe, Coverdale and later the KJV translators used them to translate verb and noun forms of “pisteuo” which—in first century Koine—held the same meanings of bilateral loyalty. Or, to use a more current idiom from the military, loyalty up the chain of command is only as strong as loyalty down the chain of command.

    In fact, one of the fundamental principles of Christianity has remained that we are only able to be faithful to God because of His faithfulness to us. Our faith in Him is a gift from him. The best of feudal rulers understood this and that’s where the concept of noblesse oblige came from: to whom much is given (wealth, power, prestige, etc.), much shall be required in return.

    Our current political elite—of both major parties—have no such understandings of faithfulness, responsibility, obligations. To the leaders of both parties, political power is more important than doing what is right and just and good. The representative republic handed us by the Founders has become a kakistocratic kleptocracy.

    And “we the people” are to blame.

    The Tree of Liberty is getting mighty thirsty…