| Protesting the Curfew |
| das |
10:00 PM. That's the curfew for anyone 18 or younger here in San Diego. Recently, the previous curfew law was struck down by a federal judge, ruling it to be unconstitutional. The mayor, Susan Golding, set up an emergency law to retain the curfew, in a politically popular move to "protect the kids". What whores these politicians are.
Because the majority of San Diego sees people under 18 as inferior, laws were put into effect to mandate governmental persecution of this fearsome, unpopular, and obviously pseudo-human group of larvae. These laws are met by cheers of victory from both the left and the right. The left-wing nuts applaud the further degradation of our rights as American citizens, and the triumph over the free will of youth. The right-wing fanatics glorify the strengthening of ageist apartheid, and illusions of streets devoid of dangerous kids. The citizens enjoy their mass hallucinations, and call for even more bans on free will. Daytime loitering laws are now being proposed. Handgun bans. Dusk to dawn curfews. These oppressive laws will continue to encroach, unless they are protested.
This brings us back to San Diego.
Dave Doctor, Damien Sutherland, and many other members of the youth community have come together in opposition to the mayors new curfew law.
It began with my receipt of a message from Dave Doctor, spammed to a local Rave mailing list. He voiced that immediate action was needed if we want to preserve our rights. He proposed we have rallies every night from 10PM to midnight. The timing was ingenious. This is because what we were doing was not illegal. It was protected by our First Amendment rights. Any kid that was out past 10PM could simply tell a cop that they were going to, or coming from a political rally. A good way to protest a law is to legally cripple it. We found a way to do that. We have also found that people carrying a few flyers in their pocket can just declare to a harassing cop that they are distributing political material. This is protected by the First Amendment as well.
The rallies began at a great location. We were at a busy intersection, and a very popular hangout spot. We were just a block away from the beach. Across the street was a huge roller coaster, and the boardwalk.
The few days before the first rally were great. I stood around on street corners handing out flyers, and getting petitions signed. I would also give petition sheets to all of my friends, and they would get others to sign them.
A local news station called me, and asked if they could come over to my house and interview me. They asked things like "why are you doing this?" and "what do you expect to accomplish?" and "are you really going to be out there every night?". I was also constructing signs for protesters to hold up. They got a few shots of that.
The first night was very exciting. When I arrived, a news crew was already at the site. I met Dave Doctor in person for the first time. I was the main sign manufacturer, and I had quite a handful. We placed all the signs in the ground, gaining attention. At about 9:50, the first people showed up. A group of about 10 high school girls showed up. At ten o'clock, tons of people started pouring in. There were three local TV crews set up. They went live numerous times, and every time they did, the people would scream and shout, fighting for airtime. There were many magazine and newspaper writers there, with photographer counterparts. I was interviewed several times.
At the peak of the rally, there were probably about 100 people there. From across the street, it looked huge.
Now, we have been going for about two weeks. On the second to last consecutive night, No Time, a local ska band played. Although we were fully aware that it was illegal, we decided to have them amplify their music. We attracted about 175 people, just with the sight of a band setting up. The band got underway about 10 minutes after 10. Everybody was skankin around, and having a great time. A news crew showed up, and began setting up. The crowd grew, and everyone was real happy. Then, the cops showed up. They were pretty pissed, because they had harassed us the previous nights for making too much noise (what a stupid thing to say... we were across the street from a roller coaster and a busy intersection). They immediately shut the band down, and wrote them a citation. Fortunately, no one was arrested. However, I noticed that the number of police cars at the scene kept increasing at a peculiarly fast rate. When I counted, there were 12 cop cars! They brought some drug dogs, because someone was destroying the world and corrupting youth by smoking pot. Luckily, they didn't catch anyone. Then, the police started lining up, and they looked like they were going to unload on the crowd, or something. That was a little too scary for me. I decided that it would be better to avoid the weapon wielding cops, and observe from across the street. The cops just stood there for a long time, and nothing happened. I decided to take off, because I still felt that it was extremely dangerous to have so many armed, angry, tired cops in such a concentrated area being heckled by teenagers.
&n ve the goal of curfew-eradication!