Thread: Police Insanity - Cops Arrest Kids Before Curfew

Police state insanity: teens arrested while waiting for parents in OKC curfew sweep

Thursday, July 21, 2011
Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
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Last Saturday, around 20 teenagers were arrested for alleged curfew violations in front of a local movie theater. However, this action flies in the face of the law, no matter how it is interpreted.

The city’s curfew statute sets the curfew at 11 PM, which was 20 minutes later than when the teens were rounded up like common criminals and taken to jail. The statute also allows for children to wait for rides from parents after attending a movie, even if it is after curfew, which, incidentally, was not the case here.

Some of the teens who had been attending a movie with adult supervision were also arrested while waiting for the adults to return with their car.

One pair of teenage girls were told to shut up when they attempted to explain that they had just been let out of a movie and were waiting in front of the theater while their mother pulled the car around. The teens were never asked if they were there to see a movie, which would be acceptable under the city’s statute.

One mother told NewsOK that the thuggish police officers would not listen when her children pointed out their mother’s car waiting for them, which had been there minutes before the curfew time of 11.

The mother, Valenthia Doolin, said that they “felt violated, harassed and frightened at the hands of Oklahoma City law enforcement.â€

Oklahoma City parents complain police wrongly rounded up teenagers in Bricktown

Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty said some of the complaints parents made after a curfew sweep Saturday night were valid.

BY BRYAN DEAN bdean@opubco.com Oklahoman
July 20, 2011

Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty agreed Tuesday his officers made mistakes Saturday when they rounded up about 20 teenagers on curfew violations in front of the Harkins Bricktown Cinema and hauled them away in what one parent described as a “paddy wagon.â€