City Council Public Safety Committee to weigh change to teen curfew; it turns out Mayor Lightfoot can't make change herself
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Mayor Lori Lightfoot's plan to prevent large group chaos and violence in the Loop, like what was seen last weekend, has hit a snag.
It turns out the mayor cannot just change the curfew by an executive order. So the City Council's Public Safety Committee will consider the change during a meeting Friday morning.
The mayor wants to expand curfew on Fridays and Saturdays for anyone under 18 – making it illegal for them to be on the streets past 10 p.m. The curfew is usually 11 p.m. on weekends; it is already 10 p.m. from Sunday night through Thursday night.
Civil rights groups have blasted Mayor Lightfoot's executive order as a "power grab."
The mayhem in Millennium Park Saturday evening resulted in the murder of 16-year-old Seandell Holliday right outside the iconic Cloud Gate sculpture, or The Bean. It later spilled into other areas of downtown Chicago – fights were seen outside the Chase Tower, at Dearborn and Adams streets, and numerous other sites.
Mayor Lightfoot this week also announced she is banning unaccompanied minors from visiting Millennium Park after 6 p.m. from Thursday through Sunday – effective this coming Thursday.