Black and brown youth organizers breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday afternoon. A months-long debate over the controversial “snap curfew” ordinance had come to an end. An effort to override Mayor Brandon Johnson’s veto of the ordinance failed in a 27-22 vote during the Chicago City Council meeting; 34 yea votes were needed to overturn it.
“I’d say it’s a win for us,” said Nur Islem Hassan Khan, a 15-year-old youth organizer with Communities United. He came to today’s City Council meeting to stand in solidarity with Johnson, who answered his base’s call for a veto. “The curfew is not a good thing for us. It’s oppressive.”
Johnson’s veto marked the first time a mayor has used the executive power tool since 2006; back then, Mayor Richard M. Daley vetoed a City Council plan to require “big box” stores to pay employees a livable wage.
Hassan Khan, who’s Muslim, had concerns about the “snap curfew” ordinance which, if it had passed, would have allowed the Chicago Police superintendent to enact a curfew – at any time or place in the city – with a 30-minute notice. He said the ordinance was concerning for young Muslims like himself who participate in evening prayers known as Maghrib.
Although the ordinance included exemptions for minors running an errand for their parent or guardian, going home from work, and traveling to or from a ticketed or sponsored event or religious activity, Hassan Khan said he worried that police would racially profile him.
“If I’m not allowed to go out after 7:00 p.m., that stops me from performing my religious duties. This doesn’t look like religious attire, so they might assume I’m lying. I’m done after that,” he said, referring to the dark hoodies and jeans that he routinely wears.
GoodKids MadCity (GKMC) organizer Reynia Jackson, 20, expressed gratitude for Johnson and the alderpersons who listened to young people and voted against the “snap curfew.”
“He stood by us. He heard us. He saw how many young people were coming to the City Council,” Jackson said about the mayor. “So even seeing that so many young people were impacted enough to come out to show their support for him, and him continuously supporting us, no matter how much backlash he got because of that veto, I have so much gratitude.”
Jackson isn’t calling today’s outcome a total win, though. GKMC is still advocating for the full implementation of the Peace Book Ordinance, a violence prevention initiative that would create youth-led Neighborhood Peace Commissions and a peacekeepers program in communities most impacted by gun violence and police surveillance. They’ve been advocating for passage of the Peace Book since 2020.
“It’s a step closer to a win,” she said. “We’re still looking for the Peace Book to be passed,” Jackson said.
Through the city’s 2024 and 2025 budgets, Johnson has implemented a portion of the Peace Book by allocating funds to employ young people through GKMC’s peacekeepers program. This year, GKMC was able to employ 200 people, an increase from 100 in 2024; however, they had to turn away 1,000 young people who applied for the positions.
“This summer, we got our 200 jobs, but we’re looking to employ more people,” Jackson said. “It took so much organizing to finally be heard, to understand that criminalization shouldn’t be an option.”
Following today’s vote, Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward), the lead sponsor of the ordinance and chair of the council’s Public Safety Committee, said he still stands by his decision to push the legislation forward. He has said that the ordinance was a common-sense tool to prevent large teen gatherings known as “trends.”
“We fell short, but it was the right thing to do,” Hopkins told reporters.
The genesis of the ordinance began after two separate shootings occurred in March, which happened amid a “teen trend.” Hopkins initially proposed lowering the city’s existing curfew from 10:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. before pivoting to a “snap curfew” ordinance, which underwent three versions before today’s final vote.
There’s also been confusion surrounding Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling’s position on the ordinance. Previously, Hopkins stated that the “snap curfew” policing power was something Snelling had requested; however, WBEZ reported that Snelling told a federal judge during a court hearing that he wouldn’t use the “snap curfew” power.
“Because of this veto override failing, the police superintendent will be denied a very valuable tool that could stop these events once they start,” Hopkins said. “That’s really what this is about. It’s about preventing these violent events.”
He added that without the “snap curfew,” the only alternative police have is to make arrests. However, through Chicago’s existing curfew, fines of up to $500 or community service can be issued for curfew violations. Also, the “snap curfew” ordinance proposed fines of up to $250 and community service. Additionally, through the “snap curfew,” police would also have had the right to detain children if they couldn’t reach the child’s parent or guardian.
Johnson and other youth and legal advocates disagree with Hopkins, adding that it would have violated the rights of young people and opened the city up to potential lawsuits. Ahead of today’s meeting, Johnson hosted a press conference, standing firm on his decision to veto the “snap curfew” ordinance.
“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 families with severe repercussions, that somehow would make us safer,” Johnson said.“We know from years of doing the same old, tired forms of policy that it doesn’t get the results that people have longed for. It doesn’t keep us safe, and it doesn’t make our city stronger. Instead, today, we are doing the right thing. We are deciding to focus on investing in people.”
Youth organizers from groups such as GKMC, members of community-based organizations like the Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA), and more than a dozen alders from the Black and Progressive Caucuses, as well as members of the Community Commission for Public Safety & Accountability, stood in solidarity with Johnson on Wednesday.
He added that the city must lean into strategies and investments that have proven to work when it comes to addressing violence, such as adding more youth jobs and strategically deploying police officers to areas that experience high areas of crime. He credited those two measures as the reasons behind Chicago’s record lows in crime. He added that this year’s July 4th and Memorial Day holidays, in which city leaders typically anticipate upticks in violence, were the least violent in the last six years.
“I would do it all over again,” Johnson said about his veto. “I would do anything and everything necessary to protect the city’s young people.”
