Old Blog Jones

Hmm. Still looking through Pyrojection,

Hmm. Still looking through Pyrojection, and I came across something else: "Taking Back the Malls"

This one I'm a little less pleased with. Basically, a chain of malls has taken to imposing curfew policies on their teenage visitors, citing loud/abusive/harassing behavior. So, because of the few idiot gang members, anyone under the age of 16 has to be accompanied by an adult (21 years old or older) after 4 pm on Friday and Saturday.

Now, I'm 19, so this policy wouldn't apply to me, but I still don't like it. I understand the mall's desire to make the shopping experience more pleasant, but how would it go over to say something like, "Our demographic research indicates that black people are more likely to be in gangs, harass other mall customers, and shoplift. Therefore, after 4 pm on Friday and Saturdays, any black person at this mall has to be escorted by a white person."

You can just see the NAACP descending on the mall like hawks. The response would (quite reasonably) question why innocent people are being punished for other people's crimes. So, why should teenagers (like my little brother or his friends from school/church) have to have a 21 year old escort in the mall?

Punish the offenders, not everyone who is like the offender.