ACLU calls for an end to curfews around the Bay Area

ACLU against curfews

Shilpi Agarwal, senior staff attorney at the ACLU, explains why her organization maintains broad curfews are dangerous.

OAKLAND, Calif. (KTVU) - The American Civil Liberties Union is pushing back against curfews being imposed across the Bay Area and beyond.

The ACLU said the measures are dangerous and the wrong way to handle disruptions at protests that started out as peaceful.

"By making presence in public streets anywhere in these cities unlawful, these measures give police too much discretion over whom to arrest and will lead to selective and biased enforcement and risk harassment of people who are unhoused," the organization said in a statement. "These measures will only repeat the very problems that our communities are protesting."

"They are vague. They are broad. We don't know how long they are going to last," Agarwal said. "Folks don't know whether they can leave their homes to walk their dogs, to go take care of family members."

She said that a woman was reportedly arrested under the curfew while going to get feminine hygiene products.

Some people fear that the curfews will only perpetuate the very injustices communities are protesting against, like police brutality.

"These curfew laws give a lot of discretion to the police. And we've seen what happens when we give too much discretion to the police. It leads to the harassment, to the over-policing and in tragic circumstances, the death of the black and brown members of our communities."