For Your… Protection?

(Curfew): 1. a regulation requiring certain or all people to leave the streets or be at home at a prescribed hour.

Anyone who has read George Orwell’s 1984 knows that words like the aforementioned are designed to restrict the liberties of citizens and a way of ruling by fear. The Gestapo and SS employed such tactics to suppress the populace throughout the Third Reich. During WW2 London had a curfew on the streets to keep people safe from the blitz. Northern Ireland had colour coded curfews in areas that were potential hotspots for sectarian violence during the troubles. Curfews are obviously only needed during times of extreme danger to the population of an area. So why is there a facebook group lobbying something called the Aberdeen Curfew?

As of September 2009 licensed premises throughout the city will not be allowed to admit anyone after half past midnight. Police presence in the city centre will also be increased. The proposal was first raised in a letter to the licensing board from Russell McLeod, Chairman of ATG, Aberdeen Taxi Group, in 2006 after a meeting of the ATG. The letter explains how the discussion turned to issues of general public safety. “One of the main problems in the city centre at weekends is the sheer volume of people who all converge onto the union street area at 3am, 20,000 is the police estimate”. The letter suggests a way of controlling numbers.

A curfew on nightclubs. Mr McLeod goes on to explain that other cities have introduced curfews in the UK and it has helped to “Considerably reduce flashpoints”. People queuing at taxi ranks and fast food shops who have been drinking often engage each other in drunken skirmishes, the letter explains. If the curfew came to exist it would give “More chance for police to patrol and control” and to reduce potential “flashpoints”.

Public safety is obviously high up on the tax payer’s agenda and as such the police and licensing board work together to minimize the dangers of alcohol to the general public. It’s understandable what the authorities are trying to achieve, however in my opinion it will not go down well or work the way they hope. Let’s look at this logically. Drunk people have all the worst qualities of toddlers.

Demanding, selfish, greedy and confrontational, is it really a good idea to tell them no? People who have dressed up in their expensive single use clothes, done their hair, splashed some designer scent on themselves in the hope of pulling and then splashed out on inner city drink prices at their favourite bar only to be told, at the interlude, at the door of the club that they are too late to be allowed in. They can hear the music blaring away, they can see people smoking outside the club, but it is thirty two minutes past midnight, so they are banned from finishing their night.

People would be angry, their night has been ended prematurely by a bouncer telling them no. Queues outside nightclubs would be packed from the clubs opening time until the curfew bell tolls. Police want to control and reduce “flashpoints”; they will create them outside every club, chippy and taxi rank in the city.

The disadvantages don’t end with surly drunkards roaming the streets spoiling the city centre at night for others though. Club’s business will suffer. Far less people will be admitted, so fewer drinks will be sold and very quickly the clubs will lose money and be forced to make cutbacks. The evening express estimate it will cost the city two hundred jobs over a year. In the initial stages of a recession this is not only unwise, it is unacceptable and unreasonable.

The pressure group Stop the Curfew has launched a petition online and has already had more than 3500 signatures from people in the Aberdeen area. They argue that the curfew will have a “detrimental” effect on the late night economy. “Will the city continue to attract young visitors and students, if there is little or no nightlife?”
The question people have to ask themselves in our silver city is; can we allow our council to undemocratically make a decision with such real and dangerous consequences? With a recession in full swing, unemployment at a record high in over ten years people will surely soon give their answer.