Adviser claims backing for curfew

A Pacific Islands leader says Samoan parents would support a curfew banning young people from Manukau streets after midnight, even though the idea has been rejected by the police.
Savea Al Harrington, a justice and youth adviser to the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs and a talkback host on the national radio station the Voice of Samoa, has suggested a city bylaw making it illegal for young people to be on the streets between midnight and 6am.

He said at the launch of a Family Violence Awareness Week in Manukau yesterday that Pacific families would support a curfew after a spate of teenage gang violence which culminated in a man's death at Labour weekend.

"I put it through the radio and it seems like 90 per cent of the callers would love to see it."

Mr Harrington said the ministry had not taken a position on the proposal. It was contacting Pacific Island pastors in Manukau to ask them to help the young get into work or training.

But Counties-Manukau police spokeswoman Angeline Barlow said the police did not believe a curfew would be enforceable in a large city.

"In a small town where there are five streets and that's it, it's possible," she said.

Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis said he had also dropped the idea of a curfew, after considering it a fortnight ago as one of the options.

"The vast majority of young people are working hard at school or at the Manukau Institute of Technology or elsewhere. They play sport for their school and are involved in activities such as Boys' Brigade, Boy Scouts or Girl Guides.

"A curfew would seriously inconvenience ... the vast majority of young people."