A Curfew for City Kids Under 18

I apologize for forfeiting Round 4, which I was loathe to do but had to because of a family emergency. I will take Round 5 to make a quick summary of my points, as I am not sure exactly what it is for. Protection From Danger I believe that it is ultimately up to the child to make the right decision regarding wandering around at night. I'm sure we can all agree that roaming a city at night isn't a very wise decision, but children should learn or be told that it is unwise. Of course it's not safe for children to be involved in muggings; children shouldn't be involved in crime at all if it can be avoided. However, I believe in freedom. Most children at a young age should not be wandering around at night, and if they are older they should have the right to be out at night if they want to. Sure, it's probably a stupid idea, sure it might be a risk, but if they want to they should be allowed to. Almost anything can be dangerous, but people should still be allowed to choose what they want to do, within the law. Of course some decisions are obviously better than others, but having the right to choose rather than being dictated what you must do is the difference between Freedom and Totalitarianism. Also, if the police can't stop all the crime going on at night, I again doubt their ability to catch children breaking curfew. Protecting Others I fully agree with my opponent that if a murderer is wandering around uncaught, a police officer out at night keeping a look out would be a very prudent supplement. However, Pro confuses me by saying that the example he himself provided earlier in the debate (middle school murderer)is not relevant. I fully support punishing people who commit crimes, but as my opponent said "if punishment is enforced upon them, I have no doubt that they would stop. ". Punishing people for their crimes should cause less crime, and people should be punished for crimes rather than being out too late. Just because some people can't handle being out late responsibly doesn't mean that every person below the age of eighteen should suffer for it. Also, crimes can occur other times than the night. I believe that rather than waste money and effort enforcing a curfew with little benefit, we should better spend resources to counter the infractions that inspired the curfew in the first place. By eliminating those crimes, the curfew will be even more useless than it is now. Surely if those far worse crimes cannot be stopped, the curfew will have little ability to be enforced. No Reason for it My example referred to people who worked a night shift, getting little sleep while still taking classes in order to help their family. Some of those people had to be out at night to work a night shift (I apologize for my ambiguity). Of course it might not have been good for them to be out at night, but they had to be for the sake of their family and themselves. My opponent also says "If a teen drinks alcohol it's illegal, therefore they should not be on the street. ". That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, and the only conclusion I can draw from that is that my opponent's thought processes operate on a level so above mine that a connection I cannot even draw is a mere inference for them. The comparison my opponent drew to alcohol drinking is relevant, but many people have questioned the logic of such arbitrary regulations. As a certain one said, "So when you turn 21, you automatically become wise, clever, and responsible enough to drink alcohol. " (He was being sarcastic, I have to spell this out because sarcasm sometimes doesn't translate through text). Basically, we should not create new laws following an old and somewhat dated model used in the past. In short, I believe in Freedom. I believe that people should have the Freedom to do as they choose, within reason. While they are children, children are under their parent's jurisdiction, but within that and the law they should have Freedom. Hedging them in to certain arbitrarily decided times with illogically set ages is not likely to prove beneficial in the slightest.