Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser sent a letter to the D.C. Council criticizing progressive mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George and other council members who refused to back a plan to extend the city’s teen curfew this summer.Lewis George, one of the members resisting the curfew, is a leading candidate in the district’s June 16 Democratic primary for mayor. Bowser announced in November that she would not seek a fourth term. Her letter is the latest episode in an ongoing saga playing out in the D.C. Council over the curfew.“I am greatly disappointed that five members of Council are essentially obstructing the council from moving forward on this important public safety legislation,” Bowser wrote. “Councilmembers Janeese Lewis George, Trayon White, Robert White, Brianne Nadeau, and Zachary Parker have refused to let the emergency declaration pass despite the majority of members supporting the permanent and emergency versions of this bill.”
The council voted 8-5 in April to extend the city’s youth curfew permanently, though they tabled another measure that would have enabled immediate enforcement. The council’s inaction on the enforcement measure means the curfew will not go into effect until mid-July, pending congressional review. Emergency legislation that would allow enforcement in the meantime requires nine votes.
