Greensboro, NC-- A Greensboro man is petitioning for a city-wide curfew after his home was vandalized, possibly by teenagers.
Last week, News 2 told you about an act of vandalism being investigated as a hate crime. A Greensboro man and his family found hateful words spray-painted on his garage door. Greensboro Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime because of a reference to "Jews." While they haven't made any arrests, police and neighbors think teens could be behind it.
Since finding those words on his garage, Mike Sussman started a petition for a new curfew ordinance in Greensboro. The old one expired in December. Sussman spoke with News 2's Liz Crawford about what he's trying to accomplish.
For one thing, the old ordinance only applied to the downtown district. There was no curfew for any other parts of Greensboro. Sussman wants to expand the curfew to the entire city, but also target a younger group with a curfew for those under age fifteen.
"We don't let them smoke, we don't let them drink, we don't let them watch movies that we don't think are okay, but we're going to allow them to run around at 3 o'clock in the morning with no supervision, that just doesn't seem to make any sense," Sussman told News 2.
Sussman is modeling his curfew proposal after the one currently in place in Charlotte. He hopes that enough support will grab the attention of city council. His interest sparked after his home was vandalized and Sussman questioned the responding officer about young people on the streets in the middle of the night.
Sussman said, "I was speaking with the officer, he said, well basically in Greensboro, we can't do anything when we see the kids out in the middle of the night unless we witness a crime."
News 2 did some research on North Carolina cities with curfews. Both Winston-Salem and High Point do not have curfews. Over in Raleigh, there's no curfew either. However, Charlotte does have a curfew targeting the same young teenagers Sussman hopes to keep off the streets.
Greensboro Police tell News 2, in the one year the last curfew was in place, there were only three charges. The police spokesperson couldn't comment on whether it was effective.
Mike Sussman is attending the Greensboro City Council meeting on Monday to propose his curfew petition.
WFMY News 2