With So Many Huge Fights, Does Erie County Have A Curfew For Minors?

Lately, there have been many massive fights in Western New York. These fights usually involve teens. Lots of these fights have happened at night. Does Erie County have a curfew, which might help stop some of the night fights?

Huge Fight Involving Teens On Elmwood Avenue In Kenmore NY

Credit: WGRZ

WGRZ is reporting that a huge group of teens leaving a house party got into a brawl on Friday, March 31, 2023. The fight apparently happened near Lincoln and Elmwood in Kenmore. Police told Channel 2 that around 200 teens were leaving the party around 10:30 pm. Police showed up to disperse the crowd, and a smaller group of teens fought. Officers had to use pepper spray to break up the brawl. Unfortunately, this seems to be happening more and more frequently in the Buffalo area.

Massive Fight Involving Over 100 Kids In Downtown Buffalo [Video]

More than 100 young people were involved in a fight in the theater district in downtown Buffalo recently. The video was posted to Twitter on Saturday, March 11, 2023. It was recorded outside of the AMC Market Arcade 8, located at 639 Main Street. According to WKBW, multiple Buffalo Police units from multiple districts responded. Based on what the people are saying in the video, there appear to have been multiple fights, with a huge one taking place as the person is filming. Thankfully, there are no reports of injuries. No one was arrested. (Around 1:32 mark, you can see police running towards another huge brawl)

Fighting among the youth in downtown has also forced the library to change its hours.

Downtown Buffalo Library Changes Hours Due To Increase In Fights

Due to unfortunate circumstances, the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library's downtown branch will now close early due to fighting. The library has made the decision to cut its hours short because of safety concerns.

The Library has since gone back to its regular hours.

60 Teens Involved In Fight At Buffalo Mall

Huge Brawl Caught On Video At Buffalo High School

At the beginning of this year, a Buffalo High School was back in the spotlight again after a huge fight. It was described to WKBW Channel 7 as an "insurrection." Cell phone video captured the brawl, which took place inside McKinley High School in Buffalo on Thursday, January 19, 2023. The removal of the current principal, Moustafa Khalik, was approved by the Buffalo School Board at its session Wednesday evening. Andrea Augello, English teacher, and Buffalo Teachers Federation delegate told WKBW that 44 of 46 McKinley teachers want him to remain as the principal "because they believe he's making a difference."

Buffalo Public Schools issued a statement:

This district was informed of today's incident, and it was taken very seriously. The matter was responded to swiftly and appropriately. Extra support was provided and remained at dismissal to assure that the matter remained de-escalated.

Does Erie County Have A Curfew That Would Require Parents To Keep Their Teens At Home?

At one point, 30 years ago, the Erie County Legislature did in fact renew a curfew law on May 1, 1997,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED That the Erie County Legislature does hereby renew its commitment to the Juvenile Youth Curfew Project, recognizing the many successes of ·the program in the ·time of its existence and its desire to expand to provide additional services and to serve even more at risk youth.

This youth curfew law stated that,

children 16 years of age or under unaccompanied by a parent or guardian must be indoors and off city streets from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., except on Friday and Saturday when the hours are midnight to 5 a.m

While I cannot find anything that states this youth curfew law is still in effect in Erie County, the City of Buffalo also had an active curfew in 2009 for youth according to 411 New York,

The City of Buffalo has instituted a curfew on those who are sixteen (16) and under between Sunday through Thursday from 11:00 PM to 5:00 AM and Friday through Saturday from 12:00 AM to 5:00 AM. If you are caught by the Buffalo Police Department, you will be asked for identification then sent home or to the District House. Guardians could also be fined up to US$200.00 in fines.

It seems, through my searches, that the youth curfews that were once in place have expired for both Erie County and the City of Buffalo. At this point, I'm not sure the current Buffalo curfew would help since many of these fights happened at night, but before the curfew went into effect.