Lopez presented the ordinance at Monday's City Council meeting, suggesting that parents and legal guardians should be held financially accountable for their children's criminal activities. The proposed law would criminalize parents who "willfully and/or knowingly allow a minor in their charge to engage in a host of offenses wreaking havoc on the quality of life in Chicago neighborhoods." The offenses include panhandling, underage and public drinking, cannabis use, curfew violations, and car-related misdemeanors such as 'climbing on' cars, street takeovers, and drag racing.
The ordinance also seeks to prohibit juveniles from being given or loaned paintball guns. It further forbids minors from begging, soliciting, or using social media to "abet or encourage" illegal activities. Parents found in violation of these rules would be compelled to attend "licensed family counseling" and pay a fine ranging from $1,000 to $5,000, contingent on the severity of the child's crimes.
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Lopez's ordinance asserts that parents "shall be held as responsible and accountable for the activity of said minor as if they committed the acts themselves." The alderman clarified that the objective of the ordinance is not merely to penalize parents but to "change behavior and to help parents so that they raise better children."
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Lopez is confident that the proposed law could put an end to street takeovers, drag racing, and other illegal activities that have become rampant in Chicago. "We have children who are out of control causing 90% of the problems," Lopez told the Chicago Sun-Times. He was prompted to introduce the legislation after witnessing a video on social media of a street takeover that resulted in a mob trapping a Tesla. The video showed the driver frantically trying to escape as youths pounded on the vehicle.
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"Hundreds of kids took over an intersection and began jumping on passersby trying to escape the madness," Lopez recounted. "These teens have jumped on buses. They've jumped on cars — not just downtown, but in the neighborhoods. And we have no real recourse."
In a social media post about the street takeover, Lopez lamented, "Our laws are weak when it comes to stopping takeovers because we are afraid to hurt people's feelings by holding them accountable."
Earlier this month, Lopez criticized "socialists" and "ultra progressives" for allowing crime to escalate. "Common sense requires us to start standing up and pushing back on the criminality in our neighborhoods, to start holding people and parents accountable, because oftentimes these are 12-, 13-, 14-year-olds who are engaging in this behavior, such as the armed carjacking that is so rampant in the city of Chicago," Lopez stated.
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