PUBLIC FORUM : L.A. CURFEW ENFORCEMENT RECEIVES MIXED REVIEWS.

Throughout Los Angeles, community members have asked for enforcement of the citywide curfew. In response to these requests, the Police Commission and the Mayor's Office worked with citizens to create plans for stricter enforcement.

For some reason, the City Council dragged its heels, leaving many of us to wonder if curfew enforcement would ever hit the streets.

Fortunately, the endless hue and cry from our council members about ``civil liberties'' has ended and the council has gotten on with the program.

Now that curfew enforcement is ready to begin, I'd like to thank Edith Perez and the rest of the Police Commission for making sure that ``curfew'' is more than just a word in a forgotten city ordinance.

- Armen S. Martin

Encino

Curfew laws do more harm than good. They send the message that children are not responsible and are not to be trusted. This may be true of a few miscreants, but why contaminate whole generations of youngsters by teaching them to resent their parents as well as adults, to be subversive, secretive and deceitful? Why teach them to mistrust, resent and run away from law enforcement? These are not the values of well-adjusted, confident and honest citizens.

While I agree with the City Council's and the Police Department's concern over this type of crime (Daily News, June 27), I disagree with their remedy. Local laws may not and must not violate basic rights.

Juveniles who violate the property rights of others must be appropriately apprehended and dealt with as the law provides. Unfortunately, real juvenile lawbreakers usually find ways to avoid being caught. That's the challenge for law enforcement.

There certainly will be no inroads made against juvenile crime in our city if police officers are taken out of service in order to bring law-abiding kids home at night, instead of patrolling for the real youth criminals.

- Bruce Acker

Chatsworth

I am 21. I just don't see why it is that we are all looking at the curfew being enforced as having this much relevance to the real problem.

Do we actually believe that the curfew will get rid of gang violence and other problems that occur during the late hours? Our problems stem from the parents of these minors, so why not focus a little more on them?

Parents need to start instilling some good old-fashioned morals and values in their children, giving them a sense of accomplishment and supporting them. Society as a whole needs to focus on the issues that will help children to realize the benefits of education and good moral judgment.

To many people, being a parent means collecting a check from good old Uncle Sam.

Parents need to wake up and set a good example for their children. Then we wouldn't even be hearing about issues so ridiculous as this.

- Shannon Carlisi

Calabasas

The curfew law has been in existence for at least 40 years. When did police stop citing minors?

Give these minors some activity. Keep them busy. They need not be out after 10 p.m. Crime will go down.

- Dorothy Vanek

Van Nuys

If the parents let the children go out in the first place, what good would it do to have the children, when picked up and registered, returned to parents who didn't care where their kids were at that hour?

What a big joke.

- Mary M. Gainer

Glendale

The idea of citywide enforcement of a 10 p.m. curfew for minors, ``unless they have a legitimate reason'' to be out later, violates the American principle of a government based on the inherent worth of the individual. The spirit behind this curfew enforcement is not based on the principle of the inherent worth of individuals who are innocent until proved guilty, but on the totalitarian concept of individual worthlessness in which citizens are guilty until proven innocent, and in which ``officials'' decide what is legitimate and what is not legitimate.

The City Council and the Police Department already have in place what they need to have in order to deal with people - of whatever age - who steal, vandalize, assault and murder. We don't need a generic criminalization of the young.

- Joan Jaeckel

Encino

Being a Los Angeles teen who fully appreciates the value of being young, I am infuriated and resentful of the sickening curfew law, which does no justice to teens. I find this law to be oppressive and quite typical of a society that values its security and private property over life and experience.

The evening is the great time; you're going to tell teens they can't experience it?

Who do they think they are?

- Nick St. George

Northridge

I think they should be in by 8 p.m. in the summer and 5 p.m. in the winter, but I will give you 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.

There should be no excuse after 10 p.m., unless they are with their parents - not with an older brother or sister as that would lead to them getting in trouble and the sibling stating, ``I told them not to do it.'' If this teen-ager is out after 10 p.m., the fine should be $500 and the parents should be made to do community service on the weekend.

This could be cured if we put 10,000 more police out there and let them enforce the rules made by the taxpayers.

- Edward Elks

Panorama City

As a 17-year-old Granada Hills resident and a fairly frequent late-night traveler, this much I can tell you: no curfew, no law can ever undermine the strength of a teen-ager's will. All such a law can do is cause further disobedience and rebelliousness.

I personally feel that no one but my parents can set down a specific time that I need to be at home. It's important that a parent's right to set rules is respected, particularly by the government. Otherwise, it seems, all parental rules may become obsolete according to what our government wants.

This curfew law is a small but very strong example of what makes teen-agers feel trapped and limited.

- Brian R. Harris

Granada Hills

Why not have a curfew for children, because that's what they are: children.

They don't know how to act like young adults. When we were their age, we had curfews and obeyed them, and we are a lot better off.

I just recently came back from a trip across country, and one town I stayed in set off a siren at 8, 9 and 10 p.m., for different age groups, and then police patrolled the streets. Their crime rate is less than one-half of 1 percent, and no drugs.

Come on, parents: When are you going to wake up and take control of things back?

- Mas Kurakusu

North Hollywood

The curfew for minors, unfortunately, seems to be very appropriate. It is, in reality, a violation of the minor's rights as written in the Constitution.

However, since many of the minors in question have abused many laws by engaging in illegal activities, such as graffiti and gang violence, the curfew is very appropriate.

The real crime is their lack of parental supervision and guidance.

- Val McIntosh

Van Nuys

It has been said that children are our future. What kind of message is this curfew sending to our future? It is a message of a complete lack of trust, of ``guilty until proven innocent.''

Why not educate children in order to stop the problem of teen-age crime before it starts, instead of simply trying to control both children and their parents? And why punish the thousands of innocent children who can now no longer harmlessly have a good time outside of their homes?

- Jen Hill

North Hollywood

Critic rebutted

In her piece, ``A strict curfew isn't the answer for our children'' (Viewpoint, June 30), Janet Bernson tries to explain how a curfew is not in the best interests of our children. She fails in this.

The reason for a curfew is not to punish kids, as Bernson implies. It is to keep kids from turning to destructive diversions. After all, what useful purpose can a group of kids have in ``hanging out'' on the street after 10 p.m.? Let them gather at a home and talk, but not on the street or a parking lot.

Her concern about kids getting into trouble just by being out after curfew is baseless. The police are concerned with cruisers (i.e. loitering by car), not the kid just driving home from work.

Bernson suggests that we need ``programs that will help our youth become emotionally healthy and capable citizens.'' The implication is that we common folks are too incompetent or just plain dumb to do anything right. After all, how can we as adults and parents know or understand how our kids feel? Rather, the government should step in and provide caring and compassionate solutions.

And how is all this going to happen? Nobody knows, but we do need money for it. Bernson tells us that the answer ``lies somewhere between the public and private sectors''

Shouldn't we be concerned when someone promotes such fuzzy objectives? Frankly, I am tired of yet another liberal solution to a pressing social non-problem: entertaining kids after hours. I am insulted at the suggestion that others are smarter and better than I am at raising kids. I am furious that I must open my wallet for the elite to do this for me.

Do us all a favor, Ms. Bernson. Stop trying to be helpful. It costs me too much.

- Lorin Wainwood

Newbury Park

Does Janet Bernson live in the dark ages? We need to protect the children from themselves and their parents.

Yes, the teen years are very difficult. But the parents must show some caring supervision, not just rely on the police. Perhaps they can open up their homes for social gatherings - entirely supervised, of course. Parents need to sacrifice themselves for their children's welfare. They are tomorrow's future.

Until then, we need curfew laws. As a community, we must demand parents see the real need to change their lives and sacrifice themselves for their children's safety and well-being.

``We'' need to protect ``our'' children from their selfish, uninvolved parents who are too busy enjoying their own social interests.

- Carol M. Testa

Encino

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Photo: The big question: It's 10 o'clock _ Where are your c hildren?