When I first read the article, I said to my wife, “This has to be fake news.” But it’s not. It’s true.
The Virginia city of Chesapeake has passed an ordinance that bans anyone 13 years and older from trick or treating. If teens are caught in costume with a sack full of free candy, they could be found guilty of a misdemeanor and punished by a fine of not less than $25 nor more than $100 and/or by confinement in jail for not more than six months.
Okay, as I mentioned in another post at the beginning of this month, I’m not a big fan of Halloween. But fining and potentially arresting kids over 12 for trick or treating?
How about this? If you’re old enough to vote, you’re too old to go trick or treating.
And if you’re old enough to vote and you don’t, then you should be subject to being fined or arrested.
This, That, and the Other 
I read this too, and I find it ridiculous. Oh, I can imagine that community is trying to cut down on teens committing vandalism on Halloween, but at 12 or 13, you’re still young enough to enjoy the experience.
I wonder if Mom and Dad accompanying little kicks would be arrested if they dressed in costume?
Oh, my wife and I shut up the front of the house and turn off the lights on Halloween. I do watch the original “Ghostbusters” film on that night just for giggles.
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Last time we had teenage trick or treaters we covered them with silly string.
This is just too daft for words. Whatever happened to letting kids be kids?
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I’m divided on this. I think the ‘law’ is stupid, but what law these days isn’t? Idiots make the rules. BUT. As an ‘oldish’ woman without a man (and why that is important is baffling too); I am repulsed by ‘old’ ‘kids’ (16, 17 or 18 or even older) coming around trick or treating. I’ve had parents of toddlers, some barely able to sit up, come around getting ‘candy for the baby’…yeah, the kid wants some Snickers bars and or whatever other unhealthy candy it can’t even chew. YOU (parents) want the damned candy. At least be honest. 😡 I’m like most of the rest of the crew….I turn out the lights, turn on some pseudo-creepy movie and pretend I’m not home. After removing anything breakable of course…
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I don’t have a candy bar in this race now since no one rings my bell in this apt complex, but back when I lived in a house it did slightly annoy me when older teens came around for TorT. But a law seems ridic.
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The jailing part is especially terrible. (A hundred is pretty bad, too. And there should at least be a first time warning before even twenty-five. And I like the idea of voting age being the cutoff instead.) As for adults dressed up when they take their children, no masks or face coverings (which maybe could start at fifteen or whatever age driving permits start — even if driving is not involved in the trick or treating).
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Well I hope voting doesn’t become mandatory… As for Halloween they should just grow up both sides of the aisle I mean…
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Voting should be mandatory, IMHO.
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Nope…
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Well, that’s your opinion.
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It is….don’t get mad…
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I’m not mad. I expressed an opinion, even writing “IMHO.” You responded “Nope.” That’s your opinion, which you are free to express and with which I am free to disagree.
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I worked with a guy once who thought people should be allowed to vote only if they’d studied the issues and understood what they were voting for.
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He has a point. But how do you make that determination? A pop quiz at the voting booth?
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I think you hit the nail upon its head.
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How would these effect teens taking younger siblings out to Trick or Treat?
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Good question. I guess if the teens are not in costumes and not lugging around bags full of candy….
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It really could be complicated or problematic to enforce, couldn’t it. Some kids take a special container to the doors and then put the candy in a bigger bag the parent carries. And what if the “guardian” were an uncle or babysitter?
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Add to that what about special needs teens or simply those who are young for their age. People mature at different rates, you will see a whole range of difference in character and development in a class of 13 year olds
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I’m now thinking back. I’m sure I stopped before this age. And I was a freshman in high school at thirteen. I never took (or sent) my own kids trick or treating. If we did something on the day, it wasn’t for halloween. It would be an Autumn campfire kind of get together. Or there was a games fair we went to sometimes, where some people dressed up and some didn’t. It’s certainly true different people like to do different things and think and feel differently.
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Well being a Brit, Trick or Treat isn’t overly engraved into our culture. It is perhaps more so with the next generation as they have grown up in a more multicultural environment and there is a lot of American pop culture thrown in thanks to imported shows, but still it’s not a massive part and mostly done under parental or older sibling supervision
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“… and mostly done under parental or older sibling supervision.” As well it should be for the younger kids.
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You’re right. Difficult to uniformly and fairly enforce.
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It’s a new twist to Halloween?
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It’s government overreach.
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There’s a punishment in place, some places, for not voting. I don’t know all the specifics, but it’s… like… if you don’t vote twice, then they take you off of registration rolls. So when you do want to vote, you’re at a loss. The term “election chcle” has been used, but that can vary.
http://www.ncsl.org/blog/2014/06/26/whats-an-election-cycle-depends-where-you-are.aspx
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https://www.letamericavote.org/news/blog/2018/georgias-use-it-or-lose-it-voter-purge-forced-more-than-850000-eligible-voters-off-the-rolls/
……. about 1.3 million Georgians were removed from the rolls between 2013 and 2017, representing perhaps 18 percent of the state’s eligible voting population.
We invited data scientists to analyze the records. They found that while a third of these voters — about 417,000 — were removed because they were deceased, ineligible felons, duplicative registrants, had moved out of state, or for other legitimate reasons, the vast majority — more than 850,000 — were removed simply because they didn’t vote in two general election cycles. (The analysis found younger voters were disproportionately impacted by the purge as well).
This “use it or lose it” approach, in which Georgia purges voters simply for not having voted, is overly aggressive and ultimately counterproductive to the goal of civic engagement. It may also violate federal law.
Rather than encouraging its citizens to vote, election officials in Georgia are punishing voters for not voting, and suppressing their voice in the process. Not only does the language of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) expressly prohibit targeting voters for removal for failure to vote, this removal procedure undoubtedly undermines [1]democratic participation.
The validity of a “use it or lose it” standard for purging voters is, in fact, at the heart of the Ohio case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
In Georgia, Common Cause and the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP filed a federal lawsuit against Secretary of State Kemp over the voter purges, arguing the action violated the NVRA and [2]the First Amendment. …
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[Emphasis added.]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_the_United_States
The only federally mandated day for elections is Election Day for the general elections of the President and Congress…
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I was going to say we need to make sure it’s easier and more accessible to vote (as opposed to the trends making it harder). And we do. Then I decided to look up an article on the fact that many Native Americans citizens don’t have street addresses. This is pretty infuriating; read the whole thing. What I’ve quoted is only a tid-bit. It’s upsetting.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/10/supreme-court-makes-it-harder-for-tribal-north-dakotans-to-vote/
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Heitkamp won her seat by less than 3,000 votes in 2012 with strong backing from Native Americans, and she is the only statewide elected Democrat. North Dakota Republicans began changing voting rules to make it harder to cast a ballot months after Heitkamp’s victory six years ago. Republicans have claimed the changes to voter ID requirements are intended to stop voter fraud, even though in-person fraud is exceedingly rare.
………
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https://www.npr.org/2018/10/13/657125819/many-native-ids-wont-be-accepted-at-north-dakota-polling-places
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….. Native residents often use P.O. boxes for their mailing addresses and may rely on tribal identification that doesn’t list an address. Grappling With Native American Homelessness July 21, 2018 Those IDs used to be accepted at polling places — including in this year’s primary election — but will not be valid for the general election. And that decision became final less than a month before Election Day, after years of confusing court battles and alterations to the requirements.
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Well, I messed that (6:58 just above) up.
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It’s despicable what the Republicans are doing in North Dakota, Georgia, and elsewhere to disenfranchise non-white, non-Republican citizens.
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https://www.npr.org/2018/10/13/657125819/many-native-ids-wont-be-accepted-at-north-dakota-polling-places
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….. Native residents often use P.O. boxes for their mailing addresses and may rely on tribal identification that doesn’t list a[ residential] address.
Those IDs used to be accepted at polling places — including in this year’s primary election — but will not be valid for the general election. And that decision became final less than a month before Election Day, after years of confusing court battles and alterations to the requirements.
………
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Let kids be kids as long as they can… they are forced to grew up too fast as it is. I have mixed opinions on mandatory voting… I would rather see voting day a national holiday with manditoy businesses closed to make it easier for people to make it to the polls.
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I like your idea about Election Day being a national holiday.
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Wish I could take credit for it but I heard it some where else years ago and have always thought it was a good idea.
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