Dark Doings in Newport Beach

The Newport Beach City Council is flunking a civics test before the very eyes of its teen-agers.

On July 8 the council imposed an 11 p.m. juvenile curfew that wasn’t necessary. At its next session the council abandoned the 11 p.m. curfew that resulted from negotiations among city officials and young people, and moved it to 10 p.m.

The council must vote again Monday night before the change, which surprised both teenagers and some council members, becomes law. The least it can do is leave the curfew at 11 p.m. The best it can do is drop the whole thing.

To the credit of both, there have been no serious confrontations between police and teen-agers since the 11 p.m. curfew was enacted. One reason for that success may be that young people helped negotiate the 11 p.m. compromise curfew. They deserve better than having the city, at its first opportunity, unilaterally abandon the compromise.

The switch is ostensibly being made to accommodate police procedures to allow officers to clear the streets of juveniles as early as possible so that they can go on to other more serious enforcement problems. That’s important.

But just as important are the right of people, including teen-agers, to peaceable assembly and the need for government to be credible to young people who were encouraged to work within the system. The change in curfew time failed that test.

To make matters worse, an attorney is urging youths to join the “Midnight Newport Church”--membership in which, he advises, would help the youths under 18 legally beat the city-imposed curfew as long as they contended that they were coming from or going to the “church.”

Teen-agers in Newport Beach have studied duplicity under the city council. They do not need graduate work in deviousness.