Cyber Cafe Rules Are Ill-Conceived, Illogical

Re “Judge Delays Restrictions on Cyber Cafes,” Aug. 9:

The Garden Grove City Council will continue wasting taxpayer money to defend its ill-conceived cyber cafe regulations even though the city’s proposed ordinance was suspended last week by a judge on constitutional grounds. Council members had unanimously passed the ordinance, not caring that it had no rational connection to the crimes they wanted to regulate. Worse, the council did not care that the law would affect the rights of law-abiding small-business owners.

Garden Grove took two unfortunate incidents of juvenile crime and exploited the situation for political advancement. Cyber cafe owners met Mayor Bruce Broadwater to discuss the ordinance, but the city insisted that the ordinance was necessary and proper. The cyber cafe owners then had no choice but to go to court.

Garden Grove’s theory was that if crimes occurred outside two cyber cafes, all cyber cafes must be causing crime; and if cyber cafes are regulated out of business, then the crimes will go away. But the city makes no rational connection between the businesses they are trying to punish and the crimes they hope to prevent. Using the city’s “logic:” if someone were robbed coming home from the grocery, closing all groceries at 10 p.m. would prevent future robberies.

The council ineptly felt that “something must be done” but was incapable of doing something reasonable, effective and constitutionally proper. Garden Grove forced cyber cafe operators to shorten their business hours, hire security guards and enforce curfew restrictions. Owners were directed to maintain customer registration logs with names and IDs for the police. Video surveillance and recording systems had to be installed at owner expense. Owners were required to post notices and enforce a ban on any boisterous language.

The council touted the regulation as the toughest in the county. The justification for the regulation? Primarily two unrelated events: The homicide of a young man that led to the arrest of a 21-year-old gang member and eight teenagers, and the shooting, not gang-related, that occurred about 1 1/2 miles from a cyber cafe.

As one cyber cafe owner stated, “We don’t want gangs any more than anyone else.” Certainly no family-owned business operator, or any family member, wants gangs moving into their neighborhood. But now, Garden Grove’s family-owned businesses have to be more worried about mindless legislation that can use the force of law to put them out on the streets.

Jack Leitzinger

Cincinnati