Court Strikes Down Virginia Beach’s Illegal Curfew

New flash: Apparently saying “It’s that time of the year again” is not enough for a Virginia city to close down businesses and order people off the street.

Who knew?

Certainly not feckless city officials in Virginia Beach, who were unceremoniously smacked down by a circuit court judge yesterday.

The mayor of Virginia Beach says he is disappointed. So sad. Next time follow the law.

The court ruling came in time to salvage the last weekend in April for local businesses and visitors.

The mayor and most members of the city council wanted to close the resort area for a second weekend in a row, a sign that they are not good at their jobs.

Thanks to a lawsuit filed by several resort area businesses and argued in court by attorney Kevin Martingayle, the former no-go zone from Rudee Loop to 31st Street will be open Friday and Saturday night by court order.

It should never have been closed.

In a seven-hour court hearing, the city was unable to show evidence of ANY actual threat of civil disturbance that presented a clear and present danger to the public. The city argued that historically warm weekends in the spring are when fights break out that can lead to gunfire.

That doesn’t begin to meet the requirements for a curfew as set out in law.

Martingayle argued that the city failed to follow strict requirements that allow Virginia cities to impose curfews, that the cordoned off area was too broad and that the constitutional rights to conduct business and simply visit public areas had been violated.

On top of that, Martingayle pointed out that the police have other tools in their toolboxes to deal with crowds but that this sweeping curfew was the only solution presented to city council.

That body voted 10-1 last week to impose a two-weekend curfew.

I watched the sham of a public hearing that preceded the vote. Speaker after speaker begged the incompetent elected officials to keep the resort area open, but were ignored. None of the members of city council pushed back against the police chief or mayor for the curfew recommendation.

There were two mass shootings at the oceanfront, one in March and another in April, that left a total of 14 people injured.

Instead of curbing the violent behavior by unleashing the police to plow into crowds looking for guns and bad actors, city leaders threw up their hands and voted to close it all down.

The disappointed mayor says he’s going to form a task force to study the problems.

So many task forces. So little political courage.