Paris - French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux Thursday unveiled a new package of crime-fighting measures, including a controversial proposal to keep unaccompanied delinquents under the age of 13 off the streets at night. "I ask a simple and sensible question: is it normal that a minor between 10 and 13 years of age who has already committed one or several crimes is able to walk all alone at night?" Hortefeux said in a press statement.
The measure has been widely attacked in recent weeks - by judges, police and the opposition - after Hortefeux said he was considering making it law.
The head of the Magistrates Union (MS), Emmanuelle Perreux, said such a measure was "totally unenforceable," a claim supported by several police unions.
However, a number of communities have already installed a curfew for all unaccompanied minors under the age of 13.
Other measures proposed by Hortefeux Thursday include increasing the number of surveillance video cameras in public places from the current 20,000 to 60,000 by 2011.
In addition, he wants to give police the right to stop any "suburban gang leader" without visible means of support who is driving an expensive automobile, such as "a Porsche Cayenne, an Audi A8," and ask them how they make their money.
Fifty internal revenue service agents have already been deployed in 43 suburban ghettos to help track down and punish those who do not report their incomes, Hortefeux said.
