Friday, Vicksburg aldermen rejected a bid by Mayor Paul Winfield to repeal the 2-year-old ordinance that bans selling beer between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. on weekdays and 2 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Sundays.

What all three officials seemed to agree on is that the law is cosmetic. They didn’t use that word, but did invoke the theme it represents. Specifically, personal responsibility is the key element in this picture. No ordinance can completely shield people from their own bad decisions.

The ordinance was enacted during the past administration at the request of former Police Chief Tommy Moffett and former Deputy Chief Richard O’Bannon. South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman and North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield supported it then and did again Friday.

Moffett and O’Bannon had many varieties of crime in mind — burglaries, car thefts, robberies and assaults, drunken driving — when proposing the law. If there have been statistical benefits, city officials didn’t mention them.

Winfield couched his support for a repeal strictly in business terms. He said the city must treat every merchant fairly and pointed out, correctly, that the limits don’t apply to convenience stores outside the city limits or to casinos.

Mayfield responded that the city has no authority outside its limits and no authority over casinos — but that doesn’t mean the city shouldn’t establish reasonable limits within its powers to do so.

All three officials invited citizens to face some facts.

• This law had nothing to do with underage drinking, which is against the law 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

• Parents who allow their children to join others out and up to no good in the early morning hours bear the greatest culpability.

• People need to remember police do not cause crime and their powers to prevent crime are extremely limited.

What cities can do is try to be reasonable managers. This city and others have an array of curfews, closing laws and such to entice people not to do, in plain English, stupid things. Otherwise, honesty demands admitting that police and courts can only clean up the destruction people choose to inflict on themselves and others.

That was the message from City Hall. We hope people were listening.