The column noted that between Jan. 1 and Aug. 16, 2016, more than 2,000 juveniles had been arrested in the District. Nothing much has changed since.
In the intervening eight years, this business of D.C. youths robbing, stealing, shooting and stabbing one another has gone on unabated, notwithstanding the anti-crime posturing of elected leaders with six-figure salaries luxuriating in their cushy, well-guarded John A. Wilson Building.
D.C. police have continued to average annually more than 2,000 arrests of those under 18. There have been 29 juvenile carjacking arrests thus far in 2024 — there were 13 at this point last year — and 16 juveniles have been shot since Jan. 1.
Young people breaking laws in the District is so commonplace that most instances get little media coverage. Oh, you might hear about sensational crimes, such as the alleged beating death of a disabled man by three girls — two of them 13, the other 12. But many violations don’t make the news.
Consider the police announcements thus far in April. It’s a long list:
April 2: Two males, 14 and 15, arrested and charged in a March 30 robbery.
April 3: 15-year-old arrested and charged with armed robbery with a handgun.
April 4: 14-year-old male found with gunshot wounds on April 3. He died at the scene.
April 5: 14-year-old male found with gunshot wounds on April 4. He also died at the scene.
April 5: 14-year-old male arrested on April 3 for car theft on Just Street NE; 16-year-old male arrested for unauthorized use of a vehicle on Minnesota Avenue NE.
April 8: 14-year-old male arrested in a burglary committed on April 5 and a robbery committed on March 22.
April 8: Two 14-year-old males arrested — one charged with unlawful discharge of a firearm, the other with possession of an unregistered firearm — on April 7. One was also charged in a robbery committed on Feb. 27.
April 8: 16-year-old male turned himself in and was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon (gun) on April 5.
April 9: 16-year-old male arrested and charged with second-degree murder while armed in the death of the 14-year-old male on April 4 (see above).
April 10: 16-year-old male arrested and charged with armed robbery committed on March 17.
April 11: Two 16-year-old males arrested on April 9 and charged with an outstanding failure-to-appear warrant, carrying a pistol without a license, and possession of unregistered firearms and ammunition. One was also charged with unlawful possession of a machine gun.
April 11: 16-year-old male, 15-year-old female and 14-year-old female arrested and charged with robbery.
April 12: Three males — two 14, one 13 — arrested and charged in an armed carjacking committed on April 11.
April 14: 15-year-old arrested and charged in a robbery allegedly committed with a 23-year-old male on April 12.
April 15: Police disclose the identity of a 15-year-old female who was found fatally shot on April 14.
April 15: Two males — 13 and 14 — arrested and charged in a robbery committed on April 13.
And that’s just half of this month.
This litany of youth crime hardly makes the news.
Families, friends and neighbors mourn the loss of young homicide victims. And those robbed of their cars, purses and wallets, or who have been punched and kicked for their worldly belongings, know all too well what those hellish moments are like. But rampant youth crime is reduced to snippets that appear and fade like raindrops.
So, too, this commentary — which, if I don’t stop, will morph into another recital of the problem of young people leaving school and entering the criminal justice system, or the “school-to-prison pipeline.” No, this is not another discourse on the need for early intervention in the lives of “at-risk” youths to prevent them from falling into the kind of behavior that lands them in the hands of police and judges. No pleas today to get at the “root causes” of children getting in trouble with the law.
One of my many critics accused me this week of having spent years tiresomely saying the same things over and over about D.C. youths and the justice system. To which I plead guilty. No repeat performance today.
Instead, let’s look at a condition that all arrested young D.C. girls and boys have in common: Each has a father.
What of fathers? The father of the 15-year-old who shot that man in the face in the McDonald’s at Verizon Center eight years ago. The father of the 16-year-old charged with armed robbery. The fathers of the girls charged with beating that disabled man to death.
Don’t deflect that question to a rant against wealth inequality and the unfairness of an economic and social system that marginalizes and criminalizes Black men. Wealth inequality exists. Racially prejudiced, callous and deceitful White people are as plentiful as the air we breathe. They can’t defeat or stand in the way of men who want to act as fathers. Net worth doesn’t make good fathers.
Return to the litany of youth crimes. What’s with the fathers?
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