Combating Juvenile Violence – From the Personal to the Practical

For those of you who subscribe to the Police Department’s First District listserv, you may already know that two juveniles were arrested last Friday in at least some degree of connection with the rock throwing incident that I first wrote about two weeks ago. I’m personally grateful to the timely intervention of two MPD officers, and I hope that the end of this particular situation is in sight. I will refrain from going into too many details of the incident here, as the legal process has taken over and I don’t want to get in its way.

The question now becomes, what do we do next? Hopefully, I will no longer worry if my kids are on the front porch at 4:45 in the afternoon, and quiet will return to my little corner of the Hill. But in a larger sense, what can be done about these persistent problems with juvenile violence?

Above everything, I’m haunted by the lack of an apparent motive. Is it personal? Did I offend one of them once? Is it racial? Class based? What struck me as I watched the two kids hauled away in a police cruiser is how much they risked for no gain. They’re just children, another thing that caught my attention as I saw them sitting in handcuffs, who, if left unchecked, will continue these “youthful escapades,” which could escalate into more serious crimes.

So what can be done to address these problems? Fortunately, after years of what appeared to be dogmatic debate on the left and right, a more pragmatic approach seems to have taken hold. Talk by police chiefs and school chancellors is cheap; by and large, I judge the effectiveness of city agencies by how the lowest level deals with the issue. And, at least in this incident, most of the police officers, DCPS employees, and charter school administrators I have dealt with have addressed this as seriously and as effectively as possible.

But the sense of frustration of many of the police officers as they talked with me was palpable. As one officer mentioned to me, “we can arrest them, but then they’re back out there the next week.” Even more troubling than the fact that a disruptive individual is not removed (and ideally rehabilitated), is the casualness this inspires in many of these kids. Most know full well the limits of what can be done to them, and are almost mocking in their treatment of police officers. I’m not saying I want kids living in fear of cops, but the fact that they can run away from police, taunting them as they go, and egged on by a crowd of passers by and fellow students alike (as I witnessed a few years ago), is a disturbing lack of respect.

I’m not a big believer in respect for authority for the authority’s sake, but for their own. The cop is probably going to go home at night, a little more frustrated and bitter perhaps, but safe and sound. It’s the kid that will be the long term loser, as he grows up contemptuous of a society he mocks. I’m not arguing that there aren’t historical wrongs that shouldn’t be addressed, or real and crippling societal issues that need to be dealt with by all of us; but to treat these as excuses, instead of explanations is ultimately self-defeating, for the kids as much as me.

All of which is fine, but what do we do about it? It’s easy to call our councilmember and say “get tough on crime!” What does that mean? What laws do we want passed? We have a responsibility to articulate what we want him to do. To date, I’ve found Councilmember Wells to be very responsive on this issue, both to me personally in this specific incident and in addressing it legislatively. I applaud his proposal last week to tighten truancy requirements, lowering the threshold of unexcused absences before the Child and Family Services Administration gets involved. It’s a small step, but it shows a willingness to move forward on the recommendations of the Ward 6 Juvenile Crime Task Force (pdf), which laid out a sensible blueprint that, if nothing else, is a good start. None of which means that we should continue to push these issues, but I think Councilmember Wells is going in the right direction.

So, besides working with police and schools as appropriate and holding our city government and City Council accountable, what can we do? Are there solid, tangible proposals that folks out there would like to see DC or Councilmember Wells act on? Let’s start the conversation here.