The arrest of two 15-year-olds after a government worker was attacked last week on a Washington, D.C., street was going to attract attention in a city where violent crimes committed by young people have long gripped the public consciousness.
But the man who was assaulted in what he said was an attempted carjacking was not just any government worker — he was a high-profile Trump administration employee. And in the days that followed, the president lashed out, claiming the city was overrun by “roving mobs of wild youth” and renewing his threats to take over the city.
On Monday, Mr. Trump announced he was placing the District of Columbia’s police department under federal control and sending in the National Guard, as he and his top prosecutor for the city declared they were fed up with what they say is rampant lawlessness among young people in the city.
“I see too much violent crime being committed by young punks who think that they can get together in gangs and crews and beat the hell out of you or anyone else,” said Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
Crime committed by teenagers has for decades been a focus of the city’s leaders — and often a point of political tension. Calls to take a tougher line on juvenile crime run up against efforts to address the extreme poverty and other entrenched socioeconomic problems that many experts say underlie youth crime.
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