Bedlam broke out at a Chipotle in D.C.’s Navy Yard neighborhood on Saturday night, as a group of violent teenagers punched each other and threw furniture around the restaurant. The images of terrified onlookers, including a young child, are a reminder that youth curfews are a critical tool to keep residents safe.
More than anything, the viral incident is an embarrassing rebuke of those on the D.C. Council who scuttled a bill this month that would have immediately extended the police chief’s authority to impose an 8 p.m. curfew in certain parts of the city.
Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) had been pleading with council members to extend that authority, which expired on May 1. After months of hand-wringing, they passed a measure that would grant that power through 2028. Yet soft support for the legislation on the council makes it subject to congressional review, meaning it won’t take effect for months.
That will leave D.C. police without a tool to address disorderly youth during the summer, when crime always spikes and that authority is most needed. It’s also an invitation for intervention from federal officials: U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro announced plans to prosecute parents of D.C.’s juvenile miscreants.
Leading the resistance to curfews is council member Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4), who is running for mayor. She has criticized the measures as ineffective and expressed fear that enforcing them would result in more police interactions with teens, which she says could result in “harm that could result in death to our children.”
What about law-abiding children who are intimidated or endangered by violent teenagers?
Former council member Kenyan R. McDuffie, the other leading Democrat in the June 16 primary to succeed Bowser, has supported curfews.
There is a live debate about the effectiveness of curfews, but it’s foolish to take away the tool now. Such restrictions are an intuitive solution to the national trend of “teen takeovers,” in which hundreds of young people organize online to gather in public spaces.
Those incidents are more than just public nuisances. One in Oklahoma City resulted in a shootout that killed one person and injured more than 20. Discouraging those events from happening is as much about protecting the public as it is those who participate.
Curfews are a necessary but insufficient response. What’s needed are long-term investments to massively increase D.C.’s police force, which has shrunk to its smallest size in half a century, as well as concerted strategies to patrol crime hot spots.
The nature of the curfew debate is an ominous sign that some D.C. politicians are not up for the task of reducing crime.
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