Politics

The Overlooked Prosecutors’ Tool Against Violent ‘Teen Takeovers’

[Wikimedia Commons/Public/Alex Smith]

Perpetrators of the violent “teen takeover” in Washington, D.C. that got a federal prosecutor’s attention were concealing their faces despite the district’s 2024 mask ban.

Viral videos of young people hitting one another with chairs, throwing punches and standing on tables at a D.C. Chipotle restaurant on Saturday show multiple participants in the brawl wearing masks with hoods. A 2024 D.C. law bans wearing face coverings during “a dangerous crime” or “crime of violence” despite Black Lives Matter (BLM) supporters’ past efforts to scrap the restrictions.

D.C.’s city council passed the “Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act” in 2022 withoutDemocratic Mayor Muriel Bowser’s signature. The legislation implemented several liberal reforms in response to the BLM movement’s rise in 2020, including repealing D.C.’s 1983 masking ban. D.C. passed the first ban to combat the Ku Klux Klan, NPR reported.

Bowser proposed reviving the ban in 2023 and signed it as part of a tough-on-crime legislative package in 2024.

The nation’s capital grapples with high juvenile crime, with arrest rates above the national average and minors linked to half the district’s robberies, the Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced Friday that her office will enforce existing curfew laws and charge involved parents with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

“These incidents have become increasingly common in areas such as Navy Yard and NoMa and are often accompanied by criminal conduct, including assaults, robberies, fights, and other disorderly behavior,” Pirro said. “Even with the juvenile curfew being enforced by Mayor Muriel Bowser, there is still action that must be taken immediately. The D.C. Council refuses to deal with the problem, and their lack of action creates an extremely dangerous situation for the people of the District and the teens themselves. Law-abiding taxpayers should not subsidize chaos caused by parental neglect. Parents, do your job, or we will do ours.”

Officials have not announced arrests in the Saturday Chipotle incident despite the FBI and local police investigating.