District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb recently told local media about astonishing levels of juvenile crime afflicting residents of the nation’s capital, especially outside of its more expensive white liberal enclaves.
Asked whether teenagers should be treated as adults when they commit violent crimes, he replied, “I don’t think kids should be treated as adults. Kids are kids, and when you’re talking about teenagers in particular, their brains are developing, their minds are developing, and they’re biologically prone to make mistakes. That’s what we’ve all done as we’ve grown up.”
In a normal context, that would make some sense. Everyone makes youthful mistakes. But unfortunately, the crimes Schwalb and his interviewer were referring to are not “mistakes.” A mistake is perhaps stealing money from the cash register where you work. A mistake is pocketing a box of cigars in a convenience store. A mistake is trying marijuana while underage. The justice system usually goes easier on youthful offenders who commit such crimes, and it is right that it does so.
But repeated and often depraved violent crime against others is another matter. It is not a mistake. Serial armed robberies — for example, the string of 10 gunpoint robberies allegedly committed by three teenage boys in a five-hour period in Washington on April 23 or the 13 robberies allegedly committed by three teenage girls and a 17-year-old boy over five days — are not mistakes. Juvenile carjacking is not a mistake. These crimes are conscious choices to prey upon others. Such crimes are also red flags identifying people who have been so badly corrupted when young that they must be incarcerated for lengthy periods of time lest they hurt anyone else.
Their Kid days are then Over & need to be charged as ADULTS !!!!!!