Years ago, when Robert Contee was the chief of D.C. police, community activist Ronald Moten sounded the alarm.
He felt young people in the city would commit a crime and get released without receiving the proper services and help that they needed. It was clear to him that they could be helped, but “what was in place is not what they needed, and we were throwing them back in the community,” Moten said.
Moten, a violence prevention specialist and urban conflict resolution specialist, said troubling crime trends continued. He highlighted a need to fix some of the root causes, such as accountability, poverty and improved education.
Hours after President Donald Trump announced plans to take federal control of the D.C. police and activate hundreds of National Guard members to crack down on crime, Moten said it’s something he’s long anticipated would happen.
“You can see it a mile away,” Moten told WTOP. “A blind mouse can see it a mile away.”
During a conversation with a friend who lives on Capitol Hill, Moten learned there was a lot of concern about crime because of anecdotes of congressional staffers and residents being robbed or carjacked. That prompted a similar reaction.
“I was like, ‘Well, you know what that means. It’s a matter of time before somebody else steps in, because my life might not matter, but their life is going to matter,’” Moten said.
In some cases, Moten said there are policymakers who don’t live in the communities they serve. He said extremes don’t usually fix problems, and he characterized Monday’s announcement as one side of an extreme.
In addition to proper services, Moten said education is essential. On the first day of school, he said there should be a planned assembly to let young people know, “It’s not a game. If you need some help, take the help.”
“There are things we know exist in our community, and we need to fix them,” Moten said. “We shouldn’t have to have outside people come and fix it.”
Parents also have to be involved, Moten said, because some know their kids aren’t at home and are left “for other people to deal with them. And then when other people deal with them, we have a problem.”
Moten is concerned Monday’s announcement could negatively impact D.C.’s economy, because “Who wants to come to a city like that?”
While crime has gone down, there are “some things that we need to deal with that we haven’t been dealing with,” Moten said.
‘A return to the harmful rhetoric of the ’90s’
After Eduardo Ferrer, a law professor at Georgetown University, listened to Trump’s descriptions of D.C. and juvenile crime, he told WTOP, “It really amounts to a return to the harmful rhetoric of the ’90s, to this claim of the ‘superpredator’ that never materialized.”
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said that D.C. laws regarding prosecuting juveniles are “weak” and “absurd.” At Trump’s news conference on Monday, she said, “They go to family court and they get to do yoga and arts and crafts. Enough!”
In response, Ferrer said, “I wish we offered things like yoga, (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing psychotherapy), actual therapeutic services that young people can benefit from.”
He insists a rehabilitative approach would lead to lasting crime reduction.
Trump dismissed rehabilitation as he flipped through papers during Monday’s news conference.
“Look at this guy,” the president said, studying a paper in his hands. “They will never be an asset to society — I don’t care. I know we all want to say, ‘Oh, they’re going to be rehabbed.’ They’re not going to be rehabbed.”
Ferrer said in the case of juveniles, “Young people have an incredible capacity for change and growth,” given the right settings and treatment.
Pirro also expressed frustration at the restrictions prosecutors in the District face when handling cases involving serious crimes.
“The laws are weak,” she said. “I can’t touch you if you’re 14-17 years old and you have a gun.”
Ferrer said charging juveniles as adults doesn’t get long-term results.
“The research shows that when you put young people in the adult system, it actually makes it more likely that they’re going to recidivate,” Ferrer said.
The right place for handling juvenile crime, he said, is in family court.
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