All is not well in the nation’s capital. And when more and more middle schoolers start turning into hardened criminals, it’s pretty clear evidence that Democrat policies to better urban communities are falling woefully short.
Following a disturbing new trend in D.C., three more kids were aren’t even old enough for a learner’s permit have been arrested in connection with at least two armed carjackings in the shadows of the Capitol Building.
The youngest alleged criminal was a 12-year-old boy from the Northeast of the city, who was nabbed on Tuesday and charged in connection with an armed carjacking on July 3, 2024. According to police, the victim was standing near the vehicle on the 2800 block of 11th Street NW when the carjacker walked up, pulled out a gun and demanded the keys before driving away with the car.
The 13- and 14-year-olds were also arrested on Tuesday and charged with a separate carjacking that occurred just after 7 p.m. on March 6, where they also stole a person’s car at gunpoint.
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Crime committed by teens and young kids has become such a massive problem in D.C., in fact, that local police have launched a new task force dealing specifically with violent incidents perpetrated by minors.
"We have seen fights in our schools and more serious criminal offenses outside of schools, and we have seen a increase in juvenile offenses District wide," D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said Thursday during the announcement of the Juvenile Investigative Response Unit (JIRU), WUSA9 reported this week.
Police data shows more than 2,000 people under the age of 18 were arrested in D.C. in 2023 and 2024 combined. Authorities say underage criminals accounted for more than half of all robberies in the city last year, and that nearly 50% of the 64 carjackings recorded this year have been at the hands of teens and kids. Of the minors arrested for violent crimes in D.C. this year alone, 196 had prior violent crime arrests.