D.C. authorities are bracing for a summer of teen takeovers of public spaces in the absence of an emergency juvenile curfew law, as federal prosecutors weigh charging the parents of criminal youths.
Swarms of teenagers this spring wreaked havoc repeatedly in neighborhoods such as Navy Yard, resulting in arrests for robberies, assaults and at least one shooting as well as calls for more policing, focused restrictions and parental responsibility.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said she intends to make parents account for their children’s crimes, citing a teen-fueled melee last weekend inside a Chipotle restaurant where viral video footage showed a father shielding his small kids from the chaos.
“That infuriated me, and it should infuriate every one of you,” Ms. Pirro said this week. “These [juveniles] feel that they can do this, and that they can destroy the property of others and victimize other human beings. People are petrified, and we’re going to put an end to this.”
The father, Air Force veteran Rafael Jauregui, said he was dining with his seven children after the family had left a Washington Nationals-Baltimore Orioles game that ended Saturday evening.
Police said the fight broke out at about 8:40 p.m. after one group of youths entered the restaurant and confronted another group inside.
Mr. Jauregui described the scene as an “ambush” and had his children huddle around him to keep them safe. While the family wasn’t physically harmed, the father said the fight left its scars.
“My son said on the way home, ’Papa, I can’t unsee that,’” Mr. Jauregui told WJLA-TV. “Those individuals have now directly impacted my security, my life. My children are now talking about [how they never] want to go to Chipotle again. Or at least not that one.”
Authorities released still images of four suspects connected to the fight. All four are dark-skinned males and were last seen wearing black athletic pants and black hoodies.
No arrests have been made in the brawl that has become a talking point in the city’s competitive Democratic mayoral primary.
Former D.C. Council member Kenyan McDuffie campaigned Tuesday outside the Chipotle to lambaste his chief rival, Ward 4 council member Janeese Lewis George, for not supporting an emergency juvenile curfew order.
The temporary measure would allow Metropolitan Police to declare “curfew zones” in certain parts of town in order to turn away small groups of juveniles before they can swell into a criminal takeover.
Metropolitan Police interim Chief Jeffrey Carroll said the curfew often works best at protecting minors. He noted that the assault and robbery victims during teen takeovers have been other youths, and said the curfew deters offenders from going after their peers.
“The safety of our young people is the most important thing to me as chief of police and members of the Metropolitan Police Department,” Chief Carroll said late last month.
The council passed on the chance to renew the emergency curfew last month, leaving the city without a tool that police, Ms. Pirro and Mayor Muriel Bowser have asked to be restored.
“When you ask people to delay, when you don’t put an emergency in place a month ago before the curfew expired, you invite this sort of intervention from federal agencies where D.C. doesn’t do its job. What we saw from Janeese Lewis George is a failure to act,” Mr. McDuffie said outside the restaurant.
Ms. Lewis George, who is leading the mayoral race in the latest polling, shot back that Mr. McDuffie changed his stance when it became politically convenient.
She said Mr. McDuffie had been a curfew skeptic when he sat on the council just last year and supported defunding the police when he served on the body in 2020.
Ms. Lewis George added that the juveniles’ behavior inside the Chipotle is grounds enough for arresting them and a curfew isn’t needed to hold them accountable.
But the council member did not support changes to the permanent curfew statute that lawmakers pushed through earlier this month either.
The D.C. Council voted in favor of allowing Metropolitan Police to set up curfew zones under a new version of the citywide curfew law.
However, with every D.C. law needing to undergo a 30-day congressional review period, the beefed-up curfew ordinance likely won’t take effect until July.
Ms. Bowser said the council’s decision to let the District go without the curfew zones in the interim period is ill-advised.
“The DC Council routinely passes emergency legislation along with the permanent version of the bill so that the measure goes into effect immediately,” Ms. Bowser posted on X about the curfew law changes. “They twice punted on passing an Emergency Curfew bill that would have prevented a lapse. They should fix this asap!”
In the meantime, Ms. Pirro said parents of children who violate curfew could face a $500 fine each time their kid is caught by police.
If those children are linked to any criminal behavior, she said the parents could be charged with contributing to delinquency of a minor. A conviction for that offense could result in a parent getting six months behind bars.
“I am not shy about looking for jail time,” Ms. Pirro said.
