On Halloween night, the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. became the grounds of a major brawl. Ten individuals, including four minors, were cuffed. According to police, it was a peaceful gathering until “several hundred juveniles” showed up, poured into the park, and began fighting, blocking traffic, and refusing to obey law enforcement. The unrest lasted from about 7:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., and at least one officer was hurt amid the melee.

While not directly related, perhaps it’s no coincidence that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) enacted a juvenile curfew the very next day — effective immediately. “We are declaring a limited juvenile curfew in Washington, DC,” the mayor wrote on X. “This is in response to several weeks of disorderly juvenile behavior which endangered both themselves and others.”

The curfew, which applies to anyone under 18, is from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Set to last through November 5th, the enforcement is taking place in “special zones,” which include Banneker Recreation Center, Union Station, Navy Yard, and the U Street Corridor. Bowser further noted that “the Chief of Police is also authorized to designate special curfew zones for youths under 18 beginning at 6PM.” Violators face fines upward of $300 or up to 10 days in jail. On the first night alone, the Metropolitan Police Department reported 18 violations — 14 of which came from the U Street Corridor.

Juvenile crime has also drawn in some federal attention under the Trump administration. This summer, a former staffer for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was brutally assaulted by a group of teenagers as he stepped in to protect a woman who was the target of a carjacking. President Donald Trump acknowledged the incident and shortly after deployed the National Guard to the capital to curb violent crime, regardless of offenders’ ages. An October press release from the U.S. Marshals Service stated that “the combined federal and local effort to Make D.C. Safe and Beautiful” had resulted in more than 5,200 arrests, involving “individuals wanted for murder, sexual offenses, known gang members, as well as drivers of community violence, and those seeking to defraud the citizens of Washington D.C.”

In the midst of this ongoing crackdown, which continues to show results, Mayor Bowser has voiced support for the National Guard’s presence. Yet critics continue to fault her for years of lenient crime policies that, as some argue, necessitated federal intervention. Regarding her new curfew to reduce juvenile disorder, the Washington Examiner argued that it “is the result of years of Washington, D.C., Democrats effectively telling juvenile criminals that they can do what they like and face little to no consequences.”

The outlet continued: “That infantilizing worldview, that teenagers are too mentally underdeveloped to know that stealing cars or shooting other teenagers is wrong, has infected the district’s justice system. Teenage criminals have become emboldened, knowing that people like [D.C. Attorney General Brian] Schwalb will let them off the hook for their crimes. The result is an unsustainable reliance on the National Guard to maintain order in the district, while the Democrats in charge resort to embarrassing measures such as imposing curfews for teenagers to try to keep a lid on things. A functioning city should not require curfews to maintain order or rely on the federal government to do the city’s job of policing the streets.”

As the Examiner noted, “The district needs a full attitude shift on crime” — a position the Heritage Foundation’s legal expert Zack Smith shares.

“D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s implementation of a limited juvenile curfew is a very small first step in the right direction,” Smith told The Washington Stand. “It recognizes that D.C. has a juvenile crime problem.” In 2023, however, Schwalb specifically stated, “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.” It’s this exact perspective, Smith argued, that has caused juvenile crime to ramp up significantly over the years.

“Unfortunately,” he stated, “Schwalb has said that he will never prosecute juvenile offenders as adults — no matter how heinous their crimes — and instead will treat them as children.” As Smith concluded, “Juvenile offenders and the gangs who recruit them received that soft-on-crime message loud and clear.”