Trump lies and stokes fear about ‘roving bands of youth’ in D.C.
Last week, in a news conference filled with lies and disinformation, President Donald Trump chose to double down on failed policies of the past.
In the face of a steeply declining crime wave, the administration has decided to federalize the D.C. police force and call out the National Guard to patrol the D.C. streets and chase down “roving bands of youth.”
This response stokes fear of young people by calling for the prosecution of more children as adults in criminal court.
We have seen this scenario before. Thirty years ago, researchers falsely predicted we were on the cusp of a violent youth crime wave that would terrorize our communities as we turned the corner on the 21st century.
No sooner had the lie been perpetrated than violent crime — by teens and adults — began a steady decline, year after year, until it reached record lows in 2019, just before the pandemic shutdown.
If we set aside the two years of extraordinary societal disruption and upheaval our communities experienced during the pandemic, the crime rate has continued its downward trend since 1994.
