Recent assaults by juveniles on restaurant patrons, pedestrians, customers and bystanders yield one conclusion: The children are usually not all proper.
Neither is progressive lawmakers’ response to the rising variety of incidents.
As the Herald reported, two 13-year-old youngsters had been arraigned earlier this month and charged in connection to April incidents during which kids had been reportedly trying to purchase alcohol at downtown eating places after which breaking the home windows when refused, to group beating a lady reportedly as a result of she was sporting braids as she walked in Downtown Crossing, to punching a McDonald’s worker within the face in Roxbury.
At the time, Mayor Michelle Wu stated town was seeking to put “accountability measures” in place to offer younger individuals the help they should forestall future situations of violence.
“These are children who need support and services and they’re connected to adults who also need some accountability,” Wu stated.
Wu’s response was just like what she stated following the November 2021 assault on a Henderson School principal, which left the girl unconscious. That incident was “an incredibly horrific, tragic situation.”
“It points to the need for us to really be investing in our young people, in our school systems, in the supports that are necessary,” Wu stated.
The idea of “our young people” taking duty for his or her actions is notably absent from Wu’s remarks following acts of violence by younger individuals. They are the victims of an unjust, inequitable society, one which has apparently robbed them of the power to not punch somebody within the face as a result of they really feel prefer it.
The message given to the younger alleged attackers: You can get away with something, it’s not your fault.
The message obtained by the precise victims of violence: Terribly sorry, however you’re by yourself.
So it comes as no shock that the violence continues. This week, Boston Police responded to an assault and battery name at Macy’s in Downtown Crossing. A girl advised officers {that a} “young black male in a hooded sweatshirt” got here up behind her exterior the shop and hit her within the face with a shoe, based on the police report.
A sergeant advised the responding officers that the group accused on this name had been the identical group from a number of calls earlier within the day that they had been “disturbing customers and being a hindrance to Macy’s staff.”
Another particular person then reported one of many group had jumped on his again. When questioned, the accused jumper allegedly advised the police that his associates had been encouraging him to “mess with people”
One baby was charged with assault and battery with a harmful weapon, to wit a shod foot, and the second was charged with two counts of assault and battery. Both are heading to Boston Juvenile Court.
During her marketing campaign for mayor, Wu’s training plan referred to as for “Ending the criminalization of students.”
But what do you do when youngsters are committing felony acts?
The 2018 state felony justice reform laws took youngsters underneath 12 out of the felony justice system. The thought is that faculties, social companies and oldsters are those to deal with juvenile crime.
It’s 2022, and we’ve seen an increase in violence and weapons in faculties, and random assaults across the metropolis. It’s unlikely that the Wu administration will take a firmer hand in coping with violent youth. But actions, and the shortage thereof, have penalties.
How can Boston bounce again economically from a pandemic if there are locations deemed unsafe across the metropolis for purchasing, eating or visiting?
Source: www.bostonherald.com”