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A wave of social media-fueled teen takeovers in cities from Chicago to Washington, D.C., is putting officials on alert for a potentially volatile summer as experts warn the large youth gatherings could strain police, fuel violence and threaten recent public-safety gains.
“It usually increases during the summer,” Zack Smith, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., told Fox News Digital of crime trends. “I think anyone who has looked at crime data and some kind of criminological studies recognized that that will increase and I think that is something that the city should be very worried about.”
The warning comes after a wave of spring incidents across the country, where large teen crowds organized or amplified online have led to arrests, fights, weapons charges and emergency curfew debates.
“So many of these incidents are fueled by two things: social media and boredom. That’s it,” Amy Swearer, a senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom, told Fox News Digital.
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“There is potential for this to escalate, and to really damage some really good progress that we’ve made in cutting back on that post-COVID violent crime spike,” Swearer added. Violent crime surged nationally during the pandemic, with homicides rising sharply in 2020 as cities were also rocked by protests and riots following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Social media has contributed to “under-the-radar” meetups, Swearer said, explaining that many teens are working to boost their “clout” online with outrageous videos.
“There are massive accounts that are just dedicated to showing the chaos and the carnage and the street takeover events, where it’s almost like a social media clout thing,” she said.
Teen takeovers continue to spread nationwide
A Chicago teen takeover erupted Wednesday night when a car rammed a police cruiser as teen mobs cheered and filmed. In a similar incident last week, 22 people were arrested, ages 12 to 21, in Tampa, Florida, after a “teen takeover” at Curtis Hixon Park erupted into fights and disruptions, resulting in charges of affray, drug possession, resisting arrest and unlawful weapon possession.
In March, about 200 teens swarmed D.C.’s Navy Yard, where fights broke out and a 15-year-old was arrested after allegedly firing a gun, days after a temporary curfew was imposed. Nearly a dozen more juveniles were arrested a month later after street brawls in Southwest D.C., prompting a push to extend emergency powers. A large crowd returned to Navy Yard a week later, where police reported no major incidents or arrests.
The D.C. Council approved a long-term youth curfew earlier in May in an 8-5 vote after weeks of debate. The legislation still needs the mayor’s signature and congressional review before taking effect.
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Chicago was also hit with more chaos in March and April. Hundreds of teens flooded streets, filled intersections and broke out into fights, resulting in multiple arrests and curfew violations.
Mayor Brandon Johnson warned parents about the “teen trends” following the incidents, saying they “are dangerous and can often turn violent.” Johnson avoided using the term “takeover.”
Struggles among teens, like poverty and mental health, could be fueling the “chaos,” Swearer said.
“There’s a huge overlap between juvenile delinquency and poverty and mental health issues, and even delinquencies from school, truancy,” she said.
Despite those broader challenges, she said the takeovers are not justified.
“None of that is an excuse for allowing this type of large-scale chaotic disruption in this planned way,” she said.
Authorities have made multiple arrests nationwide this year tied to the meetups, with several in the nation’s capital. President Trump, who campaigned on lowering crime and has warned criminals will face prosecution, has carried that message into efforts such as the Make D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force.
Takeovers in Trump’s backyard
The incidents have also created a political and public-safety test in Trump’s backyard, where the president has made D.C. crime a signature issue and deployed federal muscle to back it up.
Trump’s Make D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force has made more than 10,000 arrests and recovered more than 1,000 illegal firearms since its launch, but the continued teen takeovers show how juvenile disorder remains a stubborn challenge even amid the broader crackdown.
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However, the concern over an escalation in teen takeovers persists.
The White House told Fox News Digital that the administration is ready to tackle potential rising crime “head on” when asked about concerns the teen takeover trends could spike in the warm summer months.
“President Trump’s Safe and Beautiful Task Force has yielded tremendous results in a very short period of time – driving down crime rates in all categories and making the city safer for residents and visitors alike,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital. “As new law enforcement challenges arise, the Task Force remains committed to addressing them head on.”
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Pressure mounts over juvenile crime response
The D.C. incidents have revived a broader fight over juvenile accountability in the capital.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced Friday that parents who let kids take part in violent D.C. teen takeovers could now face fines and up to six months in jail under the city’s curfew law.
“As we grapple with this problem, there is one area that hasn’t been discussed,” Pirro said. “Parent involvement has been a noted gap in any discussion, and I am here to say, as the United States attorney in the District of Columbia, that ends today.”
“If the evidence shows the parent knew or should have known, permitted or failed to prevent participation, we’re gonna charge them,” she added.
She criticized the city’s response to teen takeovers in April, saying the disorder falls largely outside her office’s jurisdiction because most juvenile cases in D.C. are handled by the local attorney general.
“These alleged social gatherings turn into criminal chaos,” Pirro told Fox & Friends. “Families are affected by it, businesses end up being shuttered, there’s violence that occurs.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office generally handles adult felonies and only a narrower set of serious juvenile cases charged as adult matters, including certain violent crimes involving 16- and 17-year-olds.
“Since I have been here, my mission has been to change the law to make some of the young punks criminally responsible for what they’re doing,” Pirro told Navy Yard residents at an Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting in March.
Smith said the D.C. attorney general’s office, led by Brian Schwalb, has repeatedly mishandled juvenile prosecutions.
“This narrow slice of crime that’s committed by juvenile offenders, primary responsibility lies to prosecute those offenders with the D.C. attorney general’s office, and frankly, he’s just not doing his job right now,” he said.
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The Department of Justice, Pirro’s office, and D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“You can put more officers on the street, you can put more National Guard members on the streets, and they can arrest individuals who break the law, but if those juvenile offenders are not being held accountable at the end of the day, they recognize that there are no real consequences,” Smith said.
He said teens who don’t fear punishment are more likely to commit crimes.
“Too many juveniles, particularly juvenile offenders in the District, recognize that there is a lack of consequences for their violent actions,” he said.
A small group of repeat offenders may actually be driving the crime, and authorities already know who many of them are, Swearer said.
“Juvenile crime tracks the same way as adult crime,” she said. “It’s driven predominantly by a small number of repeat, almost incorrigible offenders who are well known to the criminal justice system.”
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She said leaders can address these problems, but whether they’re willing to act is unclear.
“In many respects, we saw that this was a willpower issue,” she said. “Did we have the power to actually do something about this?”
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