Honestly curious and would love to hear honest, even raw, opinions, thoughts, and feelings...
Alright y'all, I've been thinking a lot about the "teen takeovers" happening everywhere now, and I'm genuinely curious how y'all are making sense of this and/or approaching it in terms of your work and the profession, and your personal feelings and reactions, as a parent, sibling, resident of the community, whatever role you stand in
Just the other day a 14-year-old was shot in Detroit at one of these. D.C., had the Chipotle brawl. New Jersey just had what they're calling it, "a wave of assaults" at a teen takeover. Columbus just indicted 10 teens (14-18 years old) on about 300 felony counts connected to stolen cars, robberies, and thefts, along with a 32-year-old adult who is reportedly the mother of two of the youth involved. 3 people were stabbed at teen takeovers on the beach in Rhode Island. They're everywhere!!
Now I don't think the answer or solution is simple, at this point but it seems there's no strategy. No one has a strategy to effectively support these kids, but also discipline them, appropriately. The local governments are failing (due to a host of reasons and circumstances), the states aren't doing anything, and the federal government is just there.
On one hand, yes, the kids have "agency". But violence, destruction, theft, and harming workers, often underpaid and overworked WORKERS, residents, or other people cannot be excused. The parents also have responsibilities, even while recognizing and acknowledging that many tamilies are stretched thin, un (der) supported, overworked, and/or under-resourced due to choices of the American government, as well as personal choices and decisions. Let's be honest many these kids are growing up in a time where public investment has been inconsistent, schools are overwhelmed and under stimulated, youth programs are limited, mental health supports are plentiful, yet still hard to access consistently, and the social safety net is so broken must social service systems intervene late, punish quickly, or fail to build real relationships before the issue happens. We seem to be so reactive on this we're lacking a proactive strategy.
So I'm wondering: as social workers, community members, parents, educators, advocates, or people who work with youth, whatever you do or role you see yourself lol how should we be thinking about this? Or how are you making sense of it?
I've been sitting with a few questions and have talked to friend about them:
Where do I is see the line between accountability and over criminalization?
What type of consequences do I think are appropriate and would that be the same if I was on the receiving end of that impact cause by the youths action. Like for real what if they stole my car over and over again (I know people who had their cars stolen multiple times, these aren't rich people, these are everyday people and now they have to figure that out and bare that cost because we know American insurance companies aren't really absorbing it, another rant for another day haha. So what it I had to bare the cost. What is my "threshold" I guess between accountability and accountable discipline, to prevent this even more.
What responsibility should parents carry, and where does that become unfair or ineffective? Columbus was a prime example.
What do the social service system need, despite budgets are already under serious strain? Like what else would help? Or is just need to even start effectively tackling this
Given the times we're in lol I'll say I'm not asking this to argue one political side or another. I'm asking because I think both things can be true the kids and families must be held accountable, and the government and systems must also be held accountable for failing to engage, support, and invest in them before things reach this point.