Young people are rampaging in cities across this country, and Heather Mac Donald has written about why this is taking place and what we can do to stop it. She begins by documenting what happened when more than 1,000 teens swarmed a Chicago neighborhood. Then she documents several other riots including the mayhem that took place on Independence Day.

She lists nine reasons given by politicians for why teen takeovers are happening. These range from loneliness to COVID to poverty to the need for safe spaces to too much law enforcement. She concludes that, “None of these explanations withstands scrutiny.”

She reminds us that other countries had more stringent COVID lockdowns and have not experienced teen takeovers. It’s not about hunger or poverty since every participant carrying a smartphone isn’t looting stores for food, blankets, or warm socks. And law enforcement “is the response to violent takeovers, not their trigger.”

While we are talking about law enforcement, it might be good to ask them. “Police officers, district attorneys, and sheriffs offer a different explanation for the teen takeovers: they are the consequence of a decades-long demonization of the criminal-justice system.” She concludes that the juvenile-justice system was emasculated in the last few decades for the same reason that has happened in the adult system: "to avoid the charge of racism."

The current system makes the problem worse. Teens know they are less likely to be arrested. If police decide to arrest a teenager, they are much more likely to resist arrest. Even if the arrest is successful, they are likely to be released. Curfews are another suggestion, but many activists raise an outcry over curfews.

Teen takeovers are not a mystery. Teens are no longer accountable to parents or law enforcement.