D.C. area leaders challenge fathers to step up amid rise in juvenile crime

The juvenile crime crisis gripping the nation’s capital region has local leaders calling on fathers and father figures to provide the positive influence on youths that no government program or institution can replicate.

Armed robbers as young as 11 in the District and teen carjackers terrorizing drivers in the suburbs have politicians and community advocates pushing for fathers to step up — especially in the lives of young men.

“Eliminating fatherhood absence is really critical because dads can provide, particularly for their sons, that armor against the negative impacts of the world,” Mel Franklin, an at-large member of the Prince George’s County Council, told The Washington Times. “When that influence is not in the kid’s life, that protection is not there. Oftentimes, the kid is going to turn to their own understanding of how to protect themselves, and oftentimes that leads to violence.”

Fatherlessness has loomed large in some of the region’s high-profile criminal cases involving teen boys.

The mother of Karon Blake, the 13-year-old who was fatally shot by a D.C. resident, considered him to be the man of the house. Police said the boy was breaking into cars when he was shot.

The 17-year-old who tried to stick up Washington Commanders player Brian Robinson Jr. a year ago also had only a mother in his life.

Prince George’s police suggested that 15-year-old rapper and accused gunman “Baby K” was living without either parent when officers arrested him last month. Police said he was trying to shoot a student on a school bus.

The number of juvenile arrests in the District last year increased by 20% from 2021, according to Metropolitan Police Department data. The Times contacted Prince George’s police for data but has not received a response.

Mr. Franklin organized a rally last weekend in Upper Marlboro to zero in on the importance of a father’s presence in a child’s life. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and radio host Russ Parr amplified that theme at the event.

Research supports the message. Children from fatherless homes are more likely to be poor, abuse drugs and drop out of school, according to the nonprofit National Center for Fathering. Boys without father figures are especially likelier to become involved in crime.

Mr. Franklin acknowledged that “you can’t legislate great fatherhood.”

He said most men who retreated from their children’s lives became fathers before they were ready.

The goal of the Upper Marlboro rally was to connect fathers to housing and job resources so they could be present for their children and persuade other men to sign up for mentorship programs in the county.

Fathers and mentors are competing with a sense of direction and excitement promised by a life of crime, said Tyrone Parker, executive director of the D.C.-based Alliance of Concerned Men.

The nonprofit recruits troubled youths into work programs and tries to remedy feuds between rival crews in the District. Unfortunately, Mr. Parker told The Times, the wrong people have a knack for reaching teens before it is too late. The problem is exacerbated when boys travel in a world with “more guns and less men” and where violence is used too often to settle petty disputes.

“We’ve got to teach them how to deal with conflict. We’ve got to teach them how to love,” Mr. Parker said. “[But] we’ve got to think of more creative ways to get into these communities.”

Mr. Parker’s nonprofit pays teens to attend work programs. Once teens are compensated for their time, he said, they become ambassadors to the program for peers.

Local artist and activist Abdur-Rahmaan Kelly said that’s a good start. He said teens won’t take programs seriously if they aren’t paid and will be more likely to resort to crime as a source of income.

But the 25-year-old D.C. native pointed out that financial incentives offered by relief organizations struggle to rewire the brains of teens who still have to live in rough neighborhoods.

Mr. Kelly experienced this firsthand when he moved out of his home in Petworth to run track at North Carolina State University. 

If someone was making sustained eye contact in his neighborhood, he said, it usually meant trouble.

Down South, it was typically someone gearing up to say “hello.”

“The paranoia that comes from being in the ’hood, it makes you operate in a certain way. But getting out of this environment and seeing that everyone isn’t a threat, that was something that I wasn’t used to,” Mr. Kelly told The Times. “It made me feel like I’ve got a lot of growing up to do because a lot of the stuff we were taught growing up was based on survival, and it’s not necessarily right.”

All of those interviewed by The Times agreed that juveniles who commit serious crimes need to face judicial consequences. Some said parents also should be held accountable, whether it’s a civil offense or something more serious.

More important, all agreed that boys need their fathers. Mr. Kelly was one of 12 children in his household but always knew that he had to go home and answer to his father if he got out of line.

Maintaining that level of integrity defines manhood in the eyes of Mr. Parker, and it’s contagious to other boys.

“Are you still the same man with nothing as you would be with everything?” Mr. Parker asked rhetorically. “That’s what I look at — and it’s a long-distance run.”