Washington Commanders rookie running back Brian Robinson was shot during an attempted carjacking on Sunday. It was a stark reminder that carjacking has been shrugged off in Washington, D.C., as a prank that children play.
Robinson was shot in the glute and lower leg. Fortunately, his injuries are non-life-threatening. Unfortunately, city officials don’t particularly care about him or anyone else facing rampant carjackings in the district. Carjackings spiked by 153% from 2019 to 2020 and then increased another 18% from 2020 to 2021. Most of these carjackings are perpetrated by juveniles, who then get away with it. Police claim they are arresting teenagers who are repeat offenders. These teenagers are obviously not deterred by whatever “punishment” they are receiving in juvenile court.
Sylvie McNamara at the Washingtonian gave gushing praise to D.C.’s soft-handed approach to these cases. But even she had to admit that repeat offenders could be jacking cars in multiple jurisdictions and that, while the number of re-offenders seems low, there is also no sure way of knowing, because many carjackings go unsolved.
The reality is that letting adolescents know that their life circumstances might essentially excuse them from crimes and that they are guaranteed to face “rehabilitation” instead of justice only incentivizes criminal behavior. Many of these teenagers use guns in their attempts to force people from their cars, and each encounter is already potentially lethal given that cars themselves can be used as a weapon, as was clear when two teenage girls killed Mohammad Anwar after crashing his car in an attempt to steal it.
These confrontations can turn deadly fast, and D.C.’s current plan clearly isn’t working. These criminals, teenagers or otherwise, are emboldened to continue their behavior because “rehabilitation” is the only outcome many of them face. You can only be rehabilitated if you choose to be. The juvenile criminals who laugh at rehabilitation find out that there are no real consequences for committing violent crimes. They have no incentive to change their path.
This problem has spiraled out of control in D.C., and it will only get worse if the city doesn’t treat it like a top priority. The only thing that kept Robinson and other carjacking victims from ending up like Anwar is luck. Many future victims won’t be so lucky.
