Any resident or regular visitor to Washington will know the city allows illegal all-terrain vehicles and dirt bike riders to maraud the streets of the nation’s capital. In plain sight, massed groups, mostly of young black men, blast up and down roads, popping wheelies, and otherwise endangering pedestrians and other road users. They are dangerous and disruptive. Unfortunately, the Metropolitan Police Department, the District of Columbia Council, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia are doing nothing about it. Innocent children are now paying the price.
As the MPD bulletin reports: “On Saturday, April 4, 2026, at approximately 6:52 p.m., Third District officers responded to the intersection of 14th Street and Chapin Street, Northwest, for the report of a crash. Officers discovered two juvenile males who were injured after being struck by a dirt bike operator as they rode an e-bike in the bike lane. D.C. Fire and EMS responded to the scene and transported one juvenile male unconscious to an area hospital for treatment of serious injuries. The second injured child was treated on scene for minor injuries. The preliminary investigation indicates that the dirt bike operator lifted the bike onto its back wheel just before the collision. The dirt bike operator fled the scene, continuing northbound on 14th Street with a large group of ATVs and dirt bikes.”
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The criminals are mostly to blame, but the police deserve their share, too. Fourteenth Street is one of Washington’s busiest streets, lined by restaurants and bars that attract large crowds every day of the week. It is also full of police cars and is a favorite route for illegal ATV/dirt bike riders. That this collision was allowed to occur underlines the intolerable level of police tolerance for rampant illegal activity. The police video of the suspect shows a large group of ATV drivers performing highly dangerous stunts.
Police reluctance to risk pursuing these criminals is understandable. Two police officers were sentenced to prison in 2020, when an illegal dirt bike operator died after driving head-on into a car during a pursuit. The officers were rightly prosecuted for attempting to cover up their role in the crash, but they received inordinate sentences for the biker’s death. He was breaking the law, and they were trying to stop him.
The pro-crime lunacy of the D.C. Council is much the most blameworthy in all this mess. Under the influence of far-left council members such as Charles Allen and Brianne Nadeau, the council restricted the police’s ability to pursue offenders and reduced penalties. Crime in the district skyrocketed. Former President Joe Biden’s U.S. Attorney for D.C., Matthew Graves, made things worse by dismissing or reducing criminal charges. Former police chief Pamela Smith also cooked the crime rate books.
Fortunately, things are improving under President Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office. He appointed Jeanine Pirro as U.S. Attorney for D.C., and her work has led to substantial reductions in crime. Police morale is up. And although they still work under excessive restrictions, officers can now conduct more pursuits in more circumstances.
But more action is plainly required. If the D.C. Council is the obstacle to tougher law enforcement, Pirro must say so and ask Trump to get involved if necessary. Until then, the buck will stop with Pirro and interim police chief Jeffery Carroll.
To that end, the Washington Examiner asked the U.S. Attorney’s Office whether Pirro is satisfied and what efforts she is taking to boost related prosecutions. In response, spokesman Tim Lauer stated only that Pirro “looks forward to prosecuting the individuals responsible as soon as they are apprehended and asks for the public’s assistance in identifying and locating them.”
The Washington Examiner asked the MPD why more arrests were not being made for offenses such as aggravated reckless driving, speeding, illegal operation of ATVs/dirt bikes, and driving without insurance. Why have police not more aggressively employed tactics such as spike strips, geofenced tracking of rider cellphones for later arrest, or deployment of undercover officers? While the MPD has previously arrested some illegal drivers and destroyed their vehicles, the scale of this criminal behavior, especially in warmer months, makes clear that efforts are woefully inadequate. The police department disputed the Washington Examiner’s reference to the low rate at which it solves ATV/dirt bike crimes, but would not comment further.
District residents need to speak up more forcefully and push back against excuses for continuing laxity. Specifically, they must reject the suggestion that illegal ATV riding is a black cultural phenomenon deserving of respect. It has perhaps become a black cultural phenomenon, but only in the same way as other crimes have become more prevalent among black people. It is not a self-excusing phenomenon.
A fawning NPR feature written by an illegal dirt bike enthusiast in 2021 described how “this bike life culture is also often misconstrued as dangerous, but the bikers say they are misunderstood.”
Tell that to the family of the 10-year-old who was taken to hospital in serious condition. Such excuses are absurd and contemptible. They include the claim that illegal driving promotes interest in science, and even that restricting illegal ATVs/dirt bikes is tantamount to genocide. Activist Brittany Young offered characteristically vacuous rhetoric, saying, “You can’t just erase it, because you can’t erase Black people.”
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Just as cockfighting does not define the Hispanic community and white supremacist militias do not define the white community, illegal driving does not define the black community. To suggest otherwise is itself a form of racial stereotyping.
The law is clear, and so is the evidence. Reckless riders are breaking the law and endangering innocent lives. Far greater efforts are needed to identify, find, and prosecute them.
