Press Conference Addressing Recent Teen Takeover Activity in Washington, D.C.

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[00:00:21]I love It's going to be Come here.

[00:03:10]All Hi everybody.

[00:03:14]>> How are you?

[00:03:16]>> How are you?

[00:03:17]>> Oh, who asked me how I was? Thank you.

[00:03:20]I'm good. Thank you. Uh I'm here with uh Darren Cox from the uh Washington field office of the FBI and Mike Spence who runs the superior court uh side of my office. And uh I wanted to kind of follow up on what I first spoke about on Friday.

[00:03:39]What happened uh this past Saturday night at uh Chipotle in the Navyyard uh and what we're seeing increasingly across the district is not only unacceptable, it is violent, it is dangerous, and it is illegal. And I am here to tell you it is going to stop.

[00:03:59]And parents, I'm talking about you now.

[00:04:03]This is a different scenario than any other time in the history of the district because we are looking beyond those individuals who are committing the crimes irrespective of how old they are and we're looking at the parents to make sure that they understand that they are responsible for the upheaval that is going on in this district that is impacting everyone who lives here. I was at a doctor's appointment at 8:00 this morning and the doctor was concerned about what's going on in the district.

[00:04:37]This is across the board. This is something that we should all be interested in making sure ends. And trust me, I'm going to do my part. This kind of thing is destroying the quality of life in the district. The residents are finding it extremely difficult to enjoy public parks and uh spaces as well as waterfront areas and the residents are starting to feel like these out of control teens are taking away their happiness and their quiet enjoyment. So as we move into the summer months, make no mistake, crime increases as the weather gets warmer and school is out.

[00:05:20]Now, just this past weekend with the DC Safe and Beautiful task force as well as NPD, we seized 32 guns.

[00:05:30]Two days in the weekend, 32 guns.

[00:05:34]They're coming out and they're emboldened for whatever reason. And it's time to let them know that that's not going to serve them well. And the truth is these kids, these teens, if you want to call them kids, they need to find something productive to do. And parents, that's your job. That's not our job. And I am sick and tired of people saying to me, "Oh, the teens have nothing to do."

[00:06:02]Yes, they do. The Department of Parks and Recreation has over 1,700 individual programs for teens and parents. Take advantage of this and have your kids get involved in everything from basketball, baseball, boxing, tennis, ballet, cheerleading, kickball, track and field. And honestly, parents, there's a softer side to this. We don't want your kids victimized either and neither should you. And that requires that you do something about this and that's why we're going to hold you accountable. Now, these are not harmless gatherings. They are violent and they are disruptive. And you can see from what happened at Chipotles this past weekend, it was not just violence occurring between individuals. It was simply destruction of property. It was a takeover of a restaurant by individuals who felt that they could get away with it. Well, they're not going to get away with it. And I'm going to tell you how in a couple of minutes. But this terrorizing is going to end. And the message that lawlessness runs the streets is over. The city belongs to law-abiding residents, not roaming mobs looking to make a name for themselves or to contribute to the chaos or violence and to get social media attention. These are not kids being kids. This is criminal conduct. But for those kids, those teens who insist on participating in these mobs, understand something. A social media click is not worth a criminal record. And we will make sure that you have a criminal record. And if you think that being a team gives you a pass to terrorize businesses and neighborhoods, you're about to find out otherwise. We will arrest you. And where we can, we will prosecute you aggressively and we will prosecute your parents. And to those repeat offenders and anyone carrying weapons, assaulting officers, destroying property or targeting businesses, expect serious consequences. And to those who organize these these team takeovers or these MOP connections, when you do so on social media, we have your social media and that lasts forever and that's all we need to pin this on you. And on Friday, I made it clear that I was going against the parents who take and refuse to take responsibility to stop this kind of thing. I said they would face consequences and I meant it. I talked about DC code uh and I want to reiterate it is 22-811 that I am going to use to prosecute you for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Parents, you are not a bystander in this crisis. the taxpayers who were footing the bill by extra policing, cleaning up damaged property, suffering the effects of these illegal gatherings, whether it be noise or fights or robberies or chaos are done starting now. Parents, you're paying the bills.

[00:09:32]And if you know where your teen is and what your teen is doing and you allow them to continue their conduct and continue to allow them to flourish, then we're going to prosecute you. And you can't just say, "Well, I really didn't know. I'm not so sure." This is going to be a strict liability crime and a strict liability prosecution.

[00:10:02]Now, how am I going to do this? When teens are repeatedly violating the curfew, when they're repeatedly truent from school, when they possess alcohol or drugs, no matter how much, doesn't mean that they have to be prosecuted when they are violating a court order or when they're already appends a person in need of supervision or committing criminal offenses like we saw in Chipotle were coming for you and we're coming for your parents. If your team parents is a curfew violator, you're subject to a $500 fine each and every time. And if there are crimes under contributing to the delinquency of a minor, you face up to six months in prison. And I am not shy about looking for jail time. The people of the district have had enough and we do not want this increasing as these teens run wild through our neighborhoods.

[00:11:11]Now, this is going to be a coordinative holistic approach. This morning, I spoke to Chief Jeffrey Carroll about the need for my office to know who the teens are who've gotten a curfew violation.

[00:11:26]because if there's more than one or two parents, you're on my list. I spoke to the uh police chief about those teens uh who are wearing masks when they are committing crimes. That's an additional violation. It's an OAG violation, but it's a violation nonetheless, and I can bootstrap the parents into that. I also spoke with the local DC attorney general, Brian Schwab, and he and I are on the same page as it relates to his giving my office the information that I need about pins about young people in the family court, who are in trouble, who are in a position where they are being monitored and under a court order.

[00:12:16]It is then that I can pull their parents in. I've got everything in place now.

[00:12:22]And I spoke to the chancellor of schools. That one is yet to be determined. So, if you've been following the DC news, you know that there has been a back and forth with the DC council who for whatever reason are refusing to vote on a curfew, a new curfew that will allow Mayor Bowser and with whom I am on the same page on this along with Chief Jeffrey Carol to impose a discretionary curfew based upon information that is coming to their attention. In fact, right now the curfew is 11 to 6 weekdays. Uh and I think on weekends it may be 12 to six. But the DC council is not willing to deal with this. They punted and you know they punted when the kids were on spring break between I believe it was April 15th and April 21st and they literally just went home. Well, I'm telling you now that there is a meeting tomorrow of the DC Council and I am now asking the people of the District of Columbia to who agree with the mayor and the chief and me that they need the ability to create this curfew based upon the discretionary and the recent information to call every one of these members of the DC Council and tell them that we need a curfew. We need a discretionary curfew where the mayor and the chief have the ability to get the police and get the teens out of areas so we can enjoy the quality of life that we are entitled to. Enough of this nonsense. If we don't do this ourselves, no one is going to do it for us. And in the end, this is a coordinated effort and it is something where I want to thank the MPD.

[00:14:24]I want to thank Darren Cox who is in charge of the Washington field office of the FBI. All of our law enforcement who uh partners who are working tirelessly to restore law and order. They have shown tremendous pressure, professionalism, and restraint. I I I say this every time and I have to say it because I desperately believe it. We are in the most important city in the nation. This is the nation's capital.

[00:14:51]This is where the 250 anniversary will take place on July 4th. This is where we have to make people proud of that city on the hill. And unless we all come together and do this together, it's not going to happen. But I'm an optimist and I believe that it will. So now I'd like to call upon Darren Cox who can tell us what we're doing to deal with this violent takeover. Thank you.

[00:15:19]>> Hi, I'm Darren Cox, the assistant director in charge of Washington field office. I appreciate the opportunity to be here today. I want to pledge our support to our partners who are investigating these takeovers. Make no mistake, these takeovers are not harmless gatherings. They're violent incidences that often lead to assaults, fights, and robberies.

[00:15:45]They distri They dis I'm sorry, they disrupt commerce and spread violence throughout our communities.

[00:15:54]The FBI is devoting personnel and resources to investigate all possible federal violations during these violent takeovers.

[00:16:06]If the subjects are 18 or older, they are considered adults in the eyes of the law. And any federal crime that they commit will be investigated and referred to the US Attorney's Office here in DC for full and aggressive prosecution.

[00:16:26]We will support the US Attorney's Office in also prosecuting any minors who engage in federal criminal conduct. The FBI will not tolerate physical violence or the disruption of commerce that violates federal laws. We will continue to support the Metropolitan or MPD, also the US Attorney's Office, and all of our federal and local partners in this matter. Thank you.

[00:16:58]>> Thank you. Now, uh I'm sure you're going to ask the question and I'll try to answer it. Now this case is under investigation right now. We are working diligently on it. The FBI is working.

[00:17:10]They have tech I won't say techniques.

[00:17:14]Um you have want to talk about it.

[00:17:18]>> He doesn't want to talk about it. See that's what happens with the FBI.

[00:17:22]Uh they are using all of their resources. We are trying to identify these people. They may be teens. They may not be teens. We don't know. But in this, we were trying to figure out for you what pictures to show you, and I'm sure you all have already looked at this online. There's one point where I think a man is in a blue shirt, maybe it's a red shirt, and he has a little girl in a pink dress, and he's hugging the little girl. That infuriated me, and it should infuriate every one of you. This has to stop. These people feel that they can do this and that they can destroy the property of others and victimize other human beings and destroy property, destroy a business. People are petrified.

[00:18:07]We're going to put an end to this. I'm telling you, we're going to put an end to it.

[00:18:11]>> Yes.

[00:18:12]>> Hi, Brandon Reese with the Daily Caller.

[00:18:14]I have two questions for you. Um, how soon can we see charges against parents?

[00:18:19]And then you mentioned the planning of these team takeovers. Um do you have any idea who's planning them and how widespread that is?

[00:18:28]>> Let me answer the first uh the last question first and that is in terms of the planning. It can be it can be the spur of the moment. Let's all get together in this place. it's on social media and then if we're tracking the social media then we've got to be able to say or the police will be able to identify that area and go there and break it up. Okay. But if there is no curfew, a discretionary curfew as it's as it's called, then we can't do anything until they start committing a crime. We can't even break it up. Okay?

[00:19:01]And that's why it's so important. I put their names up and their telephone numbers up for a reason. Call them. tell them this they don't lose anything by voting to give law enforcement the ability to protect teens and protect the citizens. And what was the first question? How long before what >> how long before we charges parents?

[00:19:23]>> I think if you if you read between what I was saying there were several parts of the statute of contributing to the delinquency of a minor um subdivision one is if they're truent from school. In order for me to find that, I have to work out something with the chancellor of schools. I have to have that information. If they possess or consume alcohol or have a prescription uh that is not have drugs that they don't have a prescription for, then I can get from the MPD. We're going to be working together. Uh if they violate a court order, the office of the attorney general has indicated that he will start working with us on that. They violate any criminal law, I can do that. um uh if they uh uh violate a court order, if they the street gang doesn't work, there are any one of a number of subdivisions of 811 that we can use. But what this means is that we have to start backtracking now. We have to we can get someone for example in this situation but before I can prosecute a parent I've got to know that there is some knowledge that they were uh uh uh soliciting or recruiting assisting supporting causing encouraging enabling inducing advising. There's a lot of verbs in there and if I can prove that I'll go after them. But understand it's almost a backtrack. What are the truency records? What are the family court records? What are the criminal records?

[00:20:57]What are the criminal records that I can access? You know, what do I know about the parents from kids? I was a family court judge for a while. Persons in need of supervision. Understand it's going to take it's going to take a while, but it's a holistic approach and I've got pretty much everyone uh in place to do this.

[00:21:16]>> Thank you.

[00:21:17]>> Yes. Hi. Oh my gosh. Fox. Um, so this happened almost 48 hours ago. There multiple camera angles. I know you have techniques that you're working on to figure out exactly who is behind this.

[00:21:27]But what is your message to that dad?

[00:21:29]Because I felt the same way that you did as he's holding his daughter. Yeah.

[00:21:33]>> You have MPD that said they were a minute away and still made no arrest by the time they got on scene. You have National Guard in the area. You have FBI. What more resources could you add preventatively in, you know, in addition to charging parents? Well, I mean, obviously our focus is to arrest the wrongdoers. I mean, that's our first focus. Uh, I don't know about the time as it relates to the MPD, the FBI, the uh National Guard. Uh, I don't know what the allegations are or what you're referring to, but what I can tell you is everyone is right now making sure that they are working on this. This is top of mind today for everyone that you mentioned. Yes, sir. Kayla G, the Washington Examiner. I just want to get you to maybe reiterate or say is your concern that if this this curfew is not in place that those the lack of curfew is a contributing factor for what we see happening at at Chipotle, you're concerned without that curfew that other restaurants could be ransacked, things like that because those Yeah, it's like it's like 1 plus 1 equals two sort of situation. Well, what the what the discretionary curfew gives us is the ability for police to go in and break it up, okay, and get these kids. They either end up with a division for youth and family services or they get taken somewhere where their parents or a guardian have to pick them up. Okay? So, it's dispersed almost automatically. So, that in itself prevents it. You know, it's almost, you know, when you talk about did it take police longer? I mean, I don't know. saying to you is that you know if we know about it ahead of time we're there before it happens and that's one of the benefits. Yes from channel 7.

[00:23:12]I think what you were saying was that this the discretion sorry to I'm not taking your time but just like it allows the cops to look at social media. It allows them to go prior otherwise they can't do anything. We know that some of these takeovers don't just involve DC kids. Some of them come from Virginia.

[00:23:29]Some come from Maryland.

[00:23:31]I think that that's been proven.

[00:23:34]>> What happens to those >> parents? Parents. Yes. Can Can we do anything about them?

[00:23:39]>> No, probably not. I mean, I would have to have some real nexus there. Would you like to speak?

[00:23:46]>> I I'm I'm happy to.

[00:23:48]>> All right. This is Michael Spence.

[00:23:50]Michael Spence is in charge of the DA side of my office as opposed to the federal side. You hit it, Michael.

[00:23:56]>> All right. Thank you. Got it. Um, so to answer your question, I really think it depends on the circumstances. We would in all of these cases, we're going to do a lot of investigation with our law enforment partners, but there there may be circumstances where we may be able to prosecute uh parents who live in Maryland or Virginia. Their kids are still here in the district. Their kids are not being supervised. They're not doing what they need to as parents. And there are plenty of other parts of our criminal code where conduct outside of the district that affects things happening in the district, we can charge that as well. It depends on the show, but but your message is the same, I would imagine, to these teenagers who are thinking about coming to do this sort of >> My message is the same to the teenagers and their parents. Okay. If Mike can figure it out, I'm all in.

[00:24:41]>> All right, everybody.

[00:24:43]>> Yes. Oh, you again. You sat over there.

[00:24:47]>> Have you been able to identify any individual customers in this individual?

[00:24:51]>> I don't know yet. I really don't. Do you know Yeah, believe me, we will we will get our hands around this as quickly as possible.

[00:25:01]>> And then given the weaponization announcement today, I just want to see at all that the any taxpayer money the weaponization announcement from from the the weaponization. Do you think that taxpayer money going to other people in the city?

[00:25:15]>> I don't know anything about this.

[00:25:17]>> This is the it's the settlement money through the Trump IRS settlement that they >> I'm not involved in that. You always ask these out of the out of the the out of my lane questions.

[00:25:28]>> What?

[00:25:28]>> Uh, judge, we have Trayon right up here.

[00:25:32]Lost his appeal to throw out his case.

[00:25:35]>> Yeah, Trey.

[00:25:36]>> He's still on the city council. You want his number?

[00:25:40]>> There he is.

[00:25:45]>> We pulled it together.

[00:25:46]>> WHY DON'T WHY DON'T YOU HAVE TREY'S PICTURE THERE?

[00:25:49]>> We didn't know if there was We didn't know if there was a reason. No, there is no reason.

[00:25:54]>> Do you have any reaction to him uh in the appeal and >> No, no, I don't have any rea. Look, you know, I I'm pretty much a straight shooter. You know, judge makes a decision. Sometimes I agree, sometimes I don't. I have a job to do. I'm going to do my job. And I'm going to apologize for not having this picture here down my head.

[00:26:15]>> Is the FBI leading the investigation, this specific investigation, or will the FBI leading future investigations into other youth mob environment attacks.

[00:26:24]>> Uh this investigation is being led by MPD and we are providing assistance to them in this investigation. And uh one thing I would ask is the uh photographs that you've seen here and also on social media if individuals have the identity or know about them or have any information about the individuals that would have been in Chipotle, please make sure that you're reaching out to MPD to provide that. And how how common is that for the FBI to help local police in these sorts of environments? Is this a is this a unique thing for the Washington field office?

[00:27:00]>> Uh no, it's it's not unique. We help uh state and locals across the the country.

[00:27:05]And once we identify a federal nexus, we work with them and at this point in time, we're working with MPD. We're providing both agent and analytical support in this investigation. Once we identify federal charges, once we identify the subjects, uh then we'll obviously consult with US attorney's office here and see if uh additional federal charges are appropriate and if so, then we would >> and and Judge Janine, >> one of the one of the and I think it's important to add to what Darren just said is because of the president's make DC safe and beautiful, um we've already we've we've gotten into kind of a a rhythm where we work together and we find that there are tremendous aspects of each other that we can utilize to help us with our cases. So, I'm really proud of the engagement between local and federal.

[00:27:56]>> And with that aspect, National Guard, are you going to are is there a conversation about how are we going to position National Guard with the summer?

[00:28:04]Are those going to change in terms of parole? Where are their patrolling? Have you?

[00:28:09]>> Well, uh, that I think that we're going to leave up to, uh, Caddyy Serala, who is in charge of the task force and the marshals. You know, I'm I just get the information from them when they make an arrest or when they need legal advice and we provide that advice to them.

[00:28:24]That's really their view. But I want to thank you, please. Uh, by the way, one of the names that was yelled was Rondell.

[00:28:32]Randelle. Randelle was one of the names in the video where someone said I think stop Rondell something like that. Play it back. If anybody knows a name or a person that'll help us out.

[00:28:46]>> Well, that's the question.

[00:28:47]>> Yeah.

[00:28:47]>> Would you have any message to say for the city council members? Do you believe that by refusing to put any sort of curfew in place that they could be endangering Americans who are coming to this nation's capital this summer who are just trying to have a good time as 250? I I think the members of the council should do their job and their job is very clear and that is to protect the people of the district and when they go home and they punt on issues where the chief of police and the mayor believe it's important and the United States attorney and whoever else is in this room maybe they ought to think twice about. Thank you everybody. Have a great day. Thanks for coming.