Poetic justice doesn't feel right when the recipient is only a child.
In an ironic twist that some would describe that way, a preteen girl facing murder charges in the killing of a 64-year-old disabled man found herself on the receiving end of violence when she was shot in Washington just four blocks from the scene of her alleged crime, WTTG-TV in D.C. reported Friday.
The 12-year-old and two 13-year-old girls were arrested last week and charged with second-degree murder in the beating death of Reggie Brown in October.
Brown, who was described by his family as a "kind, compassionate person who was very polite" and would "give you the shirt off his back," met his untimely demise due to blunt force trauma, leaving his loved ones grappling with shock and disbelief.
"He was just a quiet, nice polite person. He didn't bother anybody. That's the type of person he was," a close family friend told WTTG.
The family's relief at the arrests of the three juvenile female suspects was tinged with "shock" over the young ages of the alleged perpetrators.
EXCLUSIVE: Victim's family 'shocked' after three teenage girls are charged with murder of 64-year-old DC man. @fox5dc Shomari Stone Reports. The suspects are ages 12, 13, & 13. https://t.co/pjRCQUJuBx
— Shomari Stone (@shomaristone) March 30, 2024
According to a news release Friday from the Metropolitan Police Department, one of the suspects was arrested on Thursday and the other two were arrested on Friday.
However, on Friday morning, the 12-year-old was shot inside an apartment in the 500 block of Peabody Street NW, according to WTTG.
"She going to come through," a relative told the outlet. "It's just a lot going on right now. This happened around three in the morning. I ain't even get no sleep."
D.C. investigators said they were seeking information from the public regarding the shooting of the girl. They said the suspect was wearing a mask and dressed in all black.
While no one should excuse the actions of this 12-year-old and the 13-year-olds, who, if convicted in a court of law, should face the full demands of justice, the entire situation reveals the kind of lifestyle these girls are forced to lead.
According to CNN, there was a 39 percent spike in violent crime in D.C. last year, with juveniles comprising the majority of arrests for robberies and nearly doubling carjackings.
The average arrested carjacker was just 15.
Guns were used in about half of these crimes.
"It's definitely a crisis. I've never seen 12-year-olds do the things that they do," Marcellus Queen, a teen mentor in Washington, told CNN in February.
Curtis Brothers, who went to prison years ago after he opened fire on D.C. police officers, now volunteers as a "violence interrupter" with the Alliance of Concerned Men. His task is maintaining "safe passage" for students outside a middle school in Southeast Washington, ensuring they can get to and from class safely away from the crossfires of neighborhood conflicts.
Brothers told CNN that because of lenient sentencing laws, most teenagers don't believe they are going to jail.
"They believe they ain't going," he said. "The juvenile system is overcrowded so you almost got to catch a couple of murders just to do a couple of months."
"This is the most vulnerable age," Brothers said, referring to middle school children. "Once you get over 13, your mind is pretty much made up, you feel like you know everything. … Once they get to high school, it's probably over."
The cycle of youth violence gripping D.C. did not emerge in a vacuum -- it is the overflowing consequence of years of lax policies and a failure to enforce the law.
Those teenagers now brazenly committing carjackings and shootings are the products of environments where criminal behavior went unchecked and a revolving door of impunity became the norm.
Sixty percent of D.C. students were chronically absent from school last year, according to WJLA-TV.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser recently announced a plan to hold parents accountable for their kids missing too many days of school, but the question is: Where were these parents in the first place?
Children are the product of the environment in which they grow up.
If D.C. is shocked that teenage girls are allegedly capable of murdering a man in cold blood, it points to the long-term decisions by Democratic leadership in the district to turn a blind eye to crime by the adults in those kids' lives.
Very sad. All those kids should be punished in adult court for they are released back into society one day. If they can do this to the most vulnerable people in society, they are capable of anything.
— GeorgeJet (@Black21Johnny) March 30, 2024
Light sentences, no-bail releases and automatic plea deals essentially decriminalized whole categories of offenses in certain neighborhoods. The unspoken message was that unlawful acts carried no real repercussions.
Is it any surprise, then, that a youth who grew up watching his or her parents or neighbors constantly cycle through the lenient system would perceive crime as a normal way of life?
For this 12-year-old girl who is dealing with the consequences of her life choices after being arrested and shot, we can only hope it serves as a lesson to draw her back into the light.
But for thousands of other juveniles skipping school and committing crimes across D.C., a chance for a better way is a long way off as long as Democrats continue to perpetuate their warped idea of criminal justice.
