D.C. Council brings back juvenile curfew after viral youth-led brawl on Halloween

The D.C. Council on Tuesday voted to restore the citywide juvenile curfew after youths ransacked stores and set off a sprawling melee during the month the curfew was lifted.

It was a chaotic Halloween night brawl in Navy Yard that spurred the council to approve another 90-day curfew.

Mayor Muriel Bowser enacted a short-term curfew after the viral fracas saw National Guard troops trying to corral unruly teens and preteens on Friday.

Metropolitan Police arrested four juveniles and an 18-year-old with a knife during the scene that made national headlines.

“This weekend was yet another reminder of how important it is that we both invest in spaces and opportunities for all of our kids, and that we empower the MPD chief to declare designated juvenile curfew zones when we have intel of planned fights,” said Council member Brooke Pinto, the Ward 2 Democrat and chair of the body’s public safety committee.

The emergency order says no child 17 and under can be out unaccompanied between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.

The order also allows Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A. Smith to designate special curfew zones that bar youths from entering certain neighborhoods after 6 p.m.

Under the mayor’s emergency, Chief Smith created curfew zones along the U Street Corridor in Northwest, Banneker Recreation Center near Howard University, Union Station, and Navy Yard in Southeast.

Juveniles caught inside the curfew zones or who are out late at night are usually ordered to go home, police said.

Those who refuse are taken to the Department of Youth and Rehabilitative Services, the city’s juvenile jail, where they are held until a parent or guardian can come pick them up.

Authorities said they stopped 18 curfew violators during the first night it went into effect Saturday.

But some council members, such as Ward 4 Democrat Janeese Lewis George, opposed reviving the curfew.

She said the city is “occupied” under the Trump administration, and the curfew puts young Washingtonians at risk of encountering federal agents and National Guard troops in the District.  

“We are, as a council, responding not with care, not with support, not by funding safe spaces or investing in after-school and weekend programming for our youth. We are instead expanding the youth curfew, creating more opportunity for our children to face the heavy hand of federal forces wearing military fatigues on our streets,” she said.

Other council members, such as at-large Democrat Christina Henderson, said the curfew’s effectiveness over the summer convinced her to support the latest emergency order.

Ms. Pinto said there were no arrests in any of the juvenile curfew zones during the warmer months.  

Still, Ms. Henderson said there are few places that young people are allowed to gather, with National Harbor in Oxon Hill and Pentagon City Mall in Arlington prohibiting unaccompanied minors from their premises.

She said she hopes Ms. Bowser will include more funding for late-night youth programs in her upcoming budget proposal this spring.