Last week, 14-year-old Angel Mendoza was fatally stabbed in a Bronx playground by a group of teens. His 15-year-old friend Yasmin found him dying. In the days since, a 13-year-old was stabbed by a 14-year-old in Queens, and a 17-year-old shot at a rival teen in Times Square, hitting tourists.
Unfortunately, these are not anomalies. By last year, the number of youths arrested with guns had risen 136% since New York State’s “Raise the Age” legislation began to take effect in 2018. And tragically, the number of juvenile shooting victims grew 81%. Indeed, the proportion of all our city’s shooting victims who are children has approximately doubled since 2018.
Why?
Because the criminal justice process under RTA allows too many violent teens to cycle through the system, unchallenged, back to playgrounds and reckless shoot-outs with few, if any, repercussions. The law substantially increased the rate at which criminal cases for teenagers are diverted to Family Court, and in so doing, significantly decreased the likelihood of meaningful accountability for even serious crimes…