Brawl breaks out at new DC youth curfew zone an hour before it takes effect

About an hour before D.C.’s youth curfew kicked in Friday evening, in a neighborhood just added to the list of curfew zones for this holiday weekend, a huge brawl broke out, and a teenager was arrested for brandishing a knife, police said.

Dozens of teenagers got involved in the fight near the Banneker Rec Center in Northwest – one of five high-traffic areas where people under 18 are not allowed to gather in groups of nine or more in public or in businesses after 8 p.m. this weekend.

One of the teens waved a knife around but didn’t hurt anyone, police said. He was injured, however, and taken by ambulance to a hospital where he was in police custody Friday evening.

Not an hour later, at the other end of the same curfew area, dozens of young people gathered together in and around the McDonald’s restaurant. Police told them if they were under 18, they were not allowed to gather there in groups. Eventually, they complied and left the area.

D.C.’s chief of police and mayor have said youth curfew zones prevent teens from swarming nightlife areas, causing trouble and sometimes violence. Mayor Muriel Bowser wanted the D.C. Council to extend the chief’s authority to establish the zones for another three months, but it voted this week to delay that vote until the current order expires April 15.

“It was a decision by the Council as a whole,” Bowser said earlier this week. “The chairman moved for postponement, and all of the councilmembers agreed. And that is, in essence, killing the youth curfew.”
“So, the Council will say, Oh, we drove crime down, so let’s start going back to soft-on-crime policies,” the mayor said.

Council Chairman Phil Mendelson worries the mayor’s remarks will be used by Republicans who want to overturn home rule in the District or to encourage President Donald Trump to federalize the police department again.

“The mayor’s remarks can be used as ammunition against a District by Republicans in Congress who’ve done that before,” he said. “That’s a problem. And the mayor’s remarks can offend some councilmembers, and we need those councilmembers to get to yes.”

This weekend, the chief designated youth curfews in four other neighborhoods, as well: Navy Yard, U Street corridor, Chinatown and the Southwest Waterfront.

The citywide curfew starts at 11 p.m.