A strange thing is happening in Columbus, Ohio.

"Two 16-year-old boys, two 15-year-old boys, and a 14-year-old boy were listed as occupants of the stolen car."
"four guns were found in the car"
"three of them had been arrested before on receiving stolen property"https://t.co/RZxcfhSk81

— G³ (@armatusG) June 1, 2023

They can’t seem to stop kids – and I’m talking, like, 12-year-olds – from repeatedly stealing cars!

Columbus doesn’t appear to be a city in a huge amount of distress when you compare it to a Memphis or even other Ohio cities, like Cleveland. At a poverty rate around 22%, they don’t even break the top 20 of Ohio cities for lower incomes (Oxford, Ohio wins that dubious crown) although, tragically, they do break the top 20 for crime.

Homicide rates in Columbus are again trending upward — and the increase has some community members sounding the alarm.

There have been 44 homicides so far in 2023, according to Columbus police – nearly 50% higher than the 30 homicides by this time in 2022. Office of Violence Prevention Director Rena Shak said in an interview last week that “one homicide is too many.”

Now, as Columbus police are investigating four homicides that happened within 48 hours, gun violence community activists want to know what is being done to make sure it does not happen again.

What in the wide, wide world of sports is going on?

They’ve even involved the U.S. Marshals Service, for Heaven’s sake.

The City of Columbus, community leaders and neighbors are working with federal law officials to look at ways to partner together and prevent violence in city neighborhoods.

“Whatever this district needs, whatever this city needs, if we can provide the assistance we will,” Robert Davis, Director of the U.S. Marshals Service said, who is now visiting 10 cities across the country to talk with community officials about curbing violent crime. Davis, who was born in Columbus and has family here, spent the day meeting with local leaders.

…Davis and Columbus Public Safety Director Robert Clark sat down with local law, county and federal law enforcement agencies, community groups and city leaders, for a roundtable discussion about stopping violent crime, including getting illegal guns off the streets and out of kid’s hands

…Davis is already committing more warrant resources for the area as city leaders and community groups work to end the violence, including the issue of juveniles stealing cars.

The car chase with the 12-year-old driver – lemme repeat, 12-YEAR-OLD-DRIVER – in the tweet above was pretty amazing when you get into the news report.

A 12-year-old boy with five other teens crashed a stolen car into a Columbus fire engine Monday, according to a traffic crash report.

…Police said the car went around other cars that were stopped at a stop sign and crashed into the fire engine.

…A Columbus police spokesperson said four guns were found in the car.

Charges were filed against one of the juveniles and three of them had been arrested before on receiving stolen property, the spokesperson said.

Four guns and three of the kids had priors, and not a one of them was over 16-years-old!

The sad thing is, this is not unusual for Columbus. In fact, it seems to be a right-of-passage for local “youths,” emphasis on the young part of it. One juvenile court judge is trying to come up with an intervention plan, but the recidivism numbers he’s going to be bucking are pretty incredible.

Juvenile car theft has become one of the city’s most common crimes in the last two years, and it can end deadly.

Two 14-year-old boys died after crashing a stolen car last summer. In another case two girls, 12- and 13-years old, were injured after crashing a stolen Kia into a ravine in November.

…Data shows in the last two years, there have been a total of 1,406 stolen car filings in juvenile court. Of those, there are 810 different teens involved. He said 29 percent of those teens are repeat offenders.

Data shows the average age of the youth stealing the cars is 15, but it ranges from ages 10 to 18.

Of the 1,406 cases, the data shows 588 of the youths involved were matched to detention screenings on an initial arrest. The average amount of days spent in the juvenile intervention center is 23 days.

I don’t know how you break a cycle like that, when even the kids involved say they know right from wrong.

And…of course they do.

…One bad decision in November of 2020, would shake Chandler to his core.

“I couldn’t sleep. I told police to kill me because I didn’t want to live anymore without him,” said Chandler.

Patric watched his best friend die from a gunshot wound. The bullet he says was fired, as his friend played with the weapon.

However, weeks later, police charged Chandler with reckless homicide and gun specification. Charges that he plead not guilty to.

“Everybody that’s doing this right now, they know right from wrong. They know what they should, and shouldn’t be doing,” Gabriel said.

Gabriel said many of the teens stealing cars, committing murders and other violent offenses could be seeking a thrill or validation – with little concern for consequences.

These kids learn that behavior somewhere, and a huge source of Columbus’ problems sound as if parents and adults are either 1) nowhere to be found or 2) doing some shooting themselves. Naturally the kids are going to mimic what they see and hear when they have no restrictions and no consequences but, possibly, death, which means what to a 12-year-old?

The city is going to blow $20M on “parks and recreation” this summer in an attempt to keep the chill on.

The unofficial start to summer is here. Thursday is the last day of school in the Columbus and South-Western districts. There’s a lot of concern that teens with nothing to do will get into serious trouble over the summer.

The Columbus City Council committed $20 million to reduce youth violence. Will the investment work?

Color me the cynic I am, but I’ve always believed that’s throwing money away.

According to this case study of a repeat offender, and interview with another juvenile court judge, another part of the problem seems to be the removal of truancy officers from schools and then the juvenile system itself.

…Judge Leach calls juvenile court the end game for these kids and the trends they’re now seeing is causing the court great concern.

In data obtained from juvenile court, Problem Solvers found detention admissions are up by 146% since 2019.

75% of juveniles released from detention or an ankle monitor re-offend within 55 days. More than twice as many kids are on an ankle monitor than this times last year. And the number of habitual truancy cases are also skyrocketing. The courts took in 541 truancy cases in 2020. That number more than doubled last year to 1137. Judge Leach calls truancy a gateway offense to severe crime.

“If we had a truancy officer who was doing something, many of these children wouldn’t even be here,” he said.

Columbus Police got rid of its truancy division in 2018. Columbus City Schools stopped using Columbus Police Department’s school resource officers two years later. Judge Leach told Problem Solvers that community partners like police, schools and parents are essential in stopping this surge in mid-range crime like gun possession, car jackings and car thefts.

While the judge tends towards believing the younger offenders are incapable of deciding between right and wrong, the testimony of the kid in the quotes previously put the lie to that.

I also wonder how big the role social media plays in ratcheting situations up and goading kids into acts they might not have taken had they not wanted to be superstars in the next video.

Hard to resist the temptation, with so many TikTok bad asses waving their pieces and living the thuglife…at 12.

God dang.