RAISE THE AGE ... RAISE THE RAGE. JUVENILE JUSTICE REFORM

"RAISE THE AGE" ... A BLUEPRINT FOR DISASTER
Raising the age at which one can be prosecuted as an adult is a disaster.

It all began with well-meaning, although thoroughly ignorant and naive, when New York passed a law preventing prosecution of minors as adults. The age was, and has long been, 16. It's worked well because there are a whole lot of little bastards aged 13, 14, and 15 who have traditionally "literally" gotten away with murder. 15 year-old hit-men for the gangs have been a problem rarely prosecuted as adults meaning they fall under Juvenile Justice which is a whole lot more lenient than the courts, and more often then not relegated to the juvenile probation system.

I give you, the fruits of the age of "Raise the Age". This is the impetus of a generation of kids who become criminal career criminals before they even get a driver license, before they can vote.

Let's take the case of Julian Turner, aged 17, a gangbanger and drill rapper who’s racked up 20 arrests in his brief life, thanks to criminal-justice “reforms” that invited him to keep on doing whatever he wants, including rape, torture, murder, robbery, etc.

This little bastard's lawlessness began at the very young age of 10 when he was arrested for threatening two other kids with a fake gun. Months later he escalated to actual violence, no longer just threatening anyone. He sliced a 14-year-old’s ear open with a boxcutter. Just a couple of months later he stabbed a 71-year-old woman in the hand.

By the time he was 14, with 18 arrests to his credit, he was he was arrested on charges of attempted murder after shooting a rival gang member in the leg from the back of a scooter.

Now, in a sane world, that would have put Turner behind bars for a long time. But because of Raise the Age, which progressives argue is supposed to keep kids out of jail, reducing their interactions and involvement with the criminal justice system. Turner was free on Sept. 2 just in time for him to get arrested again for holding up a man at gunpoint.

Violence committed by teens and against teens has skyrocketed since Raise the Age took effect in 2019. 96% more kids under 18 were shot so far this year than in the same period in 2018; the number of teen shooters has leapt 148%, even as overall shootings fell.

Raise the Age isn’t keeping kids out of jail; it’s creating more teen criminals, more teen victims and more futures ruined by crime, not saved from it. Teens are impulsive and bad decision-makers; it’s up to adults to show them what behaviour society will and won’t accept.

Intervening in the life of a wayward kid with real punishment early on teaches him to stay away from lawbreaking, and discourages making a lifestyle out of victimizing others.

New York’s progressives instead let children run wild until they end up killers — or killed.
This is the reverse of true compassion; lawmakers must drastically revise Raise the Age before it ruins an entire generation.

Portions of this story originate on the pages of the New York Post Newspaper.