"Roving mobs of wild youth"

Summary

Today, Explained: "Roving Mobs of Wild Youth" Episode Summary

Release Date: August 13, 2025
Hosts: Sean Rameswaram and Noel King
Network: Vox Media Podcast Network

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1. Deployment of National Guard Troops in Washington, D.C.

The episode opens with Alex Koma, Vox's senior DC politics reporter, discussing the recent deployment of hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. This move has placed the city's police forces under direct federal control. Donald Trump justified this action in a press conference, claiming significant increases in crime rates within the capital.

Notable Quote:
Donald Trump ([00:17]): "The murder rate in Washington today is higher than that of Bogota, Mexico City, some of the places that you hear about caravans of mass youth rampage through city streets. And we're getting rid of the slums too."

2. Trump’s Press Conference and Claims About Crime

President Trump's press conference aimed to portray Washington, D.C. as a city grappling with unprecedented levels of violence, particularly attributing the surge to young individuals engaging in criminal activities. However, these claims are scrutinized by local authorities.

Notable Quote:
Donald Trump ([02:37]): "Washington was under very good control, but we're gonna have it under much more control. We're pouring in, we're gonna pull in thousands of people."

3. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's Focus on Juvenile Crime

Alex Koma highlights Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, who shifts the narrative towards juvenile crime. Pirro criticizes the current handling of violent offenses committed by young individuals, emphasizing the limitations in prosecuting these cases effectively.

Notable Quote:
Jeanine Pirro ([00:30]): "I see too much violent crime being committed by young punks with allegations of extreme specificity. These kids understand that the jurisdiction is through the state Attorney General, Brian Schwab."

4. Analyzing Crime Statistics vs. Public Perception

Eduardo Ferrer, an associate professor at Georgetown Law and policy director of the Georgetown Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative, provides an analytical perspective. He clarifies that violent crime in D.C. has been declining, reaching a 30-year low. The perception of rising crime is largely fueled by selective media coverage and high-profile incidents involving youth.

Notable Quote:
Eduardo Ferrer ([16:18]): "Violent crime overall is the lowest it's been in generations in the District of Columbia. The other piece of it is that's true of young people as well."

5. Legal Framework and Federal Control of D.C.

The episode delves into the unique legal status of Washington, D.C., which, unlike states, remains under federal jurisdiction. This allows the federal government, particularly the President and Congress, significant control over the city's policing and law enforcement policies.

Notable Quote:
Alex Koma ([07:05]): "Why is the Trump administration, why is the president allowed to do this?"

6. Police Union's Support for Federal Intervention

The police union in D.C., led by Greg Pemberton, exhibits strong support for Trump's actions, aligning with his narrative of escalating crime rates. This stance is part of a broader ideological conflict between the union and the city’s mayor and council, especially concerning police reform measures implemented post-George Floyd protests.

Notable Quote:
Greg Pemberton ([08:26]): "Cause many of them... completely agree with the president here that crime in the District is out of control and something needs to be done about it."

7. Federal Law Enforcement Presence and Public Reaction

The deployment includes various federal agencies such as the FBI, DEA, ICE, and Border Patrol, alongside the National Guard. Their visible presence has stirred apprehension among residents, reminiscent of the heightened tensions following the January 6th events.

Notable Quote:
Donald Trump ([03:50]): "A young man who was beat up by a bunch of thugs in D.C.... we're gonna have to federalize."

8. The Incident Involving "Big Balls"

A significant incident highlighted is the assault of a teenager, referred to as "Big Balls," who intervened to protect his girlfriend from potential carjackers. Despite this, local police reports indicate that the response was adequate, with the assailants arrested and no severe injuries sustained by Big Balls.

Notable Quote:
Alex Koma ([04:16]): "He's covered in blood and his white T-shirt and everything. And Trump is using this as proof of...how dangerous D.C. is."

9. Historical Context: The "Super Predators" Discourse

Eduardo Ferrer draws parallels between the current rhetoric and the 1990s' "super predators" narrative, which demonized young, particularly minority youth, as inherently violent and beyond rehabilitation. This historical context underscores the recurring theme of politicizing juvenile crime.

Notable Quote:
Eduardo Ferrer ([20:23]): "The super predator term was really coined at the tail end of this period where we abandoned the rehabilitative notion."

10. Policy Implications and Recommendations

Ferrer argues against the "tough on crime" approach, citing research that shows harsher penalties and increased incarceration rates for youth do not correlate with reduced crime rates. Instead, he advocates for investing in youth services, community support, and preventive measures to address the root causes of delinquency.

Notable Quote:
Eduardo Ferrer ([24:20]): "What we want is harm not to happen in the first place. The way we do that is to give kids the services, the supports, the opportunities that they need to thrive."

11. Conclusion: Balancing Perception and Reality

The episode concludes by emphasizing the discrepancy between public perception, fueled by selective media narratives and political rhetoric, and the actual data indicating a decrease in violent crime in Washington, D.C. The hosts advocate for informed policy-making based on comprehensive data rather than sensationalist narratives.

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Credits:
Produced by Miles Bryan
Edited by Amina El Saadi
Fact-Checked by Laura Bullard
Engineers: Andrea Christen's daughter and Patrick Boyd
Host: Noel King

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This episode of "Today, Explained" offers a comprehensive examination of the recent federal intervention in Washington, D.C., dissecting the narratives presented by political figures against the backdrop of actual crime statistics and historical policy impacts. It encourages listeners to critically assess the information presented to them and underscores the importance of evidence-based policy decisions.

Transcript

[Alex Koma]

The deployment of hundreds of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. started last night, and the city's cops came under direct federal control. So far, tbh, not very much has happened. On Monday, President Trump gave a wild press conference justifying his takeover of D.C.

[Donald Trump]

The murder rate in Washington today is higher than that of Bogota, Mexico City, some of the places that you hear about caravans of mass youth rampage through city streets. And we're getting rid of the slums too.

[Alex Koma]

But it was the U.S. attorney for the District, Jeanine Pirro, who pulled focus. I see too much violent crime being committed by young punks with allegations of extreme specificity. These kids understand that the jurisdiction is through the state Attorney General, Brian Schwab. What they do not Today on today explained from Vox what's really happening in D.C.

[Henry Blodgett]

How do we AI proof our jobs? How do we fix the deficit? How do we get our political system working again? I'm Henry Blodgett and I'm launching a new podcast called Solutions, where every week I'll talk to an innovative, enterprising expert to cut through the doom and focus on how to build a better world. Follow Solutions with Henry Blodgett wherever you get your podcasts. The first episode will be out Monday, August 18th.

[Alex Koma]

Megan Rapinoe, here this week on A Touch More, we are joined by my longtime U.S. women's national teammate Allie Krieger. We talk about her post retirement plans, the current generation of soccer players, and of course, her boots. Sue and I also get into big WNBA trades and share a new workout of the week, one you can do from your own home. Check out the latest episode of A Touch More wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube. Goodness gracious.

[Donald Trump]

Wind balls of fire.

[Alex Koma]

You're listening to today, explained Alex Koma, senior DC politics reporter at WAMU in DC. What has happened here?

[Henry Blodgett]

This really has its roots in many ways. Back in 2020, you know, during the height of the protests over George Floyd's killing, when Trump was in office the first time and, you know, back, he really talked about, you know, maybe taking control of the police department.

[Donald Trump]

Washington was under very good control, but we're gonna have it under much more control. We're pouring in, we're gonna pull in thousands of people.

[Henry Blodgett]

He did end up calling in the National Guard and sending in a bunch of federal law enforcement officers. You know, anyone in D.C. will remember, like helicopters flying really low over protesters. Like a really scary time in the city.

[Alex Koma]

The National Guard is now investigating its use of a helicopter to make a, quote, show of fire force against protesters near the White House.

[Henry Blodgett]

And he has sort of been like, stuck in this memory of those days in so many ways since then. During the 2024 campaign, he just spent so much time talking about how they.

[Donald Trump]

Have very good police here, but they have to be allowed to do their job. We're going to stop it, we're going to beautify it, we're going to make it the most beautiful capital in the world.

[Henry Blodgett]

He kind of waxes and wanes with how much he pays attention to us in D.C. and really it only started up again when this Department of Government efficiency employee, Edward Korstein, or as you may know him at home, Big Balls got beat up. And Trump starts truth socialing about it. And all of a sudden we're back in the crosshairs again.

[Donald Trump]

A young man who was beat up by a bunch of thugs in D.C. and either they're going to straighten their act out in the terms of government and in terms of protection, and we're gonna have to federalize.

[Alex Koma]

So Big Balls is a teenager that had a lot of main character energy very early on in the Trump administration. And then the Doge stuff kind of died down. We didn't hear so much about him anymore. What exactly did happen to him the other day?

[Henry Blodgett]

Well, you know, sadly, figuring this out has been like, more complicated than you would expect. But I mean, the basic version we have from the police is that, you know, he's out and about, he's with his girlfri and he sees her being harassed by some teenagers trying to carjack her. He intervenes and then he steps in and he gets beat up. And the photo that sticks in everybody's mind, cuz the one that Trump posted is of him sitting on the ground. He's covered in blood and his white T shirt and everything. And Trump is using this as proof of. Look. Look at how dangerous D.C. is. Even an innocent Big Balls can be beaten up like this. But, you know, I can't tell this story without pointing out that the police say that he wasn't even taken to the hospital. And the cops kind of did, like, exactly what you would want them to do. Apparently there were a bunch of police, like, pretty close to where all this was happening. They saw what was happening, they arrested the teenagers in question. They've already had their first court dates. Like, I really don't know what else you would be hoping for, but for like a personal cop for each employee of Doge. So, you know, but that doesn't matter to Trump. I mean, what matters is him is the chance to use this as evidences why he needs to intervene in D.C.

[Alex Koma]

So we know by now from listening to Mayor Bowser and a lot of social scientists that crime in Washington, D.C. is actually coming down and we're at a 30 year violent crime low. What do the numbers tell us about what's going on in the city?

[Henry Blodgett]

Where so much of this comes from is the fact that in 2023, crime here really was up.

[Alex Koma]

So according to our numbers, about 12 were shot in the past three days here in D.C. five of them were people under the age of 18.

[Henry Blodgett]

Concerned D.C. residents asking questions and sounding.

[Donald Trump]

Off over a rise in crime in Chinatown, and tempers flaring towards the end.

[Henry Blodgett]

Of the two and a half hour meeting. And this was abnormal. I mean, pretty much every other city of D.C. size, every major city in the U.S. was seeing, you know, violence which had, you know, spiked during COVID during the pandemic, come back down. And D.C. really didn't. And that freaked everybody here out. Everybody sort of collectively lost their minds here in our local politics. It became like the only subject that the mayor and the D.C. council could talk about. That was two years ago, though. I mean, things are really different. But virtually, as soon as you got to the first part of 2024, the numbers started going down, and they've since continued to decline.

[Alex Koma]

All right, so the question is both for people who don't want this and maybe even for people who do, how is this legal? Why is the Trump administration, why is the president allowed to do this?

[Henry Blodgett]

Yeah, well, the first and foremost is we are, of course, not a state here in D.C. so that means that we are fundamentally still governed by the feds, by Congress and the president. You know, we do have some degree of home rule that was only given to us in Congress back in the 1970s, just to say, you know, we have an elected mayor and council that can run the city. But that, you know, does include these provisions that are still, you know, very favorable to the federal government controlling the city. Now, Mayor Muriel Bowser has stressed, look, Police Chief Pamela Smith, she's still in charge. She's still telling everyone where to go and what to do. And they've all since met Pam Bondi and the police chief and the mayor, and they're describing it as more of a partnership, because I know people want.

[Alex Koma]

To build upon and create division. We're here to work together with our federal partners, and that's what we're going to do.

[Henry Blodgett]

But, I mean, so let's be clear, what the law says is that under, you know, These emergency circumstances, if the feds tell D.C. police to do something, they have to do it. That's not normally how it is, and that's how it is now.

[Alex Koma]

What does the police union say about that?

[Henry Blodgett]

Well, they are very pro. And this should not be.

[Alex Koma]

They're pro Trump's move. They like this.

[Henry Blodgett]

Oh, yeah. But I think that it's important to understand this in the context of, like, who our police union is led by in this moment. To say that they're Trumpy might be an understatement. Greg Pemberton, the chair of the union, has been on Fox News many times. We completely agree with the president here that crime in the District is out of control and something needs to be done about it. Basically, he's been locked in this conflict with the mayor and the council over a variety of things, but including, you know, police reform that happened in the wake of the George Floyd protests, including some reforms that made it easier to fire cops accused of misconduct. And so they've sort of been in this power struggle where, you know, they've been trying to go around the council and the mayor and seek federal intervention. So maybe, you know, many of the rank and file aren't necessarily thrilled with the fact that the same president who pardoned all the January six rioters who assaulted many of them back in 2021 is now, like, overseeing the department. But the union itself is led by people who view this, I think, as part of a larger, you know, ideological strug Gold.

[Alex Koma]

In addition to the police, who else are we expecting in the streets?

[Henry Blodgett]

They've said FBI, dea, We've been hearing a lot more about ICE and Border Patrol agents in the city so far. And then there's the National Guard to consider. They've actually just started arriving in the city. You know, there should be another 800 or so of them with, I think they're saying 1 to 200 on the streets at any given time. And, you know, to the naked eye, you know, these just. They look like troops that are coming into the city. They're in helmets, and they're armed with, you know, big guns. Oftentimes they're driving, you know, like, big, heavy, you know, trucks and what appear to be, you know, sort of occupying, like, weapons of war kind of hours. I mean, I lived here, you know, right after January 6th. I can remember seeing, like, tanks on street corners and feeling how weird that felt for, you know, what is otherwise just a perfectly safe city. And I think everyone here kind of has bad memories of that and is very apprehensive. About, you know, seeing that again.

[Alex Koma]

I'll tell you what surprised me. I thought the announcement would be made and suddenly the streets would be full of law enforcement, and I am not actually seeing that at all where I live. Do we know where the presence is supposed to be felt?

[Henry Blodgett]

Yeah, I think we're still sussing that out. You know, the way I see it is there's, like, two kind of approaches that the president and his deputies could take, one of which would be to say, well, most of the crime is happening in the, you know, southeast neighborhoods that have historically been disinvested in. That's where so much of the shooting and drug dealing takes place. So if I'm really serious about addressing crime with my new federal resources, well, that's, you know, where these people should be. But we're just not hearing that that's happening right now.

[Alex Koma]

That's where I live. I live there, and I'm not seeing it at all. Like I really was expecting, given the neighborhood, that this would be where we would see it. And, yeah, I'm shocked.

[Henry Blodgett]

I think the thing that you're more likely to see, because we have been seeing a little more of this already, is more of these federal officers, more of the National Guard in the areas that Trump thinks a lot about. Right. Like, you've already seen DEA agents just sort of wandering around the mall, like, aimlessly.

[Dave Fox]

I'm currently walking in dc, getting my.

[Eduardo Ferrer]

Coffee that I get at lunch every day. And why am I seeing FBI?

[Henry Blodgett]

They out here on feet looking like.

[Dave Fox]

Motherfucking Call of Duty.

[Henry Blodgett]

Reporting live from Baghdad. Just kidding. I'm in Washington, dc. Our president is a moron. Because, as we discussed, so much of this is colored by, you know, how Trump reacts to what he sees. He only sees the places around the white. He doesn't really go to other sections of the city. So what is he likely to see? Well, you know, if he's concerned about, you know, crime or whatever, that's probably because he just sees graffiti and maybe a few homeless people downtown, and that reads to him as disorder and it needs to be addressed.

[Alex Koma]

How is. How is Big balls? How is Corstein doing? Is he recovering okay?

[Henry Blodgett]

Do we know? You know, I have not checked in on him, but consider this a plea to Edward that if you, you know, wanna give me a call and let you know, my cell phone is pretty easy to find.

[Alex Koma]

Thanks, Alex.

[Henry Blodgett]

Thanks so much for having me.

[Alex Koma]

Alex Koma. He's very good. WAMU. WAMU.org support your local station. Coming up. Why are DC's kids getting such a bad rap.

[Dave Fox]

Support for the program today comes from Shopify. When you're creating your own business, you have to juggle a lot of role marketing, sales, outreach, design. Shopify can simplify all of that. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and according to the company, 10% of all E commerce in the US from household names like Mattel and Gymshark to brands just getting started like maybe, I don't know yours. They say they have hundreds of ready to use templates to help design your brand style. And they say they can make marketing easier by creating email and social media campaigns so you can connect with customers wherever they be scrolling. Shopify also has AI tools created for commerce they say can help you create product descriptions, generate discount codes and more. You can turn your big business idea into reality with Shopify on your side. You can sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling [e-mail] explained. You can go to shopify.com explained that shopify.com explained. Does anyone have a cash register handy?

[Henry Blodgett]

I'm Jesse Dave Fox, senior writer at Vulture and host of Good One, a show with the best interviews with your favorite comedians ever. And this week on our podcast from Severance, the Meet the Parents movies. Zoolander Cable guy Ben Stiller. Yes, the Ben Stiller.

[Eduardo Ferrer]

The Believability of the World. I think I care a lot about that.

[Henry Blodgett]

Whatever reality you're creating, there's enough of.

[Eduardo Ferrer]

You know, a grounding in some sort of identifiable reality that you believe it.

[Henry Blodgett]

You can watch Good One every week at YouTube.com vulture or listen wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop on Thursdays. Have a Good One.

[Cam Heyward]

Hey, what's good everybody? It's Cam Heyworth, seven time Pro Bowler and defensive captain of the Pittsburgh Steelers and your host of Not Just Football. The NFL season is right around the corner and that means it's time to get locked in on our show Not Just Football with Cam Hayward. We're bringing you everything you need to know about the upcoming season. We've got some incredible guests lined up, former teammates, current players, and legends of the game. We'll give you insights you won't hear anywhere else. We'll be here every week with game breakdowns, player spotlights, and all the stories that go beyond the box score. Because football is about more than just what happens on Sunday. So be sure to listen and subscribe to Not Just Football with cam heyward on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. Let's get ready for another incredible NFL.

[Alex Koma]

Season this is Today Explained.

[Eduardo Ferrer]

My name is Eduardo Ferrer, and I'm an associate professor at Georgetown Law, and I'm the policy director of the Georgetown Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative.

[Alex Koma]

Did you watch President Trump's press conference on Monday?

[Eduardo Ferrer]

I did.

[Alex Koma]

I thought it was really interesting that the president's root causes were kind of all over the place. Bedlam, squalor, homelessness, crime. You know, there's a lot of nouns when Trump speaks. But then his U.S. attorney for D.C. jeanine Pirro, comes out, and she really hits something specific, which is juvenile crime. She says, quote, I can't arrest him, I can't prosecute them. They go to family court, and they get to do yoga and arts and crafts. What is Jeanine Pirro talking about here?

[Eduardo Ferrer]

To be honest, I don't really know because it's so divorced from reality. I think there are a few things to keep in mind. Number one, violent crime overall is the lowest it's been in generations in the District of Columbia. The other piece of it is that's true of young people as well. Youth arrests finished in 2024, lower than they were pre pandemic. For those young people who do get into trouble, D.C. has among the highest detention and incarceration rates in the country. This is not a place where young people are being coddled.

[Alex Koma]

I hear what you're saying about the data. The data, sometimes in the vibes, are in drastic contrast to each other. D.C. implemented a curfew for young people earlier this summer, and the police department dedicated a unit to juvenile crime. Cause they were worried about these kind of big fights, these brawls that are breaking out in parts of the city now. I imagine you look at that and you say, okay, well, that is the thing that's really happening, is that it is it isolated incidents that are driving the perception that juvenile crime is out of control. Like, you get one bad video, and suddenly everybody thinks, oh, I do think.

[Eduardo Ferrer]

That'S part of it. So isolated incidents do get played up in the media, particularly in social media.

[Dave Fox]

A video that went viral. Kath the chaos just the other night.

[Henry Blodgett]

As what appears to be teenagers running.

[Dave Fox]

Through the store, one riding a scooter inside, yelling and apparently stealing whatever they.

[Eduardo Ferrer]

Want with little or no resistance.

[Alex Koma]

You can see fireworks were not just in the sky. They were exploding in traffic near homes, even in building lobbies.

[Henry Blodgett]

Navy yard residents watched in alarm as the unruly crowds swarmed the streets, jumped on tables in a restaurant, and even.

[Alex Koma]

Surged past security desk at apartment buildings.

[Eduardo Ferrer]

I do also think it's important to recognize that during the pandemic, while youth arrests went down overall, the types of offenses for which youth were being arrested shifted to higher profile, more serious offenses, carjackings, shootings. And so while crime overall was going down, there is a reason why folks felt less safe. And so that kind of shift in the mix of the type of crime, even though it was going down, combined with the media really focusing on these incidents, I think drove the perception that crime, and particularly youth crime, was out of control in the District, even though. So. Right. So your question about or your comment about vibes being different than reality, There's a difference between feeling secure and being safe. The data says that we are, in fact safe in D.C. even while we may not feel as secure as we'd felt in the past.

[Alex Koma]

This is very interesting, and it brings me back to the language that we were hearing from Jeanine Pirro and that I've been seeing a lot of on Twitter since President Trump made his announcement. People who very much support this move. And what it reminds me of is a discourse around the idea of super predators. The kinds of kids that are called super predators, no conscience, no empathy, remind us of how in the US the idea of particularly violent children has played out.

[Eduardo Ferrer]

The super predator term was really coined at the tail end of this period where we abandoned the rehabilitative notion. And it was this belief that young people, that there was going to be this cohort of young people who were not just immoral but amoral, didn't care, were going to essentially go on a crime rampage.

[Henry Blodgett]

I've described these children in some recent writings as fatherless, godless and jobless. But in some ways, that is an overly optimistic description of their lives.

[Eduardo Ferrer]

And the image that often got associated with the super predator were kids of color, and particularly poor kids of color. And so it was a way to really, it was a demonization of young people of color that really took hold. In the 90s, President Trump very much promoted the super predator discourse. In fact, in the famous case of the Central Park Five, President Trump took out a full page ad calling for them to be executed.

[Donald Trump]

Of course I hate these people, and let's all hate these people, because maybe hate is what we need if we're.

[Eduardo Ferrer]

Going to get something done calling for innocent black and brown children in New York to be executed. And so he very much promoted this myth of the super predator, as he seems to be doing again today. The belief was that because we were on the cusp of this generation of super predators, that they were beyond rehabilitation and so that the laws really needed to be about getting tougher on kids. We saw a lot of movement in terms of making it easier to transfer kids in adult court, for instance, which again is something that U.S. attorney Pirro, for instance, has floated as an idea that she would like to implement now in D.C. we saw greater detention of young people, greater incarceration, fewer access to services.

[Alex Koma]

Did that do what it was meant to do? Did putting kids into the adult carceral system, did it lead to less crime? Did it lead to better outcomes for the kids when they became adults? Like what was the good, what was the bad?

[Eduardo Ferrer]

The research that's studied the interventions pushed during that time period have shown that they were absolutely the wrong interventions and that they actually undermine public safety. So for instance, There's a great CDC study from 2007 that when it reviews the literature, the consensus is that it actually makes it more likely that young people who get charged and tried in adult court are going to reoffend. So it actually undermines public safety. We've seen similar research with respect to the detention and incarceration of young people. So when young people are detained and incarcerated, it makes it less likely that they're gonna do the really the two things that we want them to do. We want them to finish school and we want them to not reoffend. And detaining a young person makes it it less likely that they're gonna get their high school diploma and more likely that they're gonna end up in the adult criminal justice system. So again, it really undermines the things that we're trying to accomplish in terms of public safety.

[Alex Koma]

All right, so what should a city like Washington that does have a persistent problem with juvenile crime, even if it's not widespread, what is a city like Washington supposed to do if it doesn't return to these tough on crime policies that Jeanine Pirro wants?

[Eduardo Ferrer]

The first thing a city like Washington should do is invest directly in its young people. What we want is harm not to happen in the first place. The way we do that is to give kids the services, the supports, the opportunities that they need to thrive. What does that look like specifically? Number one, it starts with supporting their parents. It makes sure that parents in the city have the economic support, the housing support, the parenting skill support to really make sure that they are able to support their young people in growing successfully into adulthood. So that's number one. Number two is then providing the supports for young people themselves. This is a combination of community based behavioral health supports, employment opportunities for those young people who get into trouble. We need to recognize that a lot of them have been victims themselves before they ever come into contact with the delinquency system. They've been through a lot of trauma, a lot of adversity.

[Alex Koma]

You know, everything you're saying makes a lot of sense to me. And, you know, then I have to recognize that While living in D.C. i've never been carjacked. I've never been mugged. So you've been doing this for a long time. And I wonder, what do you say when someone says, look, I'm a victim? I'm a victim, too. I was. I experienced violence at the hands of, you know, some kid.

[Eduardo Ferrer]

The first thing I'd say is, I'm sorry. I'm. You know, I'm heartbroken for you that you had to experience that. Over the last 50 years, our country has firsthand experience with what doesn't work, which is the time period before the 90s to what does work, which is the movement that we've made over the last 25, 30 years to really focus on investing and helping people thrive, equipping them with the skills, the tools, the healing that they need in order to transition successfully into adulthood. It is really hard when we've been harmed to not let fear take over, to not let that drive decision making. But at the end of the day, my experience in talking to folks who have experienced harm and including the harm that I've seen firsthand myself, is that what folks want is for the harm not to happen in the first place or not to happen again. And in order to make that happen, we need to be smart on crime, not tough on crime.

[Alex Koma]

Eduardo Ferrer. He's a professor at Georgetown Law, and he's policy director of the Georgetown Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative. Miles Bryan produced today's episode. Amina El Saadi edited Laura Bullard checked the facts. Andrea Christen's daughter and Patrick Boyd are our engineers. And I'm Noel King. It's Today Explained.

[Henry Blodgett]

It's been so long.

[Eduardo Ferrer]

How have you been?

[Dave Fox]

Hello.

[Henry Blodgett]

I'm doing well, Dave. Why. Why are you talking that way? Please say one for a compliment, two for a question. Yeah, this is weird. I think I'm gonna go.

[Alex Koma]

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[Henry Blodgett]

Viv Esparadis frutar de la musica con todos tu sentidos.