Washington’s Anacostia Coordinating Council (ACC) held a meeting Tuesday with Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser in attendance. While the mayor discussed her administration’s many accomplishments in Anacostia, violent crimes committed by juveniles were at the top of the community’s mind.
Mayor Muriel Bowser told the residents that juveniles have to be held accountable for acts of violence, starting in school. She wants to see a violence prevention approach that helps families with mental health but also draws a hard line about violence, like shootings and murder.
“I’m not a person who wants to see all of our [black] men go to jail. So, I don’t want anybody to say, ‘she wants everybody to go to jail’ [but] if you use a gun and you shoot somebody, [or] you use a gun, and you might shoot somebody [or] if you use a gun and you have already shot somebody, there has to be accountability in our system, there has just had to be,” said Bowser….