D.C.'s Black teens deserve better than a curfew

Earlier this year, Washingtonians and the nation alike got a glimpse of D.C.’s approach to policing in Navy Yard. Video recorded on April 18 captured a Metropolitan Police Department officer stopping two young women on a bike and pulling them forcefully to the ground, as one of them screams back, "What are you doing? Why are you grabbing me?" Later in the recording, the officer is heard saying to another group of young people, "We're going to get you."

As a youth advocate and researcher who lives in Navy Yard, I wasn’t shocked by this video. Both based on my personal observations and MPD’s long and well-documented history of racial disparities in policing, I know this type of encounter happens in my neighborhood. I also know that the city’s recent curfew policy is likely to make it worse.

By many accounts, Navy Yard is among the most gentrified neighborhoods in the most gentrified city in America. Navy Yard was 95% Black in 2000; by 2018, the area’s demographics had shifted to 24% Black and 68% white. Navy Yard’s remaining Black residents are likely to be coming under increased levels of police attention: as white residents moved into historically Black neighborhoods across D.C., according to a 2022 study, drug arrests of Black residents increased disproportionally in those neighborhoods.

The curfew policy makes those outcomes all the more likely. Since 2025, MPD has repeatedly designated the Navy Yard neighborhood as a juvenile curfew zone, subjecting the area to enhanced patrolling. In July 2026, the D.C. government created a city-wide, year-round 11 p.m. youth curfew and gave the police chief leverage to add 8 p.m. curfew zones on an emergency basis. Observers like myself believe the enforcement has disproportionately fallen on Black youth. While there doesn't seem to be a formal study of the racial breakdown of curfew violation arrests in Navy Yard or D.C., national juvenile arrest records show that Black youth are arrested far more often than white youth for curfew violations.

It is important to acknowledge the realities of youth instability that exist in this city. The large fight at the Navy Yard Chipotle on May 16, for example, was real, disruptive, and not something to be minimized. But in acknowledging those realities, we must also recognize the conditions that produce them. Where are the recreation centers in this neighborhood that young people can enjoy? Where are the evening programs, the youth jobs, the community spaces alongside every luxury condo and upscale restaurant? The system failed these young people long before any brawl went viral.

The curfews are also unlikely to reduce this type of violence. Decades of research show youth curfews fail to reduce crime or victimization — a 2015 UVA study of D.C.’s curfew found that gunfire actually increased by 69% during curfews. Research consistently shows that juvenile curfews do not reduce youth violence, do not prevent the incidents they are designed to address, and do not make communities safer.

Yes, D.C. has to do a better job with public safety. But this curfew does nothing to make neighborhoods like Navy Yard any safer. If the D.C. Council is serious about public safety, 2028 shouldn't just be when this curfew expires – it should be the deadline the city sets for building what actually keeps kids safe: more curated social events on the Navy Yard green for youth, recreation centers, youth jobs, mentorship, and mental health support reaching young people long before MPD ever needs to declare another zone. If the goal is to keep D.C. safe and thriving, we must invest in youth and the promise of our communities. A safer Navy Yard must be safe – and welcoming – for all.