Rantz: Juvenile detention declines another booking sending message to teens to run wild

Seattle’s soft-on-crime approach let another juvenile criminal suspect off the hook after the juvenile detention center again refused a felony booking.

According to the Seattle Police Department (SPD), a 17-year-old female suspect tagged property during an anti-Donald Trump protest march over the weekend. The suspect allegedly vandalized several vertical concrete columns of the Seattle Monorail, leaving comments like “F*** Trump,” “Pigs leave,” “Seattle with Gaza” and claims “Boing” (she meant “Boeing”) has blood on its hands.

Seattle Police arrested the suspect for Malicious Mischief in the second degree. They say they found her with black spray paint and matching paint on her hands. But the Children and Family Justice Juvenile Detention Center in Seattle refused to book her for suspected felony crimes. She was released to the custody of her parents.

The chances of the suspect facing prosecution are slim. The only chance to maybe get her on the right path would have been some time at a juvenile detention center. But in Seattle and King County, we give endless passes to juveniles. It should come as no shock that the strategy has created a juvenile crime crisis.

More from Jason Rantz: A warning for parents about anti-Trump indoctrination

Why juvenile detention could help

This wasn’t some rowdy kid with a spray paint can; this is allegedly felony vandalism on a significant scale. Yet, the juvenile detention center brushes this off as if it’s not worth addressing. And with this move, it’s signaling a clear message to all the teens watching: Go ahead and tear up the city because you won’t face any real consequences.

Seattle and the region are facing a juvenile crime crisis where kids are escalating from petty crimes to serious felonies — and they’re doing it with little fear of consequence. It’s the lack of consequences that ensures this young suspect will only feel compelled to continue and likely escalate.

In 2020, we saw Antifa thugs and other extremists dressed in black bloc destroy parts of the city while their less violent counterparts pushed the city to defund the police and scare good cops out of the department. We’ve been left with a depleted police force with over 600 fewer cops. At the state level, Democrat legislators pushed through bills softening penalties on criminals and giving special protections to juvenile criminals. Consequently, crime exploded, with juveniles increasingly responsible for some of the most heinous acts.

Does anyone really think this 17-year-old won’t escalate in her alleged crimes, especially since she’s been programmed to believe what she’s doing is heroic and meaningful?

When will we learn?

This is hardly an isolated case. Washington, and Seattle in particular, has made a habit out of letting young offenders off the hook.

In August, Fife saw a similar incident: Police arrested a 17-year-old allegedly involved in a felony incident, only to face the same response from juvenile detention. “Not serious enough” was the subtext from juvenile detention—because apparently alleged felony-level offenses just don’t cut it in Washington anymore, especially when they’re juveniles.

The decision not to book a juvenile arrested for felony property damage would defy common sense in any other state, especially with the context of juvenile crime rising. The core problem is a misguided, far-left belief among certain city leaders and criminal justice activists that locking up teens somehow harms their future prospects more than letting them run wild on the streets.

But the reality is that when we don’t enforce the law, we’re not giving them a “second chance” — we’re encouraging them to reoffend, emboldening them to test the limits even further. We’re letting these kids know they can get away with just about anything. But eventually it catches up with them and does more damage to their future (and the future of others) than a few hours in juvenile detention ever could.

Do you want to help juveniles or not?

No one has the stomach for throwing an alleged teenage tagger in jail for more than a few hours. I don’t even think she should be seriously charged.

But this is the exact kind of teen who could potentially learn a lesson before it’s too late. It certainly doesn’t seem like her parents are up to the task. If they were, she’d not have been involved in an absurd black bloc protest to begin with.

In Seattle, those in power are more interested in catering to activist claims about prison abolition than actually doing their job, which is to protect the public. The same crowd that insists on defunding the police and hollowing out our justice system keeps pushing the idea that juvenile detention is somehow inherently harmful. But when kids see that the rules don’t apply to them, what exactly do we expect?

We can’t be shocked when they grow up to become even more reckless, even more violent, because our system told them it’s OK to be that way. How do we expect them to grow into responsible adults when we’re teaching them the exact opposite?

It’s time for a wake-up call: juvenile detention can actually benefit teens

At some point, we have to ask: Is the juvenile justice system here to protect the public, or to coddle young offenders? Because every time we hear about a non-booked juvenile suspect, every time another young offender walks free without any accountability, we’re sending the message that crime isn’t a big deal.

Letting juvenile suspects escape consequences in the name of “progress” or “equity” doesn’t serve anyone in the long run. The public deserves a juvenile justice system that holds offenders accountable and actually works to keep them from reoffending.

How much longer are we supposed to pretend that this kind of leniency is somehow compassionate when it leads to escalating crimes? True compassion means intervening now with real consequences so that these teens don’t grow up believing they’re above the law. Without that intervention, Seattle is just preparing them for a future of crime and chaos.

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