DC Put On ‘Spring Teen Jam’ To Keep Juveniles Out Of Trouble — Instead, Eight Got Arrested

Washington, D.C. police arrested eight minors Saturday night after fights erupted outside an event the district’s government organized to prevent teen fighting.

Washington’s Parks and Recreation department sponsored the taxpayer-funded two-night youth event after a series of so-called “teen takeovers” inundated the nation’s capital with violence over the past few weeks, prompting the creation of multiple juvenile curfew zones throughout the nation’s capital. The Jam sought to give teenagers in the district a safe place to take part in sports, art, singing, dancing and other activities with friends, free of charge, with food provided, according to NBC 4 Washington.

The eight arrests outside the event took place on Saturday, its second day, between 8:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., the D.C.-based CBS affiliate WUSA reported. The juvenile delinquents ranged in age from 12 to 17 and were charged with an array of different offenses, including assault on law enforcement officers, resisting arrest and affray — or fighting in a public place. Some teenagers wore masks and hoodies, despite the Jam’s guidelines explicitly preventing them.

However, hundreds of teenagers peacefully took part in the festivities inside King Greenleaf Recreation Center as the fights and subsequent arrests ensued outside, according