WASHINGTON, DC NEWS – Holiday youth curfew undermined by large brawl in northwest neighborhood in the District

By Renae Hefty

An hour before a holiday weekend youth curfew began, a brawl broke out near Banneker Rec Center in Northwest, on Friday, and police arrested a teen for brandishing a knife. The teen didn’t hurt anyone, but he was injured and taken by an ambulance to the hospital. Dozens of teens were involved in the fight in Northwest, which is a holiday youth curfew zone. Residents under 18 were not allowed to gather in groups of nine or more in public after 8 p.m. in five curfew areas during this past weekend. The holiday curfew areas were Banneker, U Street, Chinatown, Southwest Waterfront, and Navy Yard. At the other end of the Banneker curfew area, police diffused a crowd of dozens of young people in and around a McDonalds less than an hour after the fight near the rec center. The police told the young people to leave if they were under 18, and they eventually complied and left the area.

The usual youth curfew hours are 11 a.m. to 6 a.m., seven days a week and apply to all of the District.  The DC City Council voted last week to delay a vote on extending the chief of police’s authority to establish the extended curfew zones, given to him by the Juvenile Curfew Second Temporary Amendment Act of 2025. The vote will be delayed for another 3 months.  The chief of police will have the authority to designate extended youth curfew zone through April 15. He used his current authority to establish youth curfews in four other neighborhoods: Navy Yard, U Street Corridor, Chinatown, and the Southwest Waterfront.

Teen Spring Jam, a D.C. Parks and Recreation department-sponsored event, provided safe, legal, and fun activities this weekend. The event, held at King Greenleaf Recreation Center, got hundreds of teens off the streets to keep them from breaking curfew. The event was organized in an attempt to curb recent teen takeovers around the city.