DC Racial Justice Orgs Denounce Efforts to Fast-Track Youth Curfew to Further Police and Criminalize Black and Latine Young People
September 17, 2025
Washington, DC — In response to D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto’s attempt to circumvent public input and impose emergency legislation to expand the curfew for D.C.’s young people, youth organizers and civil rights organizations denounce this attempt to continue cooperation between Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and federal law enforcement. Advocates note that expanding and extending emergency curfew powers significantly increases the risk of harm to Black and Latine youth.
Black Swan Academy, DC Girls’ Coalition, EmpowerEd, CARE Anacostia, Anti-Racist DC, DC Action, The T.R.I.G.G.E.R. Project, Guns Down Friday, Crowns Inc., Critical Exposure, and Advancement Project—D.C.-based organizations that advocate for the rights of Black and Latine youth—have responded to the situation with the following statement:
“We unequivocally condemn Councilmember Brooke Pinto’s undemocratic attempt to exclude youth from public life through ever-increasing criminalization, and we urge the Council to reject the proposed extension of emergency curfew zones. Black and Latine young people in D.C. continue to be blamed and criminalized for simply being themselves, and members of the D.C. Council, Mayor Bowser, and the Trump-Vance Administration continue to show a reckless disregard for their wellbeing. Earlier this year, rather than providing young people with the resources they need to thrive, the D.C. Council voted to cut violence interruption, food programs, and healthcare. At the same time, Bowser and the Council funneled taxpayer dollars into controlling, policing, and surveilling youth, robbing them of experiences that most people remember as teenagers, like attending school football games and spending summer nights with friends.
“The Trump-Vance Administration, including Jeanine Pirro, have relied on racist dog whistles to target Black youth in D.C. Mayor Bowser and the D.C. Council have enthusiastically expanded this racist regime by imposing an 8 p.m. summer curfew on neighborhoods where Black and Brown youth gather, banning cell phones in school so that young people cannot reach loved ones, stationing police and federal agents at Metro stops and outside schools to intimidate and harass students and their families on the way to school, and more recently banning young people from attending school football games without chaperones. Meanwhile, Bowser voluntarily issued an executive order to make cooperation with federal law enforcement indefinite and continue the racial profiling, ICE abductions, and harassment of youth, immigrants, and unhoused communities—actions that have devastated our city since the Trump-Vance Administration began the D.C. occupation in early August. On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives advanced a bill to prosecute 14-year-olds in DC as adults. At this point, any power granted to MPD would be an expansion of federal policing power and extending the emergency youth curfew zones would be yet another a blatant attempt to entrench the regime of police and military intimidation, harassment, and harm.
“These measures are about control, not safety. Curfews do not reduce crime, they provide justification for police to patrol Black and Latine neighborhoods and pretext to harass, investigate, and traumatize young people.
“Further, by using the emergency legislative process and placing the bill on the consent agenda, Councilmember Pinto can avoid holding a public hearing or even allowing any opportunity for debate among her fellow Councilmembers. This attempt to exclude directly impacted voices from the legislative process is a further attack on our autonomy at a time when we are under armed military occupation and the federal government is salivating at the opportunity to lock up our young people. We urge the Council to stand up for D.C. autonomy and democracy and reject any extension of the emergency curfew, beginning by ensuring that any such bills are considered through the regular legislative process to allow the community an opportunity to be heard. We also call on lawmakers to reinvest in the proven measures that actually improve safety, including violence interruption, safe passage, mental health supports, recreation and after-school programming, food, education and housing.”
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Advancement Project is a next-generation, multi-racial civil rights organization. Rooted in the great human rights struggles for equality and justice, we exist to fulfill America’s promise of a caring, inclusive and just democracy. We use innovative tools and strategies to strengthen social movements and achieve high impact policy change. We are a co-convener of the National Campaign for Police Free schools, a formation of 20+ youth-led grassroots organizations fighting to end the criminalization of youth in the classroom, create liberatory educational spaces, and implement an affirmative vision of safety and transformative justice. Visit www.advancementproject.org to learn more.
The Black Swan Academy empowers Black youth in under-served communities through civic leadership and engagement, giving them a comprehensive set of tools needed to succeed in life and become active social catalysts in their communities. We are committed to creating a pipeline of Black youth leaders that are committed to transforming themselves, as well as their communities.
