With younger teenagers being charged with serious crimes that range from weapons violations to assault, state and city officials are calling for action before school lets out for the summer.

Younger and younger

According to Hartford Police Department records, 57 youths ages 17 and under were arrested in 2004 on weapons charges — the most recorded in the last six years.
But what's even more disturbing is that those youths found carrying guns and knives are getting younger and younger, officials say.
Of those arrested last year, 20 were 14 years old or younger.
In 2000, just seven youths in that age group found themselves facing weapons violations, while 10 were arrested in 2001, four in 2002, and 10 in 2003.
Assault charges against youths ages 14 and under — including the most serious charge, aggravated assault — rose from 156 in 2000 to 234 in 2004, records show.

And that spike has had a ripple effect. The Hartford Juvenile Court has seen a 200 percent increase in caseloads over the last two years, prosecutors say, with much of that swell being attributed to more teens selling drugs — a crime that brings with it weapons and violence.
Bruce Tonkonow, supervisory juvenile prosecutor for Hartford's Broad Street juvenile courthouse, said he's seen firsthand younger teens moving up the crime ladder at a faster rate than in the past.
Twice in the last month, Tonkonow said, he's prosecuted cases involving 14-year-old boys accused of trying to sell 300 to 400 bags of heroin each.
Previously, Tonkonow said, teens that age might come into court charged with selling no more than 10 to 15 bags of marijuana or crack cocaine.
“It's certainly foreshadowing a trend,” Tonkonow said last week.
For Hartford police, the trend Tonkonow foresees has been taking root throughout the city of late.

Last month, a 15-year-old boy was stabbed in the neck and paralyzed by a younger boy during an argument over a stolen car. Police said they've arrested the 13-year-old who attacked the other boy, even as a 14-year-old is under investigation by East Hartford police, who say he stole a gun to use in retaliation for the stabbing. And a 15-year-old honor student was shot dead in a case of mistaken identity and another boy, age 14, was fatally stabbed after a fight at a Washington Street fast-food restaurant.
On Monday night, a 16-year-old girl was shot in the head at a north end store.
Chief State's Attorney Christopher L. Morano said he has been talking with local and state leaders about setting up a forum in the coming weeks to discuss the issue and try to find solutions to the problem before the end of the school year, when youths have more time on their hands.
He hopes to sign on state lawmakers, the child advocate, the police chief, educators, and the mayor along with community leaders and advocates.
While the younger age of violent criminals has Morano concerned, he says he isn't surprised.

“There's no question the majority of crime is drug-related, and the criminals are getting younger,” Morano said, adding that he's noticed a similar pattern around the state.
“It comes in cycles,” he said. “We've been through this before, but what happens is you get complacent and it crops back up. And each time the people committing the crimes are getting younger, and that is exactly what we're seeing here.”
Two decades ago the average age of a gang member was 16 to 20 years old, Morano said.
Now, 13- and 14-year-olds are hooking up with a “neighborhood posse,” the latest euphemism used by law enforcement to describe a band of thugs who come together like a brutal and violent family.
Hartford police spokeswoman Nancy Mulroy said police brass and the city's mayor recognize the trend and are working to address the problem.

In December, Police Chief Patrick J. Harnett instituted a “youth violence initiative” after a rash of violent crimes among younger teens last fall, Mulroy noted.
And in January, Harnett and Mayor Eddie Perez unveiled a community redistricting plan that brings zone commanders out of headquarters and into the neighborhoods “so we can get to these kids at an early age,” Mulroy said.
“When you're young like that you have no concept of the ramifications of an arrest record,” she said of the problems these youths could face should they survive their teenage years and outgrow the violent tendencies of gang life.
In recent months and with the latest police recruitment effort, many older teens have come forward and expressed an interest in becoming Hartford police officers, but were turned away because they have felony records, Mulroy said.
“Their future is limited, and no one is supervising them or telling them that,” she added.
Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., who served for years as the chairman of the legislature's Select Commit-tee on Children, said while a forum between city and state leaders is necessary, there are no easy answers.
“We know Hartford has a very high poverty rate and a much higher unemployment rate than any other place in the state. And it creates an environment where criminal activity comes into play, and the mechanics ... are very brutal,” Williams said.

Those aspects of city life, combined with glorified violence in some television shows, movies, and music, adversely affect and desensitize some youths, he added.
“It would be nice if there were a single solution that we could point to,” Williams said, adding that it boils down to education, economic opportunity, role models, and positive after-school activities — in other words, giving teens options other than what's offered through street gangs and crime.
State Child Advocate Jeanne Milstein said now is the time to act. “We need to immediately start focusing on prevention and intervention so we can stop the cycle,” she said.
Parenting skills, affordable housing, jobs, substance abuse and mental health services, and fathers more involved in their children's lives are needed, she said.
Most young teens join up with street gangs looking for a pseudo family — a father, older brother, or just someone who cares, she said.
“Trauma needs to be addressed because in many of these families we see generations of abuse and neglect,” she said.

Kym Soper
16 March 2005

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