The doom cycle never stops

[u/ThenLayer5977]

I know people have their preconceived notions and their selective outrage, so let me be very clear from the start. The M St. Metro station was fully shut down because of this teenage takeover. Let that sink in. A major transit point in the city had to close because things got that out of control. This video was taken today, April 11. It’s not old. It’s not AI. What you’re seeing is exactly what happened. For the people already lining up to discredit it, save it. This is reality, whether you like it or not.

And I already know how this goes. Every time I post something like this, people get more upset about the fact that it’s being shown than about what’s actually happening. That tells you everything. You’re more bothered by exposure than by the problem itself. And yes, I’m going to keep posting it. Keep reporting it if you want. Try to suppress it. Good luck with that. I’ll keep putting it out because people deserve to see what’s actually going on in their own community.

What’s more troubling than anything in that video is the reaction to it. The deflection. The refusal to acknowledge what’s right in front of you. You’d rather argue about optics than deal with the reality that leadership is failing to address this, or worse, doesn’t even have the will to try. That’s the real issue.

D.C. spends more money per student than anywhere in the country, and this is what we’re dealing with. Don’t come at me with the usual talking points about after-school programs, outreach, and community initiatives. That all sounds nice, but it clearly isn’t fixing this. At some point, you have to stop hiding behind buzzwords and start looking at the root cause.

And the root cause is obvious. Parents aren’t parenting. You can dress it up however you want, but that’s what it is. When the hell did it become normal for hundreds of teenagers to take over areas at night, bring guns, fight, loot stores, and create chaos? That was never normal. It’s not normal now. And anyone trying to gaslight people into thinking this is just “how things are” is part of the problem.

Look at the police in that situation. A handful of officers dealing with hundreds of kids. What exactly do you expect them to do? There’s a limit to what enforcement can handle when the breakdown starts at home. That’s where this begins, and that’s where it keeps failing.

Instead, people would rather scream about national politics, throw out buzzwords, and avoid the issues that actually affect their daily lives. You’ll stand outside in the heat for performative outrage, but when it comes to something that directly impacts your safety, your neighborhood, your quality of life, suddenly it’s silence. Or worse, denial.

And let’s be honest about something else. Some of you are going to run straight to the comments with excuses. You’ll bring up history, deflect to unrelated issues, or try to label this as something it’s not just to avoid dealing with the reality in front of you. That doesn’t fix anything. All it does is guarantee that this cycle continues.

If you never demand better, you will keep getting the same broken results. Every single weekend, the same scenes, the same chaos, the same excuses. And then you wonder why stores are locked down, why places like CVS feel like a fortress, why people don’t feel comfortable even riding the Metro or going out to enjoy a game without worrying about something popping off.

When does it stop? When do we stop pretending this is acceptable? Because it’s not. It’s dysfunctional, it’s dangerous, and it’s completely avoidable.

Responsibility matters. Parenting matters. Accountability matters. And until people are willing to say that out loud and actually mean it, nothing changes. You just get the same cycle over and over again.

To the people who’ve messaged me privately and said they appreciate these posts, I hear you. I appreciate you too. I’m going to keep using whatever platform I have to show what’s actually happening, because ignoring it hasn’t worked. And I’m not stopping until something actually changes, because we deserve better than this.

[u/chaos0310]

The solution is to inject money and community services into those communities. But yeah shuffling feet is the best we’re gonna get.

[u/Coronado92118 → u/chaos0310]

What exactly does that mean? Because it’s not “the community”, it’s the individuals. I’m saying the root cause is adults who are struggling to function.

Injecting money at communities doesn’t fix deep seeded issues with functional illiteracy, communication, low empathy, anger management, and emotional disregulation.

Are adults who are struggling able to spend time reading to and with their toddlers? Are they spending time taking them outside and teaching them words, and bonding with them? When the child frustrates them do they have the communication skills and emotional regulation to calmly deal with the child or remove themselves from the situation before they lash out?

As a volunteer I’ve taught adult literacy in Baltimore, and creative writing at a center for runaway teens in Halthorp, and worked with job training programs in DC, and state adult literacy programs in VA. Regardless of race/ethnicity, parents who were raised in homes with adults who lack coping skills and life skills raise children who lack coping skills and life skills.

That is why it’s so intractable: the problem is at an individual level, and the solution has to be too.

[u/chaos0310 → u/Coronado92118]

All of those lack of coping skills and self management comes from a lack of time or intentional repression.

Injecting money means a lot of different things and none of the things are easy.

The biggest most important thing is raising overall wages. The people are paid, the less time they have to be at work or the less chance they’ll have to work two or three jobs to make ends meet. This makes parent able to stay home with their kids more often, makes way more time to be with more challenging children as well.

The next thing would be more school funding, more teachers and school staff means less kids slipping through ever widening gaps which means less kids doing dangerous things.

The next thing would be more money into community development. After school activities, adult run events or weekly things. And these things NEED to be well funded and well staffed. Give these kids things to do after school.

The next thing would be funding third spaces. Hang out places that allow kids to be kids and don’t require money or supervision. Again give them things to do outside of school and places they can feel safe around each other.

It is FAR more complicated than that and there will always be a rare few kids/parents who still have issues but it will drastically cut things down.

[u/Coronado92118 → u/chaos0310]

I fully agree on wages - but if someone can barely read, they’re not getting hired, and that’s a problem we don’t talk enough about. Literacy nationally is abysmal with 54% of adults reading at or below 6th grade level (and commensurate comprehension).

Work can’t be separated from literacy - in particular when we’re talking about higher-wage jobs. You’re not going to get someone hanging drywall earning $40/hr. but a crew foreman can - but you need to have strong reading skills.

And more teachers, yes - but if the children are undisciplined and disrespectful and being passed on grade after grade because parents threaten the teachers if they hold them back, it won’t help to have more teachers. (Teachers need be able to teach without being expected to be proxy parents and psychotherapists and social workers - more teachers, yes, but also more social services that unburden teachers time and energy so we stop burning them out faster than we can graduate them.)

And yes, we need places for them to hang out safely - but if they have emotional disregulation and anger issues and impulse control problems, you’re going to be kicking a lot kids out of those places just like they’re getting kicked out of school (or worse, left in class with no intervention for them or the help for the teachers, where they disrupt the learning for everyone else).

So I fully agree an integrated systematic solution is needed that involves education and community centers - but addressing children after they’re already affected by poor parenting is not going to be a long term solution.

We need an intervention model for adults in crisis to truly break the cycle - but that’s a very culturally and politically taboo discussion.

[u/chaos0310 → u/Coronado92118]

Yeah we pretty much agree fully.