What do you think about DC Police Chief Robert Contee's views on parents' role in preventing crime?

[jsteele]

Luke Garrett of WTOP News has asked for feedback from parents regarding views expressed by DC Police Chief Robert Contee about the role parents have in preventing youth crime. Please post your response here and you might be quoted on WTOP. Here is an excerpt from Contee's remarks:

“And we need to, you know, focus in on that community members can call that type of stuff in I think parents have a clear role in a lot of the stuff that's going on, what do you allow your child to do or not to not do? Parents, you have to be parents. And that is important. That's an important piece that we don't talk a lot about. But it is very, very, very important. My mother is four foot 11. But I'll tell you as a kid, I was scared to death of her because she did not play. And I think we have kids sometimes who oftentimes don't even show their parents respect. And that's something that as a community, we really have to have to deal with.”

The full interview is here:

https://dmvdownload.wtop.com/episode/police-chief-contee-on-dcs-violent-start-to-2023/

[Anonymous]

I agree with him. I’m reading a book right now aimed at MS age with my 10yo. It’s called Dough boys. It’s about 2 boys growing up in a hood and their friendship diverging. One of the characters reminds me so much of Karon, age, family situation with the mom and younger siblings, everything. If you don’t have parental support and it is hinted or outright said that you need to provide for yourself and or your siblings what are you going to do?

[Anonymous]

Public Relations fail.

Not because he's wrong, far from it, but because as Police Chief his role is to enforce the law, respond rapidly to events, identify and control offenders, etc. Talking about parents' role in the illegal activities of their kids, gives the impression he's shifting the blame and isn't willing to address HIS role of chief enforcer, perhaps publicly ask for more funds, more training, more hiring of police officers, and go after lax juvenile offender laws.

Separately from police work... duh - we have a respect problem in American society today, which is mirrored in other western progressive countries. It goes hand-in-hand with individualism in our society, where going one's own way, possibly in defiance of norms and mores, is highly prized. More traditional societies that place the community over the individual tend to respect experts more (teachers, doctors, lawyers, etc) and have more hierarchies. This trickles down to the household, where children obey their parents more easily. On the other hand, these are often the very societies we decry as being intolerant of differences, misogynistic and patriarchal!

Apparently as societies, we can't have our cake and eat it too.

[Anonymous]

12:27 again.

Anyway, all this is smoke and mirrors. The REAL issue is gun control. This is what differentiates the US from all other wealthy and educated nations. They all have issues with their mentally ill, their disrespectful teens, their drugs and gangs. But no guns on the street is what makes the difference in mortality.

[Anonymous]

When I saw the video from the father of 13 year old Karon, it was like an arrow from the boy's family to his fate.

Armed carjackings by minors is skyrocketing. This is a new phenomenon and it's destroying our city and our children, our future.

[Anonymous]

Poverty and guns are the problems. Poverty leads to poor parenting and family instability, which leads to hopelessness and crime. The ubiquity of guns just makes the situation much more dangerous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Poverty and guns are the problems. Poverty leads to poor parenting and family instability, which leads to hopelessness and crime. The ubiquity of guns just makes the situation much more dangerous.

How do you excuse the parents obsessed with their careers who are MC, UMC, and just plain old RICH. Parents should be held responsible for their children's behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Poverty and guns are the problems. Poverty leads to poor parenting and family instability, which leads to hopelessness and crime. The ubiquity of guns just makes the situation much more dangerous.

So you say only poor children are the troublemakers,? Poverty and guns are going nowhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:12:27 again.

Anyway, all this is smoke and mirrors. The REAL issue is gun control. This is what differentiates the US from all other wealthy and educated nations. They all have issues with their mentally ill, their disrespectful teens, their drugs and gangs. But no guns on the street is what makes the difference in mortality.

If there was no immediate legislation for gun control after Sandy Hook, Uvalde then just stop with your broken record of Gun Control. There is not going to be gun control legislation prohibiting purchasing or ownership of guns. So it only makes sense that, YOU, the parent are responsible for absolutely everything your child does as long as they live under your roof and you need to watch them like hawks and finally assume and exercise your responsibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12:27 again.

Anyway, all this is smoke and mirrors. The REAL issue is gun control. This is what differentiates the US from all other wealthy and educated nations. They all have issues with their mentally ill, their disrespectful teens, their drugs and gangs. But no guns on the street is what makes the difference in mortality.

If there was no immediate legislation for gun control after Sandy Hook, Uvalde then just stop with your broken record of Gun Control. There is not going to be gun control legislation prohibiting purchasing or ownership of guns. So it only makes sense that, YOU, the parent are responsible for absolutely everything your child does as long as they live under your roof and you need to watch them like hawks and finally assume and exercise your responsibility.

NP. There was legislation passed after Uvalde. And there will be more, most likely. Both gun control and parenting are needed.

[Anonymous]

Parents obviously have a huge role to play in keeping their teenagers out of trouble. He says this is something for the community to deal with, and I think that's right. It's not something the police can fix, but they do need to deploy more resources to deal with the consequences of it. I don't agree with the way the Police Chief uses being "scared to death" of his mother as an example because I don't think fear-based parenting is the answer and often is problematic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12:27 again.

Anyway, all this is smoke and mirrors. The REAL issue is gun control. This is what differentiates the US from all other wealthy and educated nations. They all have issues with their mentally ill, their disrespectful teens, their drugs and gangs. But no guns on the street is what makes the difference in mortality.

If there was no immediate legislation for gun control after Sandy Hook, Uvalde then just stop with your broken record of Gun Control. There is not going to be gun control legislation prohibiting purchasing or ownership of guns. So it only makes sense that, YOU, the parent are responsible for absolutely everything your child does as long as they live under your roof and you need to watch them like hawks and finally assume and exercise your responsibility.

+1. There will never be gun control in this country. Get it into your skull!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents obviously have a huge role to play in keeping their teenagers out of trouble. He says this is something for the community to deal with, and I think that's right. It's not something the police can fix, but they do need to deploy more resources to deal with the consequences of it. I don't agree with the way the Police Chief uses being "scared to death" of his mother as an example because I don't think fear-based parenting is the answer and often is problematic.

Gentle parenting is the current favored style of parenting. It may not correlate to gun violence but it doesn't seem to correlate to better behavior in children generally.

[Anonymous]

I think he's right. It starts at home. And it's not about poverty. The only thing money gets you is the ability to buy yourself out of punishment for your crimes.
We have now 2 generations of people being raised to be entirely self absorbed and that the rules don't apply to them. Just take a look at the other threads in this form a good chunk are about how to get my kid out of xyz, my kid shouldn't have to do this because xyz. Unending selfishness

[Anonymous]

Do you think we have white collar criminals who cost our nation $300 billion a year because they had bad parents?