What is going on down there? I guess I'm out of the loop as we haven't been in forever. Just now hearing about the crime spike: stealing, fights, people being FOLLOWED home and assaulted, people being assaulted in the parking garages. Other friends who stay there routinely have stopped. Apparently a huge police presence there now.
Why is this happening all of a sudden (over the last few months)? |
Warm weather. An easy place to hang outdoors. Recently there was that street takeover in Springfield not too far from National Harbor. Social media makes it easy for gangs to meet up places. |
It’s PG county. PG has a disproportionately high number of criminals to begin with. Nat’l Harbor is a place with lot of potential victims for criminals to exploit, as well as the disputes that occur when two opposing criminals meet each other. In addition to those, there is a subculture of “opportunistic criminality” in many younger residents of PG county, where, while not being actual full-time criminal law themselves, many young people will commit crimes of opportunity simply for the amusement of doing so, especially if they are hanging out with groups of friends.
I grew up in PG. I understand it in a way most people don’t. |
800 KIDS starting riots that's what.
Trashy this whole area is trashy now. |
When you build a place in the middle of the hood the people who live in the hood will be happy to have a place to go. Some of those people are criminals who rob, assault, and attack others. They have instituted a curfew for teens under 16. |
Some of those kids 2 weekends ago were in hotel rooms their parents had rented for them and then left them there to party (I guess the parents went back home after checking in and handing over the keys to their kids). Part of that curfew is that no underage minors may be left alone in hotel rooms. |
Except some of these incidents -following home- happened in early winter. |
Most areas where people gather and have things to do like shop and eat will attract a bad element. The Wharf, Rio Center, even Pike and Rose, most malls all have groups of people just “hanging out” and causing trouble. It will get worse as the weather gets nicer.
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That “element” - it’s always the same, isn’t it? Yes. Yes it is. |
It’s racist to notice things. |
It’s a casino close to some of the higher crime areas of PG. This is pretty predictable. |
Except National Harbor tried really, really, really hard to keep the hood out. It essentially barricaded itself from its PG neighbors while offering easy access to the Beltway, Virginia, and DC. Oh, well. Looks like those efforts failed. |
The teen curfew just went into effect a few days as an emergency order. It was the result of a 100+ person mass fight among teens there a few weeks before:
https://www.washingtoninformer.com/prince-georges-teen-curfew/ |
The curfew enacted on weekends seems to have helped. |
I can't speak to national harbor specifically, but I think a lot of this is that we aren't enforcing loitering laws. Loitering laws have been shot down almost everywhere because homeless advocates groups have sued.
I guess it's better than carjacking. |