Trashing youth, part zillion

This is tiresome. After this, I’m taking a break from investigating the endless carelessness and outright lying police, officials, “experts,” and reporters indulge.

To those who seek accuracy: believe nothing – nothing – cops, politicians, “experts,” and media splashes say about youth. Better yet, assume the opposite of what they say.

In an honest society that cared about facts, fairness, and young people, Gloucester Township, New Jersey, Police Chief David Harkins, township officials, and sycophant reporters would be facing disciplinary proceedings following stories such as the Daily Mail’s grotesque, “The town rocked by youth violence where parents face jail time if their kids commit crime.”

Gloucester Township leaders won fawning national and international attention for mass-trashing their 6,500 teenaged youth for the behaviors of 10 “unruly juveniles” arrested with 2 adults for disruptions at last year’s Community Day and ongoing “threats of violence.”

“Speaking on ‘youth violence,’” Harkins declared of those he accused of spitting on, cursing, and assaulting officers: “I've never experienced anything like it in 30 years as a police officer the disrespect, the violent behavior that ruined a family event.”

Black youth and adults comprise just 18% of Gloucester Township’s population. Harkins’ police department reports that Black people comprised 15 of the 16 arrested for disorderly conduct in June 2024. That fact was not mentioned in any news story or commentary I could find.

Overall in 2024, Blacks comprised nearly 60% of those arrested by Township police for violence, 80% of those arrested for disorderly conduct, and nearly half of all people arrested. Black and Hispanic populations have risen 5-fold in Gloucester Township since 1990 as the White population, still a large majority, fell.

Could there be something more to this issue than just inexplicable “youth violence”? Hidden racial dimension and potential conflicts leading up to the June 2024 disturbance were buried by the color-coded euphemism, “youth violence.” Only the police and official view was allowed, and they weren’t talking about race. So, neither did the press.

If police and commentators ever wonder why teenagers, especially Black teens, might hate cops and show “disrespect,” consider Chief Harkins’ gratuitously nasty, racially-coded disrespect toward his town’s entire young population.

Regardless of how offended Harkins feels, his implication that youths today are more violent and disruptive can be tested numerically. Lazy, pliant reporters never make authorities who claim youth behaviors are rising, out of control, worse than ever, etc., produce a shred of factual justification for their alarmist quips, or take 5 minutes to look up the numbers themselves before rushing to publish.

That’s journalistic malpractice. Law enforcement consistently proves shockingly ignorant and/or dishonest about their own data.

Investigating real statistical trends reveals the same amazing, never-mentioned – and clearly threatening – reality found nationwide, from Gloucester Township to Washington DC, Los Angeles and New York City.

What do Gloucester’s own police numbers show?

Had Chief Harkins so much as glanced at his own department’s statistics compiled at taxpayer expense – or had reporters bothered to check – for literally any year prior to COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns, all would know the festival-disrupting year, 2024, was among the lowest on record for violence and crime of every type by local youth.

Although just about any years would yield the same result, let’s use Harkins’ own “30 years” comparison by going back to 1995, and further randomize by including the mid-year, 2010:

Source: Gloucester Township Police Department (2025). *2024 is the most recent year, which includes the June 2024 festival disruption arrests.

As Gloucester Township’s Black, Hispanic, and other Nonwhite youth population leaped 5-fold since 1990 to become 40% of all teens by 2024, the township’s teenaged total crime and serious violence volume plunged by 75%, and lesser violence and disorderliness fell by 34% -- with massive drops since 2010 alone.

This may sound radical, but…

… the following approximates what a police chief who actually respected facts, fairness, professionalism, young people, and his community’s intelligence would have said:

“Crime and violence by our young people is down dramatically today compared to past generations as our youth population became more racially diverse, and youths now have lower crime rates than most adults. Our department’s policy, regardless of age or race, will be to proactively address the few who cause problems, leave the large majority who are not causing problems alone, and not manufacture artificial ways to criminalize more people.”

Further, Chief Harkins could have pointed out that his own police statistics show that in 2024, the worst levels of violence and crime “rocking” Gloucester Township and other communities were not by youths, but by adults ages 30-34, followed by 25-29 and 35-39. One in three violent offenses and total crimes are by persons in their 30s. This pattern also holds nationwide.

Is citing the facts shown in one’s own statistics so hard? Apparently. Youth, especially Black youth, make handy scapegoats – even if it takes deception.

The coded racist euphemism, “youth violence”

Gloucester Township youth (like youth across the country) have changed dramatically for the better over the last 30 years as the young population became more racially diverse. You’d think progressives would be loudly celebrating that trend for affirming their core belief that a multicultural society can be a safer one, a powerful counter argument against today’s growing racial fear and xenophobia.

Unfortunately, the irrational hostility by authorities Left to Right toward young people keeps poisoning their attitudes, which is why we keep getting scapegoating, alarmism, and useless crackdowns.

Does reality even matter? Traditional commentators insist that how people “feel” about crime is more important than what is actually happening, because feelings drive perception and perception drives policy.

How, then, does the public form its “feelings” about crime? Research consistently finds the public, overwhelmingly, gets its feelings about whether crime is up or down, low or alarming, from news reports. That is why cops, leaders, “experts,” and reporters should respect their professions enough to stop aping alarmist, bigoted propaganda and instead respect fairness and accuracy – yes, even toward teenagers.