Political Quotes

“Mr. President, it is September, which means that, across the country, America's 54 million K-12 students are starting the new school year. For so many parents and students, this is an exciting time, with new classes and teachers and projects and friends and opportunities for academic success. But for too many others, the new school year brings a growing risk, and that is juvenile crime. Across the country, 64 percent of violent juvenile crime happens on school days, peaking between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. At a time when violent juvenile crime is rising across the country, I know many communities, including in Tennessee, are looking to the new year with apprehension. After years of steadily declining juvenile crime, in 2023, Shelby County saw a staggering 4,546 juvenile charges. Now, that is up 37 percent from 2021, and that spike in Memphis follows spikes we are seeing in cities like Washington, DC, and New York City, where the average age of a carjacking suspect last year was 15 years old. Now, young people are facing little supervision at the end of the schoolday and before their parents get home from work, and they are being lured into gangs that plague cities with theft, drug dealing, and murder. In Memphis, there are at least 30 criminal gangs that are out recruiting children as young as 8 years old into their operations.…”