They Called It a “Teen Trend.”
An Alderman Called It What It Is.
The Cops Are Handcuffed.
On April 22, Chicago Ald. Raymond Lopez (D-15th) told Fox News what every CPD officer already knew: the city is a “destination location” for teen takeovers, the police are not allowed to fully engage, and Mayor Brandon Johnson (D-Chicago) keeps calling burning cars and stomped sedans a “teen trend.” The same week, 200+ kids swarmed D.C.’s Navy Yard. LAPD logged its 90th street takeover of the year. Baltimore arrested seven at the Inner Harbor. Detroit ticketed 11 parents. The cities are different. The mayors share a party.
Ald. Raymond Lopez (D-15th Ward, Chicago) — a Democrat from the Southwest Side who has spent a decade as the City Council’s most outspoken critic of his own party’s soft-on-crime instincts — sat down with Fox News Digital on April 22, 2026 and said the things Mayor Brandon Johnson (D-Chicago)won’t.
“I do not believe that Mayor Brandon Johnson is doing enough to tamper down these activities. People know to come here. They know they can get away with it.”
Ald. Raymond Lopez (D-15th, Chicago) · Fox News Digital · April 22, 2026
“Our police are handcuffed themselves from stopping and interceding. We've never done what it takes to authorize our officers to fully engage — to box them in, to corral them so that they can't escape, to arrest them, to impound their vehicles like the law requires.”
Ald. Raymond Lopez · April 22, 2026
Lopez warned the city is in for a “very long, very brutal” summer if leadership doesn’t act. He has reasons. He represents a working-class Latino ward on the Southwest Side that doesn’t make the New York Times. The damage from these events lands on his constituents’ cars and his constituents’ small businesses. He has spent his entire council career being told by his own party that asking for enforcement is the wrong politics.
Mayor: Brandon Johnson (D) — sworn in May 2023, former CTU organizer, vetoed the snap-curfew ordinance July 2025, called the latest takeovers a “teen trend.”
Police Superintendent: Larry Snelling — appointed by Johnson, confirmed September 2023; said in June 2025 he would “never use” the snap-curfew powers even if Council had granted them.
Cook County State’s Attorney: Eileen O’Neill Burke (D) — succeeded Kim Foxx (D) Dec. 2024; less hostile to charging than predecessor, still constrained by state pretrial-release law (SAFE-T Act).
Governor: JB Pritzker (D) — signed the SAFE-T Act eliminating cash bail; Trump on Sept. 2025 Truth Social: Pritzker and Johnson “should be in jail.”
Council: 50 members, 47 Democrats. The snap-curfew passed 27–22; the override of Johnson’s veto failed at the same 27–22 split.
On the night of March 30, 2026, hundreds of teenagers flooded the Hyde Park neighborhood near 52nd and Dorchester — in the shadow of the University of Chicago, on the South Side — for hours. Video shows them clustering around parked vehicles, climbing on cars, stomping hoods and roofs, and moving through intersections in numbers that prevented anyone from driving through.
About 30 vehicles were damaged. Hyde Park resident Jason Hale told ABC7 Chicago his car was among them. Police did not move in until the city’s 10 p.m. curfew triggered. Once it did, they cited three curfew violations and arrested one person: a 16-year-old girl, charged with unlawful possession of a weapon, disorderly conduct, and failure to obey police orders.
CPD Supt. Larry Snelling spoke about the incident the next morning at a police graduation ceremony. His take was less about CPD tactics than about parenting:
“When we don't hold them accountable, we're telling them that what they're doing is OK, and it's not right.”
CPD Supt. Larry Snelling · April 1, 2026 · post-graduation press availability
Snelling was the same superintendent who told a federal judge in June 2025 that he would “never use” snap-curfew powers if Council passed them. He didn’t have to worry about it long: Johnson vetoed the ordinance in July 2025 — the first Chicago mayoral veto since 2006.
Two weeks after Hyde Park, on April 14, 2026, Johnson posted on X. He did not use the word “takeover.” He went with “trend.”
@ChicagosMayor — April 14, 2026. The post avoided 'takeover' and used 'teen trend.'
The wording is not an accident. It is the same instinct that drove Johnson, in 2023, to publicly scold a reporter who used the word “mob” to describe a 300–400-person South Loop incident in which kids jumped on cars and looted a 7-Eleven. The mayor’s office has been more interested in sanitizing the vocabulary than in arresting the participants.
“Please do not allow your child to attend any of these trends. They're unsafe and they can turn deadly.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson (D-Chicago) · April 3, 2026 video PSA
On the night of April 18, 2026, a large crowd surrounded a totaled vehicle near 76th Street and Ashland Avenue, on the South Side’s Gresham neighborhood. Someone threw an object into the burning car. Seconds later it exploded. Multiple bystanders were close enough that the explosion is on video.
Number of arrests at the Gresham car-explosion takeover: zero. That is the night Lopez was responding to four days later. CPD did not surround. Did not box in. Did not impound. Per the alderman, that is exactly the policy. Per the mayor, it is “counterproductive” to do it any other way.
The “snap curfew” ordinance, sponsored by Ald. Brian Hopkins (D-2nd Ward) — whose ward includes the Streeterville neighborhood that has been hit by multiple takeovers — would have let CPD declare a 30-minute snap curfew anywhere a group of 20+ teens posed a threat.
It passed Council 27–22. Mayor Johnson vetoed it in July 2025, calling it “counterproductive to the progress that we have made in reducing crime and violence.” First Chicago mayoral veto since 2006.
The override required 34 votes. It got 27. Lopez was among the 27 in favor. Hopkins has said he will reintroduce a revised version.
Snelling told a federal judge in Alwood v. City of Chicago sworn testimony, June 12, 2025: “I would never use” the snap-curfew authority — meaning the cops at the top of the chain weren’t going to use the tool even if it existed.
On the night of Saturday, March 14, 2026, approximately 200 juveniles flooded the Navy Yard neighborhood of D.C. by 8:30 p.m. There were robberies. There were assaults. A 15-year-old fired a gun into the air inside the park. He was apprehended and charged with unlawful discharge of a firearm, endangerment with a firearm, and carrying a pistol without a license. A second 16-year-old was arrested with a recovered firearm. Total arrests: two. Total firearms recovered: two.
“The behavior displayed [Saturday] night in Navy Yard cannot be tolerated, and we are very thankful that no one was seriously injured.”
MPDC Interim Chief Jeffery W. Carroll · March 16, 2026
Mayor: Muriel Bowser (D) — serving since 2015. Issued an emergency Mayor’s Order on April 16, 2026 reinstating a limited juvenile curfew citywide for under-18s, after the Navy Yard takeover and a separate April 4 incident in which 8 teens (ages 12–17) were arrested.
U.S. Attorney for D.C.: Jeanine Pirro — appointed by President Trump. Her position on D.C.’s revolving-door juvenile system: “The problem is they don’t believe that these young people need to be treated as criminals.”
MPDC Chief: Pamela Smith. Interim Chief Jeffery W. Carroll handled the Navy Yard response.
LAPD has logged more than 90 street takeovers across Los Angeles in 2026 alone, resulting in 79 arrests, 114 vehicles impounded, four stolen cars recovered, and four firearms seized. Then on March 11, a takeover near L.A. Live escalated — cars spinning intersections, the crowd breaching the Circa LA luxury apartment building, vandalism, aggravated assault.
“Here is a message to anyone who thinks they can come Downtown and cause trouble: LAPD will be Downtown in force to arrest you. We have zero tolerance for street takeovers.”
Mayor Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) · March 12, 2026
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnellannounced a 53-officer task force on March 12, drawn from across the city, with patrol cars, horse patrols, foot patrols, and undercover units. L.A. County prosecutors charged 22-year-old Erick Romero Quintana with 16 counts of conspiracy to commit reckless driving for organizing takeovers — including one where a 24-year-old woman was struck and killed.
Mayor: Karen Bass (D) — sworn in December 2022, criticized for her absence during the January 2025 wildfires. Has, however, taken a notably tougher line on street takeovers than Brandon Johnson has on teen takeovers.
LAPD Chief: Jim McDonnell — appointed by Bass November 2024. Former L.A. County Sheriff.
L.A. County DA: Nathan Hochman — defeated George Gascón in the November 2024 election, ran explicitly on tougher charging. Sworn in December 2024.
Baltimore: An “Inner Harbor invasion” takeover in late March 2026 went viral. Baltimore Police Department made seven arrests — three for second-degree assault, three on attempted-armed-robbery charges, one additional assault arrest later released. Officers used a Taser on a 14-year-old at the downtown Market Place. Mayor Brandon Scott (D-Baltimore): “We should not have to send police officers and staff from agencies from all over the city to babysit your children because you don’t know where they are or what they’re into.” Baltimore PD Commissioner Richard Worley urged parents to know where their children are.
Detroit: A March 30 downtown takeover led to 12 juveniles detained, several charged with curfew violations, and 11 parents ticketed under the city’s Parental Responsibility Ordinance. On April 11, gunfire erupted (no injuries). Mayor Mike Duggan (D, then I-MI for governor) had left office January 1, 2026; Mayor Mary Sheffield (D-Detroit) took the meeting with the takeover organizers themselves rather than authorizing more aggressive enforcement.
Atlanta: Mayor Andre Dickens (D-Atlanta), reelected in November 2025 with 85% of the vote, met directly with teens and announced a $50,000 city investment in “third spaces” — arcades, rec centers, alcohol-free clubs. The Reginald Rainge-led Office of Youth Violence Reduction is the program of record. APD has not released a year-to-date arrest count.
Memphis: Mayor Paul Young (D-Memphis) announced in January 2026 that overall serious crime hit a 25-year low in 2025. Memphis still has takeover incidents, but city PD has not separated those numbers out of overall crime statistics.
President Trump has posted repeatedly on Truth Social about the same blue-city pattern. The posts predate the May 2026 teen-takeover surge but track exactly the same accountability gap.
Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect ICE Officers!
I've seen the law. And when you have a group of people where the police call off the safety for ICE officials, I've understood that, and I've read it today in numerous journals, that that's illegal.
Chicago about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR.
The administration deployed 200 Texas National Guard troops to the Chicago area in 2025, and another 300 from the Illinois National Guard for at least 60 days — over the explicit objections of Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL). Chicago’s 2025 homicide total of 416 was a 30% drop from 2024 and the lowest since 1965 — a fact Johnson has cited repeatedly. It is also a fact that does not depend on the mayor’s policies for its explanation: a five-year national homicide drop, federal pressure, expanded federal presence, and the post-pandemic mean reversion all share the credit.
Johnson’s case is straightforward: curfews and aggressive enforcement criminalize Black teens, deepen police-community mistrust, don’t deter anything, and trade away the legitimacy that brought the homicide rate down. There is real data behind that view. There are also real data behind Lopez’s view. The difference: Lopez’s framing is the one matching what residents in Hyde Park, Streeterville, Gresham, and the Loop are actually experiencing.
The DC and LA mayors — both Democrats — have moved. Bowser reinstated a citywide curfew. Bass put 53 dedicated officers on takeover patrol with explicit zero-tolerance language and arrest pledges. Both moved because the politics of inaction collapsed faster in their cities than in Chicago. Johnson has not moved. He vetoed the snap curfew. He won’t use the word takeover. His superintendent told a federal judge he wouldn’t use the new authority anyway.
“The Chancellor of Germany should spend more time on... fixing his broken Country.”
President Trump (substitute ‘mayor’ for ‘chancellor’) — applied to Chicago, the parallel is exact.
An alderman from his own party stood up and said the obvious thing. Mayor Brandon Johnson’s response was to keep calling burning cars a “teen trend.” CPD’s response was to wait for the 10 p.m. curfew, write three tickets, and arrest one girl for a weapon charge. The next takeover is already on the calendar. It will not be Lopez’s fault when summer arrives.